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

All have turned aside (universal apostasy)

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Romans 3: 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”


Not only do men universally not seek after God, which is a passive failure – but they have all turned aside, which is the active side of rebellion. This universal apostasy is due to a heart that not only does not want God, but that actively pursues what God does not want. Later on, Paul speaks of the law and how it actually provoked disobedience where there was no consciousness of active disobedience so long as people were ignorant of it.

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died; the very commandment which promised life proved to be death to me. {Romans 7:7-10}

This is what we are like. Say to even a child, “Don’t touch,” and what was of little interest before now becomes an irresistible magnet. We are perverse by nature. We rebel against both the knowledge of God and the commands of God. We desire to be, in fact, murderers of God. And God has even granted us this wish before turning our evil intent into the very means of our salvation.

Don’t ever put a pretty face on sin. “Turning aside” may seem like just a simple phrase until you begin to see what it implies. It implies rebellion by maniacal, foolish, deranged, sin-sick, demented, perverse, puny creatures, shaking defiant fists in the face a pure, loving and thrice holy God Who has the power to destroy both soul and body in hell. It is returning evil for good.