Not a single person is worthy of salvation. We’re unrighteous, worthless evil-doers.
If you’re new here, each week we all learn about and memorize a Bible verse together. We’ve put the verse(s) into song to help you learn the verse and recall it during your day. If you’d like to see the archives of all the verses we’ve done so far, you can find our posts here and a list of all the YouTube videos here. On to this week’s verse!
as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
Romans 3:10-12 (ESV)
Devotional
Paul is paraphrasing and combining a few verses from the Psalms here: Psalm 14:1-3 and Psalm 53:1-3. The message is quite clear in every single one of the renditions. Not a single person is good. Every single line (other than “as it is written”), makes sure you realize that he’s talking about everyone: “None”, “not one”, “no one” 3x, “all”, “not even one”.
But a few verses later he makes sure you understand that you need not fret. These words are condemning, yes, but there is hope:
No one does good, but praise God for his grace which sets us free! Click To Tweetthe righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Romans 3:22-24 (ESV)
Jesus has come and justified us by his grace and through faith! But as much as I want you to see the hope for yourself, I want you to realize that this salvation is not your own. You didn’t earn it. Before you had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you were condemned to hell just like the rest of the world. Remember this when you look out and see terrible atrocities committed and you start to believe that you are better than the people committing them. You have a sin nature just as they do. You simply came to the realization of the truth (praise the Lord for that, since it wasn’t your own doing), and that truth has set you free.
