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Our Need for Salvation
Introduction: Why begin with the bad news?
Paul’s letter to the Romans is the most carefully argued letter in the New Testament. Paul writes to a mixed congregation of Jewish and Gentile believers in the capital of the Empire. He never visited them, yet he longs to preach the Gospel among them because that Gospel; is “the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Before he can unfold justification by faith, the gift of the Spirit, and the hope of glory, Paul must first establish why that news is necessary.
People don’t seek a Savior until they are lost. Paul therefore spends the opening movement of Romans not on techniques for better living but on the moral and spiritual condition of the human race before a holy God. He’s cynical; he’s truthful. The letter that will later sing of grace begins with wrath, not because God loves to condemn people, but because grace is meaningless unless sin is real, personal, and universal.
This first study gathers the heart of that diagnosis in three movements. First, Paul explains why God’s judgment is righteous: Mankind is without excuse and has plunged into a downward spiral of sin. Second, he closes every mouth by showing that Jew and Gentile alike stand guilty. The aim is not despair but honesty. Only those who feel the weight of Romans 1 – 3 are ready to hear Romans 3:21 –
But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. (Romans 3:21 | TNIV)
As we study these texts, we all need to resist two mistakes. Don’t read them as a catalog of other people’s sins. Paul is describing the world, and we live in it. Don’t read them as the last word of the letter. They are the dark background against which the cross will shine.
Reasons for God’s judgment.
Paul has just announced that the Gospel reveals “a righteousness from God” (1:17). He immediately turns to the other revelation that is already at work in history: The wrath of God. Wrath in Scripture is never a divine temper tantrum; it’s God’s settled, holy opposition to all that destroys His creation and defies His character. The question is not whether God is angry, but whether He has good reason to be.
Without excuse, Romans 1:18 – 23.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of human beings who suppress the truth by their wickedness, [19] since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. [20] For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. [21] For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. [22] Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools [23] and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings and birds and animals and reptiles. (Romans 1:18 – 23 | TNIV)
Paul’s first charge is that people “suppress the truth by their wickedness.” The problem is not lack of evidence. Creation itself is a sermon. The heavens declare the glory of God. The regularity of seasons, the moral intuition that some things are just wrong, the hunger for meaning that no created thing can satisfy – all of these are the rays of general revelation. God has made His “eternal power and divine nature” visible in what He has made. No one can stand at the judgment and say, “I never enough light.”
Notice the verbs Paul used. They knew God. They did not glorify Him. They did not give thanks. Knowledge without worship always curdles. When the creature refuses to honor the Creator, the mind doesn’t remain neutral. Thinking becomes futile. The heart darkens. People who congratulate themselves on their sophistication become fools. The great exchange follows: The glory of the immortal God is traded for images – whether carved idols in the ancient world or the subtler idols of self, nation, pleasure, and success is ours.
This is the grounds for judgment. God isn’t condemning people for failing some hidden exam. His is responding to a willful refusal to live in the light they already have. “Without excuse” is taken from a courtroom phrase. The defense has no case. General revelation is sufficient to render every person accountable, even if it isn’t sufficient to save. Special revelation in the Gospel will later supply what creation cannot: The only way back to God. But first, Paul insists that the problem is not ignorance. The problem is suppression.
The application for us today is searching. We live in an age that prides itself on knowledge, yet treat the Giver of those gifts as optional. Gratitude is the first casualty of unbelief. When thanksgiving dies, idolatry rushes in. Ask yourself: What do I treat as ultimate? What receives the honor, time, and trust that belongs to God alone.
The sin spiral, Romans 1:24 – 32.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. [25] They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. [26] Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. [27] In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. [28] Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. [29] They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, [30] slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; [31] they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. [32] Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:24 – 32 | TNIV)
Three times Paul writes the terrible sentence: “God gave them over.” This isn’t God forcing people into sin. It’s God allowing rebels to have the freedom they demand. When people insist on exchanging the truth for a lie, God judicially hands them over to the consequences of that exchange. Wrath is sometimes fire from heaven. More often in this age it is simply God stepping back and letting the creature taste the fruit of its own choices.
