How Does Sin Affect Us?
10As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; 11there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” 13“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” 14“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” 15“Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16ruin and misery mark their ways, 17and the way of peace they do not know.” 18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Romans 3:10–18 (NIV)
In Romans 3:10-18, Paul provides a comprehensive list of the effects of sin on humanity. It’s essential for us to not only acknowledge our sinfulness but also to understand the profound impact it has on our lives. Paul presents seven ways in which sin affects us:
- Legal standing: No one is righteous before God, and our deeds cannot change this fact. We stand guilty and condemned (Ro. 3:10).
- Minds: Our understanding is darkened due to the hardening of our hearts caused by sin (Ro. 3:11; Eph. 4:18). Our sinful self-centeredness leads us to filter out reality, resulting in blindness to truth and impaired thinking.
- Motives: No one genuinely seeks God (Ro. 3:11b). Instead, we run and hide from Him in all we do, even in our religious and moral pursuits. (We will get into this more tomorrow).
- Wills: We have all willfully turned away from God (Ro. 3:12; Isa. 53:6). Sin is our demand for self-determination and the right to choose our own paths.
- Tongues: Our words are deceitful, poisonous, bitter, and cursing (Ro. 3:13-14). We use our tongues to lie for self-interest and to harm others’ interests.
- Relationships: Sin causes us to be “swift to shed blood” and to seek the downfall of those who hinder our access to our heart idols (Ro. 3:15-17). We are upset with people when they compromise our comfort, prevent our control, or withhold the approval we feel we need. When we don’t find satisfaction in God’s approval through the gospel, we lack inner peace and struggle to live peacefully with others.
- Relationship with God: We have no fear of God before our eyes (Ro. 3:18).
Two surprising claims stand out in Paul’s list: “No one seeks God” and “No one does good.” The absence of the fear of God is both a summary of our sinful condition and a pointer to the antidote for our sin.
This passage reveals the depth and pervasiveness of sin’s impact on our lives. It highlights our desperate need for God’s intervention and grace to overcome our sinful nature and to restore our relationship with Him and others.
Talk to God about the effects of sins and your needs for Him.
[The ideas for this week’s materials on Romans 3:1-20 were drawn from Tim Keller’s book “Romans 1-7 for You“]
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I would have to say that the first time I got a clearer view of the effects of sin in my life was when I got to step 4 of the program of AA: “made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” In it, I took a look at all of my resentments, their cause, what part of “self” was affected, and then what my part was in them. One of the most profound insights I gained in this process was the way in which my selfishness and self-centeredness manifested in nearly every relationship I’ve ever had. I began to recognize that everything I did, good or bad, was with the intent to manipulate others into doing what I thought I wanted them to do. In time, I began to realize that this was a manifestation of the way in which I viewed and treated God, and that I was “driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity” as the Big Book says. This was eye-opening to me, and made me realize that deep down, in my heart of hearts, I was a selfish and self-centered sinner, and whatever I did, good or bad, was with bad intent, and impacted every single relationship I ever had. And, furthermore, when those relationships would fall apart because of this, I inevitably sank into a miry muck of self-pity and bitterness, further into “self.”
The Big Book says, “Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kills us! God makes that possible. And there often seems no way of entirely getting rid of self without His aid. Many of us had moral and philosophical convictions galore, but we could not live up to them even though we would have liked to. Neither could we reduce our self-centeredness much by wishing or trying on our own power. We had to have God’s help.”
God was and is my only hope- and praise be to Him for the hope we have in Christ!😊
Reading that sadden me and make me feel a bit hopeless. In some way I understand it but I deny it even now. How can I be that deprave! Am I not even now seeking God? I could freely admit to all the other because God already revealed to me the truth of them. I don’t deny all my other failings but not seeking God at all and turning away from Him? That can’t be true! Isn’t it because I seek Him that I now recognize the Spirit in me? Didn’t the Lord open His arms to embrace me? How can it be that I’m still turning from Him.
I thought on that…and maybe…maybe that’s also true. There are time when I felt that I didn’t want to so something that I know in my heart that He would want me to do because I felt lazy or I felt uncomfortable or scared. Maybe in those time I did push away from Him. Do I do even this only in hope of getting something back – my salvation? But then I’m so control by my own self centeredness that at time I disobey and rebel knowing that it is a path to destruction. I abuse His grace, thinking that the small things He would forgive. Like when our kids push their boundaries to see what they can get away with knowing they are safe in our love for them. So we push at the Father’s patience and take for granted His love for us.
So in the end, I cannot hold my head up even to claim this one “good” thing. Even in this I cannot succeed. I love the Lord only because He love me and allow me to draw near.