Latest / Reformed Thinking / All Under Sin (Romans 3:9–24) | Jonathan Edwards

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All Under Sin (Romans 3:9–24) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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  Reformed thinking. Welcome back to the Deep Dive.
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  You brought a really fascinating stack of material.
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  Today we're zeroing in on what has to be one of the most
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  essential scriptural analysis there.
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  Is it? Really is.
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  We're talking about human corruption and maybe more to the
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  point, the singular way of salvation.
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  So we're diving deep into Paul's epistles to the the Romans,
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  specifically chapters 3 and 4. And we're using the lens of
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  Jonathan Edwards to help us, you know, to really get at the
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  clarity of what Paul's arguing about universal guilt and why
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  personal justification by faith alone is just non negotiable.
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  So for you, the listener, our mission here is pretty clear.
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  We want to go past the surface reading of these verses.
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  I mean, they're famous, but we're going to dissect what the
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  apostle Paul was really trying to show about the what gets
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  called the native state of mankind, the native state, the
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  condition in which every single person comes into the world.
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  If we can grasp the absolute universality and the the depth
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  of human wickedness, we can see why the whole doctrine of
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  salvation has to rest entirely on Christ's provision.
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  It all hinges on it. It does.
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  If Paul's initial proof of guilt is anything less than absolute,
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  then the gospel itself kind of gets diminished, right?
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  It becomes optional instead of necessary.
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  And that necessity, that's what he sets up right away in Romans
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  1, is verses 16 and 17. It's the cornerstone of the
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  whole argument. The goal Paul is working toward
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  is proving that nobody can be saved in any other way than
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  through God's righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ.
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  Exactly. And I mean, how do you prove
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  something is absolutely necessary?
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  You show that all the alternatives are impossible.
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  You prove every alternative is absolutely impossible, and Paul
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  does that by showing that all mankind are in themselves wicked
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  and just, completely without any righteousness of their own to
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  offer God. It's a brilliant argument
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  really. It's a 2 step process.
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  First, establish that the patient all of mankind is
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  mortally I'll. And then?
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  Second, Second, you establish that the only cure is the one
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  that's being provided Christ's righteousness.
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  OK, so let's start where Paul brings his long argument from
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  chapters 1 and 2 to a head. He's made his case against the
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  Gentile world, then against the religious Jew.
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  Now we get to the culmination, the universal verdict, starting
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  around Romans 3, verse 9. Exactly.
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  And this section, you know, it's often read so quickly, but the
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  rhetorical force behind it is it's almost hard to appreciate
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  fully. Edwards pointed out that this
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  passage is an exceeding full express and abundant testimony
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  to humanity's wicked character. He even said, and this is pretty
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  strong, that if this particular string of verses doesn't plainly
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  layout the matter of universal depravity, then truly no words
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  can do it. Wow.
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  Paul uses language that is just meant to overwhelm you with
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  evidence. OK, let's unpack that
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  overwhelming feeling. And Paul states his main
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  proposition that all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, are
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  under sin. And then he starts proving it.
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  So how does he structured this proof?
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  Because it's not just one statement, is it?
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  It's a very careful layering of evidence.
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  It's like a sophisticated legal strategy.
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  He knows he's making a claim that, especially to his Jewish
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  readers, would be very counterintuitive.
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  They believed their heritage gave them a special status.
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  That we have to be meticulous. Meticulous.
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  He confirms this universal wickedness using what Edwards
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  identifies as a strategy with three distinct categories of
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  evidence, and they all point to the absolute scope of human
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  corruption. It's a legal indictment and he's
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  using Scripture as his witness. Let's get into that first
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  category, then the proof of absolute universality.
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  Guilt without exception. The strength of Paul's whole
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  argument here rests on the sheer force of his language.
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  Edwards called it an extraordinary repetition and
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  accumulation of terms, and these terms are specifically chosen to
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  express the most perfect and absolute universality.
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  So he's not just suggesting it, he's forcing the conclusion.
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  He is. This is critical because it
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  proves the condition applies to every individual of the whole
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  race, with the single exception of the Redeemer himself.
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  The language is designed to just eliminate any possibility of a
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  loophole for any single person. It's the redundancy that gets
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  you, You know Why say all or none 5 or 6 times?