The spiral has a moral logic. First comes disordered worship (the lie about God). Then comes disordered desire (bodies degraded, natural relations abandoned). Then comes a disordered mind (a depraved mind). Finally comes the whole culture of vice: Envy, murder, strife, deceit, gossip, arrogance, disobedience, lovelessness, mercilessness. Paul isn’t writing a tract against one particular sin as if the rest of the list were minor. He is showing that when the knowledge of God is discarded, every relationship unravels – with God, with the Body of Christ, with one another, and with ones self.
Verse 32 is the chilling climax. People know that such things deserve death, yet they continue and even applaud those who practice them. Sin is not only committed; it is celebrated. The conscience isn’t merely bruised; it is recruited as a cheerleader. That’s why the Gospel must do more than adjust behavior. It must raise the dead.
Two important things should be noted. First, this passage has often been used as a weapon against one group while the rest of the vice list is ignored. Paul won’t allow that. The gossip group and the arrogant and the merciless stand in the same dock as those whose sexual lives are disordred. Second, “God gave them over” is not the end of the story even in Romans. The same God who hands people over is the God who later hands His Son over for us all (Romans 8:32). Judgment is real, but mercy is on the way. But mercy will mean nothing if we refuse to call the spiral what it is.
God’s faithfulness and justice.
By the end of chapter 2, Paul has shown that the Jew who possesses the Law is not automatically safe. Circumcision of the flesh without circumcision of the heart is no good. That raises an obvious protest from Paul’s Jewish conversation partner: If Jews are as guilty as Gentiles, what was the point of being God’s chosen people? And if human sin actually highlights God’s righteousness, is God unfair to judge us? Chapter 3 opens with those objections.
God is faithful, Romans 3:1 – 4.
What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? [2] Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God. [3] What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? [4] Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:1 – 4 | TNIV)
Paul refuses to erase Israel’s privilege. There is “much in every way” that is advantageous. Chief among the gifts is this: The Jews were entrusted with the “very words of God.” Scripture is not a human religious anthology. It is the oracles of God placed in the stewardship of a people. That honor is real even when the stewards fail.
The next question is sharper. Some were unfaithful. Does their failure cancel God’s faithfulness? Paul’s answer is a terse: “Not at all!” The Greek here is the strongest possible denial. Let God be true and every man a liar. Human unbelief doesn’t rewrite the character of God. If every covenant partner on earth proved false, God would still keep His word. Paul quotes Psalm 51:4, David’s concession after grievous sin. Even there the sinner admits that God is justified when He speaks and blameless when He judges.
This matters for the whole letter. Romans will later argue that God has not rejected His people (Romans 11) and that His promises to Abraham still stand (Romans 4). The foundation of that argument is laid here: God’s faithfulness is not hostage to human performance. That’s the good news for Israel, and it’s good news for every believer who has ever broken a promise to God. If salvation depended on our fidelity, none of us would stand a chance. It depends on His.
There is also a warning here. Privilege is not immunity. Being entrusted with the words of God increases responsibility. Churches that own many Bibles can become as dull as ancient hearers who possessed the oracles and still refused to believe them. The question is not only, “What have we been given?” It is, “Have we believed and obeyed what we were given?”
God’s justice, Romans 3:5 – 8.
But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) [6] Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? [7] Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?” [8] Why not say—as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is just! (Romans 3:5 – 8 | TNIV)
Paul now faces a twisted piece of logic. If human unrighteousness makes God’s righteousness stand out more clearly, then maybe God is unfair to punish the very sin that showcases Him. Paul labels this “a human argument,.” Meaning it’s the kind of cleverness that sounds profound in a debate but collapses in the presence of a holy God.
His first replay is simple: If God were unjust, He couldn’t judge the world. But God will judge the world. Therefore the premise is false. The second form of the argument is even bolder: “If my lie makes God’s truth look better, why condemn me?” Some opponents even claimed that Paul himself taught, “Let us do evil that good may result.” Paul doesn’t waste sentences untangling the sophistry. He says their condemnation is just.
Why is the argument so dangerous? Because it treats God as a character in our story rather than the Judge of our story. It imagines that sin can be justified if it produces a theological illustration. It also smuggles in antinomianism – the idea that grace makes holiness optional. Paul will spend chapters 6 – 8 destroying that idea. Here he simply refuses to grant it a hearing. God remains just when He judges, even when His judgment becomes the dark canvas on which mercy later painted.
