You May Say, "But I'm a Good Person" and Fail in God's Standards!
Now let us open are Bibles and open to Romans chapter 3 and let's read from verses 10 to 19. Let's see what it says about the natural man:
"As it is written, For there is NONE righteous, NO NOT ONE. There is none that understand, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, NO NOT ONE. Their throat is an open sepulchere; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatsoever the Law saith, it saith unto them who are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped and the whiole world may become guilty before God."
In the area of soulwinning, topical and expository type of preaching against sin and salvation, people say, "Hey wait! Are you calling me a bad person you trash of a man. God will accept me for all my efforts." Sad to say, that is the reality of mankind. In the area of the doctrine of salvation, however I can only say this that man in his own nature really falls under total depravity. In other words human beings are born with sin, fallen and hopeless in their own natures. That's why Jesus always made the reality of salvation impossible so they can see their own total depravity.
God in Himself viewed human righteousness as filthy rags in Isaiah 64:6. Somebody may say, "Hey wait! Isn't God a God of justice. If I get justice, I will certainly enter Heaven." But the truth of the matter is, it is not how salvation works - salvation is not something that a man earns through merit. In fact, the very truth in Scripture is this - good works were made for the saved to do and perform, not for the unsaved to perform. Also, for the unsaved it is done out of obligation to please God when in God's own perfect standard, not even ONE sin can be allowed. For the Christian, God works in them to make them produce good works which is far different than doing good works out of obligation and burden.
So how then is the natural man to which Romans 3:10-19 describes? It goes as simple as this...
For there is none righteous, no not one. In God's standard, all who have sinned have fallen short out of glory. Adam and Eve did not need to murder to be kicked out of Eden. They only broke one command which was to never eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Did God say, "Okay you can still stay in the Garden of Eden, no big deal..." type of statement? No He out of justice kicked them out. And yet He still promised something better than Eden, it was the Savior to save them from sin (Genesis 3:15). However the effect of sin went on from Cain to his descendants and it did not spare the Sethite line for all have become sinners. Even from Noah's line came us today still as sinful as the deeds of Nimrod, a great-grandson of his gone from bad to worse.
There is none that seeks after God. True indeed. In man's own natural depravity, they do not seek after God. It takes the finding, seeking and saving the lost which was what Jesus' earthly ministry was all about. Man is opposed to the God of the Universe and has been caught in the god of their own image. Today many people are seeking for the God to suit their wants, not their needs. Man is in need of salvation, not a carefree life on Earth. Man is in need of salvation, not manna from Heaven. In the sense, many seek God in paintings and sculptures that may have eyes but cannot see and lips but cannot hear, gods that need to be carried because they cannot carry themselves. Jeremiah 10:3-5 describes it as vain tradition.
There are all gone astray, unprofitable and nobody does good, no not one. Again somebody can say, "What about I donate, I help the old lady cross the street?" type of argument can surface. However looking at man's very own way, most people just do good works for show business compared to the Christians who do good works for the greater glory of God. Indeed how true it is men have gone unprofitable. One may want to talk about how crime rates are increasing, how many sleazy businessmen may go unarrested because they are involved in works of charity and how many people who claim to be righteous live the lives opposed to the works of righteousness.
Their throat is an open sepulchere; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. It is indeed true. Going back to Romans 3:4 it says, "Let God be true but every man be a liar." Ever told a lie? One of the greatest lies told today to people is that man is basically good when the Bible says otherwise. In truth, they make God a liar. How true indeed today that men's lips are open graves, how many lies have been created by man and how poisonous they are. Just one lie is enough to cause big trouble just as one spark of flame can burn a whole forest. All I can say is, everybody is a liar to no exemption, big or small. Should I mention that works salvation is a lie too? In fact its proponents are accusers of Christians of what is not true.
Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. Just take a look at peace and order situation whether it'd be the American public schools to the Middle East. Think of how normally man thinks of solving a conflict by default? It was always through war! The Jews continue to hate the Arabs to this very day because they have no Christ in their lives. Even if some of them do claim to love each other, however their kind of love will only lead to even conflict from within and growing into a deeper, uglier hatred. One can also see how sin only leads to destruction and misery. Take the sales of liquor, tobacco and narcotics for example. It does generate "easy income" yet it actually has caused the misery on its victims and in the end, misery to its proprietor because they can't enjoy the money for long.
There is no fear of God before their eyes. How true. Today, people are afraid of the gods of this world over the God who made Heaven, Earth and HELL. People live today doing deeds of wickedness with no remorse nor do they think of the consequences of their actions. While they may claim to fear God and all but their actions prove otherwise. Would it be possible for a God-fearing person to sin and not repent of it and continue living the way he wants? Absolutely not. There is no way for any person who is secured in Chrsit forever will live like the rest of the world. This is in other words, they also ignore God's warning about sin and judgment, make a laugh at it and all.
Now we know that whatsoever the Law saith, it saith unto them who are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may become guilty before God. Like it or not, the Law finds you guilty. James 2:10 says, "For whosoever shall keep the whole Law yet offend at one point, he is guilty of all." And yes, God's standards if you wish to earn your salvation, you have got to become sinlessly perfect on your own. But sadly, nobody can live sinless although they will sin less. The only way to escape this guilt is through the Lord Jesus Christ.