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  It almost feels aggressive. Well you realize that
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  theological resistance runs deep and Paul is methodically
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  shutting down every exit ramp. If he had just said, you know, a
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  lot of people are sinners, the self-righteous could always say,
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  well, that's not me. I'm the exception.
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  I'm the exception. By piling up these terms, he
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  just removes that possibility entirely.
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  Look at the way he accumulates the universal terms.
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  He says that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin.
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  It's a global assertion. They are all gone out of the
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  way. And the legal consequence of
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  that. The consequence is that all the
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  world, not just some part of it, but the whole thing, may become
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  guilty before God. And the law itself, he kind of
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  weaponizes it for this purpose. The laws function here is that
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  every mouth may be stopped. It silences any defense.
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  Exactly. The law is there to stop the
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  debate. It's so comprehensive that Paul
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  says there is no difference between Jew and Gentile.
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  Why? Because all have sinned and
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  fallen short of God's perfect standard, His glory.
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  That point about no difference is key.
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  If there were a difference in their basic standing before God,
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  the whole argument just falls apart.
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  It does. The fact that he says no
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  difference shows that the guilt applies equally to the person
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  who has the law and the person who doesn't.
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  And then, as if that weren't enough, we get this second, even
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  sharper rhetorical tool, the multiplied negatives.
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  He doesn't just say everyone is bad.
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  He says no one is good, and that's the secondary absolute
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  layer of proof. It moves from inclusion, all or
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  guilty to exclusion. No one is righteous.
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  He uses these emphatic negatives.
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  None righteous. No, not one.
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  That phrase is so powerful. Why do you think he feels the
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  need to use both None and then add no, not one?
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  It seems redundant on the surface.
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  Because theological arguments are always about finding the
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  nuances, the exceptions, and Paul is refusing to allow any
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  nuance here. If he only said none righteous,
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  someone might argue he meant none in a collective sense.
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  But adding no, not one individualizes the denial.
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  He is absolutely Speaking of individuals.
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  He's denying the existence of a single solitary person anywhere
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  in the world at any point in history who has has enough self
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  generated righteousness to stand before God.
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  And this leads then to the final conclusion that the law can't
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  save us. The ultimate condemnation by the
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  law is stated by the deeds of the law.
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  There shall no FSEH be justified in his sight.
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  That phrase no flesh, brings it back to just the raw fact of
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  being human being in a body. It means no human being in their
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  native, unregenerate state can meet God's standard.
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  So when Edwards says the language is intentionally
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  contrived and heaped up one upon another, he's highlighting this
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  meticulous, airtight legal strategy.
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  It's designed to bring the whole world to silence before God.
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  Exactly. There are no more arguments
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  left. OK.
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  So that establishes the how many?
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  It's universal, everyone that now we pivot to the how bad, the
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  nature, the intensity of this guilt.
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  This is where we get into the doctrine of total depravity.
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  Right. And the Scripture here defines
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  this native state as one of total and desperate wickedness.
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  It's not just the people occasionally sin.
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  Edwards points out that they are born exceedingly depraved,
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  having an infallible disposition to be wicked as soon as
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  possible. That phrase infallible
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  disposition is really important for understanding total
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  depravity from a reformed perspective, isn't it?
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  It is. It doesn't mean every person is
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  as evil as they could possibly be all the time.
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  You know we're not all serial killers, right?
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  But it means that sin has corrupted every single part of
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  the human person. The mind, the will, the emotion,
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  oceans, leaving no area untouched, and it makes a person
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  incapable of starting any spiritual good on their own
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  without God's intervention. So let's break down that
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  internal spiritual incapacity first.
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  Paul's design in Romans 3, you're saying, is to show that
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  everyone is altogether corrupt, depraved in every part.
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  And he proves this by first denying that we have any true
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  spiritual capacity in our natural state.
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  Yes, we see a complete lack of the necessary spiritual
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  faculties for a right relationship with God.
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  First, there's the absence of spiritual knowledge.
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  Paul says plainly there is none that understandeth.
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  And this isn't about IQ or education.
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  Not at all. You can be a brilliant
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  theologian, know all the original languages, and still
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  not possess this understanding. This is about spiritual
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  enlightenment, the ability to grasp the truth of God and your
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  own sinfulness in a way that actually leads to change.
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  And I mean, if you don't understand your true
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  predicament, you're not going to look for the cure.
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  Which flows right into the next point, the absence of any right
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  action. Precisely.
