Monday, March 23- Romans 3:9-18

9What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.
-Sin is a great equalizer.

10As it is written:
"There is no one righteous, not even one;
-Kind of sad to think about but this is truth. All of us have sinned.

11there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
-Without God's grace this is where we're at. We can't understand. We can't seek.

12All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."
-All our goodness without God's grace is worthless. Its like dropping a penny in a gold mine and thinking we did something.

13"Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit."
"The poison of vipers is on their lips."
-This is the condition of sinful man. It's wretched and nobody would like to confess that this is them because its horrible to think that this is us.

14"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."
-More of the condition of sinful man.

15"Their feet are swift to shed blood;
-History tells us this is true.

16ruin and misery mark their ways,
-Truth.

17and the way of peace they do not know."
-We think man is by nature good. But we really are wicked and selfish. Without God's common grace this would would be absolute chaos.

18"There is no fear of God before their eyes."
-Fear is the beginning of all wisdom. There is no wisdom in sinful man.

-We as sinful people may think we do good, but without God its just a mess. Sin is an awful curse. It leaves us so useless. We're so lucky to have God's grace redeem the work of our hands. We have to realize how amazing it is that we could be regenerated from a condition like this. I should live in utter thankfulness and humility being saved from a hopeless life.