Romans Chapter 3 - Universal CorruptionMan's Corrupt Character - Part 2

No one seeks after God (v. 11)

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Romans 3: 10-11 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God."


Now wait just a minute here! What about all those well-meaning Eastern gurus who devote their whole lives to seeking God in secluded meditation? Aren’t they seeking after God? And aren’t there what the Christian church calls “seekers” – those who are not yet saved, but are earnestly in pursuit of the truth?

In view of the queries noted, can’t this statement be regarded simply as Hebraic hyperbole? As a grammatical over-dramatization? Melodrama, if you like. Isn’t it an exaggeration used just to make a point? Even the original Psalms don’t actually say that “no one seeks after God”; they say that…

“God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any that are wise (or act wisely), that seek after God.” {Psalm 14: 1-2; 53: 2}

Why do you suppose Paul would conclude God’s quest for Him? Why would Paul assert that God hadn’t found one seeker yet? The answer is that it isn’t Paul’s conclusion. The Holy Spirit revealed it. Paul wrote this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Who guided His words and mind to express the conclusion that God Himself had already reached.

We often think of God in anthropomorphic terms. We can’t help it, but we should endeavour to understand what He is really like. God can look for what He knows He will not find. Don’t ask me how. But, if He knows the end from the beginning, and is bringing about that end through active participation in the affairs of men, then He already knows that no one will answer His call unless He moves to cause them to answer.

Does this give you trouble? If you are honest, and you look back at how God called and saved you, though you came to a decision about Him, wasn’t it God Who was working in your life in many, many ways and at diverse times – through all kinds of people – that brought you to Him? If He hadn’t done these things would you believe today? Would you have sought Him? Or would you have been drawn away by the world and the Devil and by your own desire to sin at every turn? Aren’t you, even now, kept from the world by His sustaining grace?

See a stone that hangs in air,
See a spark in oceans dwell,
Kept alive with death so near –
I am, I am out of hell.

Found in Hymns and Sacred Songs John & Charles Wesley

Some are saved. But none seeks after God. God seeks after men, not vice-versa. The devil turns the truth on its head to deceive us.