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  If there's no light, there's no movement toward the light.
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  So second, there's an absence of piety or true religion.
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  There is none that seeketh after God.
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  This is a denial of any spiritual initiative from our
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  side. Man isn't a hungry seeker who
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  just needs to be pointed in the right direction.
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  No, he's fundamentally running away, or at best he's just
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  indifferent. And the root cause of this is
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  right there in the text. There is No Fear of God before
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  their eyes. That true filial reverence for
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  God is just absent from the natural heart.
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  That denial of seeking is it's pretty startling, especially in
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  a world that often celebrates the spiritual search.
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  Paul is basically saying that all natural searching is
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  directed away from the true God, or we're just seeking a God
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  we've made in our own image. That's it.
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  And since the mind is corrupted, no understanding, and the heart
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  is corrupted, no seeking, No Fear, the actions must
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  necessarily be corrupted too. Which is the Third Point.
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  The absence of moral action, this spiritual incapacity
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  results in actions that are spiritually useless.
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  There is none that do with good, no, not one.
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  And as a result they're together become unprofitable.
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  They are unproductive in terms of genuine spiritual
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  righteousness. So a person might do things that
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  look good on the outside, like donating to charity or being a
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  good neighbor. Of course.
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  But when those actions are measured against God's perfect
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  law, which demands perfect motivation and perfect love for
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  God, they don't count as good in the redeeming, justifying sense.
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  They're unprofitable. So total depravity means we lack
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  the ability to start, sustain, or complete any righteous act
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  that could earn us favor with God.
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  The multiplied negatives deny any possibility of that in our
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  native state. That's the internal picture.
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  OK, now this is where Paul gets particularly graphic and
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  honestly unforgettable. Edwards highlights how Paul
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  doesn't just stop with the invisible spiritual capacities,
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  He starts listing body parts. He enumerates the souls, chief
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  instruments, or organs of external action, to show that
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  man is all over corrupt in every part.
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  It's the visible physical manifestation of the inner
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  corruption we were just talking. About It's like a spiritual body
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  scan. It is, Paul is saying.
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  You think I'm just talking about abstract ideas.
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  Let me show you where the sin actually comes out from your
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  mouth to your feet. This catalog of anatomical
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  corruption is designed to be shocking.
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  Let's start with the organs of speech, because he spends a lot
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  of time there. The throat, tongue, lips, mouth.
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  He says. The corruption here denotes a
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  most extreme and desperate wickedness of heart.
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  Right, it shows that what comes out of a person is a direct
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  reflection of what's decaying inside.
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  He starts with a throat described as an open sepulchre.
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  That is, That's a visceral image.
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  A sepulchre is a tomb. It's where death and decay live.
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  Think about it, What comes out of a tomb?
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  Foul air? The smell of corruption, of
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  death. Paul is saying that the stream
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  of words, the gossip, the lies, the complaints, the venom that
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  comes from an unregenerate person's throat is spiritually
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  foul. It is the sound of spiritual
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  death. Well, it's not just imperfect
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  communication, it's death spreading communication.
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  Yes. Then he moves to the tongue and
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  lips. They're characterized by deceit,
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  and there's the poison of ASP's under the lips.
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  So venomous. Venomous, deadly, dangerous
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  speech. An ASP, a Viper.
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  It doesn't just annoy you, it can kill you.
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  This shows the intent and the effect of sinful speech.
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  Deceit, slander, cursing. They aren't just minor flaws,
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  they are the deadly expressions of the heart's malice.
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  The words spoken are fatal to someone's reputation or their
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  peace, or even their soul. And finally, the mouth.
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  It's full of cursing and bitterness.
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  This suggests a constant stream of hostility.
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  So you've got corruption from the throat like a tomb, deceit
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  from the tongue like poison, and act of hostility from the
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  mouthful of cursing. This complete corruption of the
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  organs of speech is meant to show an exceeding degree of
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  wickedness. If the heart were even partly
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  good, surely some pure water would come out sometimes.
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  But Paul says no, it's all hijacked for wicked purposes,
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  and then the depravity moves beyond communication.
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  To physical action, the hands are implicitly referenced as
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  being unprofitable for doing good they fail to perform the
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  law requires. But the feeder described much
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  more actively as instruments of violence, being swift to shed
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  blood. They don't drag themselves
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  reluctantly towards sin, they run toward it.
