Lesson 6: No One is Righteous – 3:9-20
 9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Our verses today continue the subject of judgment. We also continue with the misunderstanding that somehow the Jewish people hold a higher favor with God than do those of us who are not Jewish.

First is the statement that there is no reason for us to feel jealous of the Jewish people, to believe they have a relationship with God that is somehow purer than ours is and therefore judgment is not as severe for them as for us. They are just as much under sin as we are. No one is righteous. The quotes in verses 10-18 are all from the Old Testament, verses every adult Jewish man would have known by heart.

But we want to concentrate on Verse 20 for this lesson – by the works of the Law no human being will be justified in His sight. This justification is both about how we are saved as well as how we live our Christian lives. We cannot be saved by the Law, and we cannot live our Christian lives by the Law.


Yes, you read that last sentence correctly – we cannot live our Christian lives by keeping the Law.

We must understand the purpose of the Law – it was to make people aware of what sin is. God gave it to Moses to show the people of Israel what God expected, and to make people become aware they could NEVER live a life free from every one of these sins. The Law cannot save, it can only condemn. And the condemnation sentences us to death.

Am I saying the Law is bad? As Paul said, absolutely not! We had to know God’s standards by which He would judge us if we chose to try to come to Him in our own strength, our own righteousness. And the very choice of believing we can do so breaks the first law of not having any other gods before Him, because if we think we can do it on our own we have made ourselves to be equal with Him – our god is our own self.

Then what is our relationship to the Law? In later lessons of this study we will read the answer in greater detail. Matthew 5:17 says Jesus came to fulfill the Law, Romans 8:2 says we have been set free from the Law, and Galatians 6:2 says we fulfill it as well when we bear one another’s burdens in love.

As already stated, the Law brings guilt and death, but Jesus has given us freedom and eternal life, and wants us to live in joy. The rest of this study will show us how we can live in joy with Jesus rather than the fear and guilt which is ours when we try to live by the Law.

*What would your life be like if you did not need to worry about keeping the Law?