No One Seeks After God | Romans 3:9-20

The Text

Romans 3:9-20 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Some Thoughts

No one. This all inclusive statement covers everyone in the indictment of being wicked, lawless, breakers of Gods perfect law. From the best do-gooder to the most vile offender, we are all guilty before God. While we may not be as evil as we could be, we are not as perfect as we would need to be to stand before a holy God.

Here is a very important takeaway to consider, if no one seeks for God, how do we find Him? If God's word is true, and it is, and it says that no one seeks for God, then how could we possibly find Him?

In Romans 7:16, Paul admits that "good itself does not dwell in me [Paul and by extension all humanity], that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out"

In John 6:44, Jesus explains that "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them"

Ephesians 2:8 tells us that "by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God." Grace is what saves us and faith is the vehicle in which we receive it, but both the grace and the faith are given to us by God and we can not manufacture or bring about either of them.

John 1:12-13 says that "to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God."

Our salvation was not given based on our culture, our constitution or our craving.

Our faith did not come about by our ancestry, our anatomy or our ambition.

Our ability to trust in Jesus is not because of our tradition, our tenement or our thirst.

We do not seek after God, but God seeks after us and draws us to himself. After Adam and Eve sinned in the garden they hid from God and he sought them out. When Jacob tricked his father and brother and was in exile God opened heaven to seek him. When Moses left Egypt God sought him in the burning bush. When Peter denied Jesus three times the Lord sought him from the seashore. When Paul was on his way to destroy the church, God sought him on the road to Damascus.

When we make a new seeker friendly environment for non-believers, we are taking the law of sin and death that convicts sinners and giving them philosophies of men, and we are trying to send the God who seeks us away.

While I believe that we should not go out of our way to offend unbelievers, if it is by the gospel that they get offended then we should not go out of our way to make them comfortable either.