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  They are actively used for destruction and harm.
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  This just demonstrates that human energy and initiative are
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  naturally channelled towards sin.
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  And the overall result for the whole person is stated plainly.
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  Destruction and misery are in their ways.
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  They're not just wicked, they're self-destructive, and they
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  spread that destruction to others.
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  Absolutely. This whole catalog, it's not
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  mild, it's not partial. The expressions were chosen to
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  show an exceeding degree of corruption, and this complete
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  state of universal, total and desperate guilt is the hammer
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  that breaks the listener. It proves that salvation cannot
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  come by works, but only through the redemption which is in Jesus
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  Christ freely by God's grace. OK, so Paul has built what seems
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  like an airtight case, universal guilt, total corruption.
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  But to really appreciate how strong this doctrine is, we need
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  to look at the interpretations that try to soften it.
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  Historically, people have always tried to limit the scope of this
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  guilt. That's right.
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  And Edwards? He zeroes in on a specific
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  antagonist, a Doctor T, who argued that the wickedness in
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  Romans 3 was limited, that it didn't apply to every single
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  individual. And this is a crucial point,
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  because if Doctor T is right, then Paul's argument for
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  Christ's exclusive necessity just collapses.
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  It completely falls apart. Doctor Key was basically trying
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  to say that the universal terms Paul uses are just, you know,
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  hyperbole. That they only refer to the
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  general bad behavior of two large groups, Jews and Gentiles.
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  But if you allow that loophole, the necessity of Christ for
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  every individual just disappears.
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  So how does Edwards push back on that?
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  Let's start with the Old Testament citations.
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  OK, so Paul uses several Old Testament quotes like there is
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  none righteous. No, not one.
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  Doctor T's argument was that these quotes only referred to,
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  say, a strong party within ancient Israel, or just them of
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  whom they were true. He claimed they had no reference
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  to any such universality of all people.
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  So the argument is something like Paul is just quoting Psalms
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  about historical enemies of Israel.
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  He's not saying the whole world is condemned.
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  Exactly. And Edwards argues this view
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  renders Paul's citation completely illogical.
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  He actually calls it nonsense. Why?
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  Well, first it contradicts Paul's purpose.
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  We have to remember Paul's logic.
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  His proposition is that all L are under sin.
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  He then cites the universal clause.
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  There is none righteous, no, not one to confirm that universal
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  proposition. OK, if the citation only means,
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  well, there are some or even many in Israel that aren't
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  righteous, then the logical connection is gone.
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  The proof doesn't match the claim.
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  That's a sharp point about coherence.
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  If I claim every single student failed this exam, and my proof
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  is a quote saying a few students in the back row failed, my proof
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  doesn't support my claim. Paul's whole argument is
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  undermined. Right.
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  And that leads to the second point, which is about rhetorical
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  overkill. If Paul's aim were only to prove
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  that a considerable number or a strong party of Jews were
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  wicked, he would be proving something that, as Edwards says,
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  none of the Jews denied. So he'd be proving the obvious.
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  He'd be proving the obvious. The Jews knew their history was
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  full of sinners. The Pharisees readily admitted
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  that their ancestors killed the prophets.
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  If Paul's goal was just to prove that some of their ancestors
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  were bad, why use such complex, overwhelming scriptural proofs?
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  It would be, as Edwards called it, impertinent.
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  The density and the force of the language only makes sense if
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  he's trying to prove something controversial and absolute.
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  So there was another argument Doctor T made right about
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  collective bodies. Yes, this was another attempt to
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  soften the blow. He proposed that Paul only spoke
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  of Jews and Gentiles in a collective sense, meaning the
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  generality of these two big groups were wicked.
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  But this would still allow for many exceptions, many righteous
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  individuals within those groups who could perhaps be saved by
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  the law. So the gentile world is wicked
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  as a whole, but that still allows for individuals like,
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  say, Socrates or Seneca to be potentially excused.
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  The focus shifts from the individual person to the large
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  national. Group precisely.
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  And Edwards just dismantles this by going back to the sheer
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  relentless force of the language Paul uses.
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  First, the contradiction of language density, right?
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  Edwards asks, if the meaning was only the much greater part, why
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  would Paul use such an extraordinary repetition in
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  accumulation of terms? All.
