I can imagine what your reaction was just now after I read verses 9 through 20 of Romans 3. What a pessimistic picture Paul paints here of the human race! How can this preacher of good tidings write so negatively about his fellow man? Granted that no one is perfect, granted there are some pretty nasty people around, but is it that bad? Nowhere else in the Bible do we find such a devastating assessment of fallen humanity.

Remember that Paul is writing under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That settles it, doesn’t it? The conclusion therefore has to be: As negative as it may sound, Paul is simply giving us the straight goods here. Romans 3:9-20 is a perfectly accurate description of fallen humanity. The apostle is summing up an argument he began way back in chapter 1. He has taken up the case of the pagan, the moralist, and the religious person, and he has shown each of them to be without excuse.

What shall we conclude then, Paul asks in verse 9? Are we Jews any better than the pagans and the moralists we described in the first two chapters? Not at all! We have already proved that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin. That means we are all under the power and dominion of sin. That is the same as saying that man by nature is totally depraved. Just what that means the apostle explains in the passage before us now, where we have
Paul’s Assessment of Man’s Natural Condition:
1. he is permeated with sin;
2. he is helplessly lost;
3. he is condemned by the law.