Romans Chapter 3 - All Are Consigned to SinPart B - My Sin

Play this in your native default mp3 player

Something that might pass unnoticed throughout the last 3 chapters is the narrowing of the language that Paul uses until he arrives at that place where he uses the personal pronoun “my” with regard to the sin of falsehood.

• In Chapter 1 he talks about what “they” do; “They are without excuse.” {Romans 1:20} “They were filled with all manner of wickedness” {Romans 1:29}

• Chapter 2 comes down to “You O man, who judges another, you are without excuse.” {Romans 2:1}

• Then in Chapter 3 it is “our unrighteousness.” {Romans 3:5}

• And finally, in the same chapter, it is “my falsehood.” {Romans 3: 7}

I believe that this is no accident. Paul is demonstrating that, regardless of how much we know about sin and its effects, its corruption of human nature, its abhorrence to God, its deserving of wrath and punishment - such things are only head-knowledge and are useless for our individual salvation unless we own our sin personally. In the end it all comes down not to what they or you or even we did, but to what I did. Every person is directly accountable to God for his own sin and must own up to it before Him. The more we look at the sin of others in this regard, the more we are prone to judge them (which we are not equipped to do) or to excuse ourselves (which we have no right to do).

This is the true root of why sin and repentance for sin must be a part of our preaching the gospel. Unless we preach law and the consequences of any transgression of it, however small, a person cannot be personally convicted. Unless a person is convicted he cannot repent. Unless he repents he cannot be saved. Let it be absolutely clear. As testifiers and preachers, it is not we who do the convicting. But our Lord holds us accountable for speaking the whole counsel of God in obedience to Him, so that He may convict by His Spirit, through the Word.