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  No, not one. No flesh that are designed to
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  express the most perfect and absolute universality.
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  It's the difference between saying the majority of the city
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  is corrupt and saying every single citizen without
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  exception. No, not one is corrupt.
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  The second statement is just vastly stronger to suggest Paul
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  only meant most of them disagrees extremely with the
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  terms and language he chose. He could have easily used Greek
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  words for most or many. He didn't.
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  He chose words that mean all and none.
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  And this leads to what Edwards calls the absurdity of the
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  application, which he illustrates with his famous lame
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  feet analogy. Oh, this is a great one.
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  It is, he says. Imagine a man talking about his
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  2 feet. 1 foot represents the Jewish nation, the other
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  represents the Gentile nation. If this man used all of Paul's
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  universal negative terms saying all my feet are lame, none of my
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  feet are strong, no, not one when he only has 2 feet.
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  You'd think he was lame in his understanding as well as his
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  feet. Exactly.
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  The language of absolute exhaustive universality is just
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  too broad and precise to be used to describe the general
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  character of only two large groups.
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  Because, he stresses not one, he must be talking about the state
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  of individuals within those groups.
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  That analogy makes the academic point so clear.
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  Paul isn't just observing trends in national behavior, he's
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  making a statement about the nature of humanity, person by
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  person. And that leads to the most
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  critical refutation Edwards offers, the one that absolutely
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  shuts down Doctor TS whole argument.
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  It's that these limited views wholly dissenalled Paul's
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  argument because they fail to reconcile the subject of guilt
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  with the subject of justification.
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  OK, this is the crux of it. We're moving from the problem
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  guilt to the solution justification, and Paul's logic
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  has to hold together. It has to.
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  So the structural integrity of his argument requires this clear
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  parallelism. The subject who is condemned for
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  being wicked must be the same subject who is then offered
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  justification through Christ. Absolutely.
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  If you limit the scope of the condemnation, you have to limit
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  the scope of the remedy Paul is about to introduce.
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  So if Doctor T were right that guilt only applies to collective
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  bodies, Jews and Gentiles, then the inability to be justified by
• 19:30
  law must also only apply to collective bodies.
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  And that doesn't make sense. It makes no sense.
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  The argument would be that the Jewish and Gentile collective
• 19:38
  bodies can't be justified by law.
• 19:40
  OK, so is Paul then arguing that the Christian Church, a
• 19:44
  different collective body, is justified?
• 19:46
  No. Paul is trying to show that the
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  law failed to justify because of man's condition, not because of
• 19:51
  his group membership. So if the condemnation is
• 19:53
  corporate, the solution has to be corporate.
• 19:56
  But the solution Paul offers, faith in Christ, is profoundly
• 20:00
  personal. He's arguing that the very
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  subject condemned by the law, the individual human soul, is
• 20:05
  the very subject that needs salvation by another route.
• 20:08
  That is the only logical structure that holds up in
• 20:10
  Romans. The law condemns you, the
• 20:13
  individual person, because you are without righteousness.
• 20:16
  Therefore you, the individual person, need an alien
• 20:20
  righteousness. Christ's imputed to you through
• 20:22
  faith. Personal condemnation requires
• 20:25
  personal justification. The scope has to match.
• 20:27
  And there's direct scriptural evidence for this individual
• 20:30
  salvation right after the indictment.
• 20:32
  Yes, the verses that immediately follow the declaration of
• 20:36
  universal guilt cannot, without the utmost violence, be
• 20:39
  understood otherwise than of the justification of particular
• 20:42
  persons. This confirms that the guilt
• 20:44
  applies to individuals. Paul shifts from this general
• 20:47
  indictment of the world to the intimate process of faith.
• 20:50
  He focuses on the believer. Exactly.
• 20:52
  When Paul presents the solution, he talks about justification
• 20:55
  through faith in Christ, not through membership in a new
• 20:57
  group. God is described as the
• 21:00
  justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.
• 21:03
  The phrase hymn that believeth is singular.
• 21:05
  It's specific. That's the definitive shift.
• 21:07
  It is the whole problem of our total depravity is met by God's
• 21:10
  free grace applied directly to the individual who has faith.
• 21:13
  And then Paul draws the conclusion for the individual.
• 21:17
  Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith
• 21:20
  without the deeds of the law. The use of a man, a singular
• 21:24
  noun, removes any possible ambiguity.
