Romans 3:9-12
“What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written: ‘There is no righteous person, not even one; There is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks out God; They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, there is not even one.’”
Thoughts from Pastor Brian
Dive Deeper
Behind the Scenes
The apostle Paul wrote the book of Romans as a letter to the Christian church in Rome. Surrounded by influences from arguably one of the most corrupt and depraved societies, the Christians in Rome struggled against messages all around them that countered the truth of the Gospel. Paul’s letter to the Romans was one of the only epistles he wrote that is not corrective in nature. Instead, he lines out a detailed overview and systematic breakdown of the Christian faith, encouraging the Christians in Rome to take their faith to the next level, make it real, and be willing to be set apart from the culture surrounding them.
Paul begins his explanation of the Gospel where we all have to begin… with the brokenness of mankind which displays our need for a savior. He spends nearly the first three chapters of this book detailing sin, unbelief, and the consequences of both. He makes the point that regardless of what your background is, Jew or Gentile, we are all sinful and in need of a Savior. He removes the idea that any one people are exempt from needing the Gospel message. We are all broken.
This message would have flown in the face of a society which taught that you were the master of your own destiny. The Roman culture was built on strength and dominance. It was built on the idea that you were responsible for producing your own salvation. So, you can imagine the message that we are all a hopeless mess and fully incapable of doing anything good might have been even harder for the Roman Christians to swallow.
Not only that, but Rome believed in its own superiority over all other cultures. They believed they had the corner market on success, strength, and achievement. They were living life on top of the world. Enter this Gospel message in which Paul lines out that there is no partiality with God and that we are all equal in our need for a Savior. I imagine this might have been an area of faith that the Roman Christians struggled with on a daily basis.
Make it Real
’m so glad that the Holy Spirit impressed upon Paul’s heart to write this letter. Not only did the Roman church need this letter, the American church does too! Many of the same issues that the Roman church faced, we face in our own way. Over and over in our culture we hear the lie that we can be enough, that we can have confidence in ourselves, and that we can find our own salvation.
But the struggle to do good enough is just as futile for us as it was for the first century Christians. No matter how hard we try, when our salvation rests on our own shoulders, we crumble under the weight. That’s because the weight was never meant to be ours to carry. God never meant for us to push and strive to be enough, working to earn our salvation and prove our worth.
At the end of the day, none of us is enough. Jesus was the only person in history to live that ever was. And apart from Him, we are hopelessly insufficient. But the good news of the gospel is that through the sacrifice of Christ, we are given the sufficiency of His perfection. He took on our brokenness and sin so that we might be able to take on His perfection and righteousness.
If you are a disciple of Jesus, when God the Father looks at you, He sees His perfect Son Jesus Christ. And in that perfection, we find all we need… We find our “enough.”
Wherever you find yourself today, you can rest in the perfection of the One who never fails. Instead of always striving to believe in ourselves (who fail on a regular basis), we can put our trust and faith in the One who never fails. We can stop striving to earn our salvation or prove our worth and instead strive to declare the perfect gospel of Christ. Instead of wasting our time striving for a perfection we can never attain, we can shift our focus and our time to sharing the good news of Jesus. And we can fully embrace the freedom that comes from placing the weight of our salvation on the One who was always meant to carry it.
Crystal Garnett
ACF Digital Discipleship Team Lead
End in Prayer
Jesus,
Thank You for being enough. Thank you for carrying the weight of my salvation. Please help me to stop striving to be enough. Help me to stop trying to rest on my own “good deeds” and instead rest in Your perfect salvation. And in that freedom, help me to live the kind of life that will bring You glory.
In Jesus’ name
Amen!