For the church, this section is a guardrail. We must never preach grace in a way that makes sin sound useful. We must never treat other people’s failures as convenient object lessons that leave us untouched. And we must never imply that God needs our rebellion in order to look good. He is glorious with our without us. Our sin doesn’t enrich Him. It grieves Him. The fact that He can redeem it doesn’t make it anything other than sin.
Human depravity and sinfulness.
Paul has shown that Gentiles are guilty under general revelation and that Jews are guilty under the Law. Now he gathers the whole human race into one verdict. This section is built like a legal brief: A charge, a chain of Scripture witnesses, and a closing statement that silences every mouth.
There is none righteous, Romans 3:9 – 18.
What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. [10] As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; [11] there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. [12] All 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; [16] ruin and misery mark their ways, [17] and the way of peace they do not know.” [18] “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” [19] Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. (Romans 3:9 – 18 | TNIV)
“Under the power of sin” is stronger than “guilty of occasional mistakes.” Sin isn’t only acts; it’s a dominion. Jew and Gentile alike live in that dominion. To prove it, Paul strings together texts from the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Isaiah. This isn’t some kind of proof texting. It is the Law and the Writings testifying against their own people as well as against the nations.
Look at the anatomy of the indictment. There is NO ONE righteous – not a single moral exception. No one understands – the mind is darkened. No one seeks God – the will is bent inward. All have turned away – the direction of life is running away from God. Then Paul moves from the heart to the members – throat, tongue, lips, mouth, feet, eyes. Speech is corrupt. Violence is near at hand. Peace is unknown. The fear of God is absent. This is total corruption. This doesn’t mean that every person commits every sin all the time. It does mean that every faculty that should love God and neighbor is compromised, and that no one, left to himself, produces the righteousness God requires.
We call this doctrine total depravity. The phrase doesn’t mean are as wicked as they could possibly be. It means that sin has touched the totality of the person – mind, will, affections, and body – and that there is no untouched corner from which we can climb into God’s favor. Common grace still restrains evil. People still do relatively good things. Paul doesn’t deny these facts. He is denying that such deeds can constitute a righteousness that stands in God’s courtroom. “Not even one” is the verdict when the standard is the holy character of God rather than the curve of human comparison.
The church desperately needs this text because we are experts at finding the one exception – usually ourselves. We grade on a curve. Paul won’t let us do that. The first step toward salvation is not improving our score. It is accepting the score that heaven has already posted.
The entire world is guilty, Romans 3:19, 20.
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. [20] Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. (Romans 3:19, 20 | TNIV)
The Law speaks especially to those who have it, the Jewish people. Its effect, however, is universal. Every mouth is silenced. The whole world is accountable. The purpose of the Law in this courtroom is not to provide a ladder. It is to provide a mirror. It makes sin known. It names what we would rather leave vague. It shows that our best performances still fall short of the glory of God.
“No one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law.” That sentence is the end of every religious of self-salvation, and of casual Christianity that treats church activity as a moral down payment. If even the commands of God Himself gave cannot justify, our homemade standards cannot justify either.
This is why we need salvation rather than more education, therapy, or moral reform. Education can inform the mind that Paul says cannot understand. Therapy can erase symptoms of a heart that doesn’t seek God. Reform can prune behaviors while the root remains. Only a righteousness from outside of us – later called the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ – can meet the standard that has just condemned the world.
Don’t hurry past the silence of verse 19. In our age of self-justification, silence before God is a rare gift. The Law stops our explanations, our comparisons, and our claim that we “better than those people in Romans 1.” When the mouth is shut, the ear can finally open to the Gospel that begins in the next verse.
Conclusion.
We have walked through dark rooms on purpose. Paul wants us to feel the closed door of self-salvation. God’s judgment is reasonable because the truth has been suppressed and the spiral of sin is real. God’s faithfulness is unshaken by human failure, and His justice is not canceled by clever arguments. The entire world, religious and irreligious, stands guilty, speechless, and unable to produce a righteousness what God will accept.
That is our need for salvation. Not a need for a slight improvement. Not a need for a second chance at the same project. A need for God to do what we cannot do: provide a righteousness from outside of us, absorb the wrath we have earned, and create new hearts that can at last glorify Him and give thanks.
