The Guilt of All Men: Arraignment

Romans 3:9

⁹ What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.

(Verse 9) - The charge begins with two questions. The first is simply What then? The idea is, “What is the point of further testimony?” This is another remark supposed to be made by a Jewish objector. “What follows?; or are we to infer that we are better than others?  Paul has already condemned the immoral pagan, the moral pagan, and then both the moral and immoral Jew.

Anticipating what some of his readers would think, his second question asks rhetorically, Are we better than they? That is, “Do we have a better basic nature than those who have just been shown to be condemned? Are we made from a different mold, cut from a different piece of cloth than they?” Are we Jews better than the Gentiles? Or rather, have we any preference, or advantage as to character and prospects, over the Gentiles? These questions refer only to the great point in debate, to wit, about justification before God. The apostle had admitted (Rom. 3:2) that the Jews had important advantages in some respects, but he now affirms that those advantages did not make a difference between them and the Gentiles about the pivotal issue of justification.

The ones to whom we refers is not absolutely clear. Some commentators believe Paul is speaking of his fellow Jews. But he has already dealt in verses 1-8 with the question most Jews would ask, declaring that they do indeed have a spiritual advantage above Gentiles by having been “entrusted with the oracles of God,” that is, the Old Testament Scriptures. He had previously pointed out, however, that their greater advantage also brought greater accountability (2:17-25). Nowhere else in the epistle does Paul identify himself with his fellow Jews by the use of we.

It seems better to take this we to refer to himself and his fellow believers in Rome, both Jew and Gentile. The question would then mean, “Are we Christians, in ourselves, better than the other groups of people already shown to be condemned before God? Are we intrinsically superior to those others? Were we saved because our basic human nature was on a higher plane than theirs?”

Immediately answering his own question, Paul unequivocally asserts, Not at all. That is, the Jews have no preference or advantage over the Gentiles in regard to the subject of justification before God. They have failed to keep the Law; they are sinners; and if they are justified, it must be in the same way as the rest of the world.  “No, we are not in ourselves any better than others,” he says. He has already pointed out the condemnation of everyone, from the most reprobate, vice-ridden pagan to the most outwardly moral and upright Jew. In other words, the entire human race, with absolutely no exceptions, is arraigned before God’s court of justice: For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.

“Already charged” was often used as a legal term to designate a person previously indicted for a given offense. “Under” was a common Greek term that frequently meant not simply to be beneath but to be totally under the power, authority, and control of something or someone. That is obviously the sense Paul has in mind here: Every human being, both Jews and Greeks are all under, completely subservient and in bondage to, the dominion of sin.

Such an idea was preposterous to most Jews. In his rebuke of Peter for succumbing to the Judaizers, Paul referred to the common belief of Jews that they were righteous before God simply by virtue of being Jewish, members of His chosen race. On the other hand, Jews believed just as strongly that Gentiles—commonly called Greeks because of the prevalence of Greek culture and language even under Roman rule - were naturally sinful simply by virtue of being non-Jewish (see Gal. 3:15). In this they, at least, were consistent.  If they were holy simply by nature of their lineage, then how odd is it that they believe that the Gentiles were unclean simply by their accident of birth.  The truth of the matter, Paul proclaims, is that none are justified before God on any physical basis because all men are under sin, that is under its domination and under its control.

All not only signifies that there were sinners among both Jews and Gentiles, for the Jews did not deny this; on this point there was no difference between them and the Apostle; but he includes them all singly, without one exception. It is in this sense of universality that what he has hitherto said, both of Jews and Gentiles, must be taken. Of all that multitude of men there was not found one who had not wandered from the right way. One alone, Jesus Christ, was without sin, and it is on this account that the Scriptures call Him the “Just or Righteous One,” to distinguish Him by this singular character from the rest of men.

Under sin. -  That is to say, guilty; for it is in relation to the tribunal of Divine justice that the Apostle here considers sin, in the same way as he says, (Galatians 3:22), “The Scripture hath concluded (shut up) all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.” That it is in this sense we must understand the expression under sin and not, as Roman Catholic commentators explain it, as under the dominion of sin, evidently appears:

·        1st, Because in this discussion, to be under sin is opposed to being under grace. Now, to be under grace, (Romans 6:14 , 15), signifies to be in a state of justification before God, our sins being pardoned. To be under sin, then, signifies to be guilty in the eye of justice.

·        2nd, It is in reference to the tribunal of Divine justice, and in the view of condemnation, that Paul has all along been considering sin, both in respect to Jews and Gentiles. To be under sin, then, can only signify to be guilty, since he here repeats in summary all that he had before advanced.

·        Finally, he explains his meaning clearly when he says, in Romans 3:19 , “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”

If a Jew was poverty stricken, handicapped, or otherwise seriously afflicted, it was assumed that either he or his parents had committed some unusually heinous sin, for which, for a generation or so, they forfeited their normally high standing before God. That belief is reflected in the story of the blind man whom Jesus and the disciples passed just outside the Temple one day. Noticing the man’s condition, the disciples asked the Lord, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?” (John 9:2). After Jesus corrected the disciples’ wrong assumption, He restored the man’s sight. When the man was talking with the Pharisees a short while later, they vehemently voiced the same wrong assumption the Twelve had expressed. When the man said to them of Jesus, “If this man were not from God, He could do nothing,” the Pharisees were greatly offended and replied, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” (vv. 33-34).

People who are very religious tend to think of themselves as being inherently better than others and favored by God because of their goodness and religiosity. Even Christians are sometimes tempted to think that God saved them because they were somehow more deserving of salvation than others. But if a person ever becomes right before God it is never because he is innately better than anyone else or because he has managed to bring his life up to God’s standards or because he zealously observes certain religious practices. It is only because he has acknowledged his sin and helplessness and prostrated himself in humble faith before the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness and cleansing.

Despite great differences in outward behavior and attitudes among people, every Christless person is sinful in nature and is under the dominion and control of Satan. The entire unredeemed world, John declares, “lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19) and is therefore arraigned, as it were, before God’s bar of justice.

This is the critical truth that must needs be put forth to every lost person – they are guilty before God and stand condemned before him – people need to hear this, and come to grips with that truth in their lives.  I need to preach it and teach it so that God can, in turn, use it to bring men to Christ.