• 21:28
  He's talking about you, the specific person.
• 21:29
  Yes, and this is reinforced in Romans 4 verse 5.
• 21:32
  It says righteousness is counted to him that worketh not, but
• 21:35
  believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly.
• 21:38
  Him that worketh not. That's the direct opposite of
• 21:41
  trying to be justified by the law.
• 21:43
  It is because you can't work the works of the law successfully.
• 21:46
  You're forced into this category of him that worketh not.
• 21:49
  You have to rely entirely on someone else's merit, and
• 21:52
  justification is for the ungodly.
• 21:55
  If the individual were even partially righteous, Paul would
• 21:58
  call them the partially righteous.
• 21:59
  But he says they're the ungodly, which means they start from a
• 22:02
  position of absolute spiritual debt.
• 22:04
  And then he drives this home by citing Old Testament cases of
• 22:08
  individuals seeking forgiveness. This isn't a new idea.
• 22:12
  This has always been God's way of saving a particular soul.
• 22:15
  He brings up David. Paul cites David, who describes
• 22:18
  the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
• 22:21
  without works, and David spoke of this with a special respect
• 22:25
  to his own particular case. He's talking about his own
• 22:28
  personal sin and guilt, probably from Psalm 51, and the joy of
• 22:32
  his own personal forgiveness. It's the perfect evidence for
• 22:35
  personal justification. And then he brings it full
• 22:37
  circle. Full circle, When Paul concludes
• 22:39
  no felish be justified in his sight back in Romans 3, he's
• 22:43
  referring to Psalm 143 where the psalmist is talking about the
• 22:46
  justification of a particular man.
• 22:48
  He says, For in thy sight shall no man living be justified.
• 22:51
  So the very source Paul used to prove that no one can be
• 22:55
  justified by the law is a specific, single, righteous man
• 22:59
  realizing his own need for forgiveness.
• 23:01
  It is the argument is Florida State structured the necessity
• 23:05
  of faith in Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation applies to
• 23:08
  every individual because the condition of universal native
• 23:12
  wickedness applies to every individual of the whole race.
• 23:15
  Because every man is condemned by the law, every man needs a
• 23:17
  different way of righteousness. Paul ensures that our
• 23:20
  hopelessness is absolute so that our hope in Christ can be
• 23:23
  absolute as well. OK, let's try to unpack this
• 23:26
  whole deep down dive in. We started with the proposition
• 23:28
  that salvation is only through Christ's righteousness by faith.
• 23:32
  And we saw this is necessary because Paul proves, using this
• 23:35
  overwhelming, accumulated, extremely strong language, that
• 23:39
  every individual person is born into a state of total, desperate
• 23:42
  wickedness. He denies righteousness in every
• 23:45
  capacity, both spiritual and physical.
• 23:48
  And the defense from Edwards shows us the absolute logical
• 23:51
  necessity of this. If the condemnation of the law
• 23:54
  is not universal and personal, then the justification offered
• 23:57
  by Christ is also not strictly personal.
• 24:00
  And Paul's entire argument for redemption just loses its
• 24:03
  coherence. It becomes illogical.
• 24:05
  The law stops every mouth before God, and the justification that
• 24:08
  follows justifies a man who believes.
• 24:11
  The scope has to be personal for both the guilt and the grace.
• 24:14
  Exactly. So what does this all mean for
• 24:16
  you, the listener? This view of human nature?
• 24:19
  It strips away any reliance on personal merit, or your cultural
• 24:22
  heritage, or any collective identity.
• 24:24
  It makes the gospel a message of free grace directed at the
• 24:27
  particular person who believes. It assures you that your guilt
• 24:30
  is personal, and because of that, your forgiveness must also
• 24:33
  be personal. And a final thought for you to
• 24:35
  consider, since this universal depravity is defined not just by
• 24:39
  the absence of spiritual good, but also by an infallible
• 24:43
  disposition to be wicked as soon as possible, this native state
• 24:46
  is present from the very earliest stages of our
• 24:48
  existence. What does this deep seated,
• 24:51
  congenital reality tell us about the immediate need for God's
• 24:54
  grace and intervention in the life of every person, even from
• 24:57
  the moment they draw breath? It makes the free offer of
• 25:00
  Christ's imputed righteousness the most urgent and the most
• 25:03
  precious offer imaginable.