Romans 3:9-31 shows us clearly and forcefully, with numerous references to the Old Testament, that no one is righteous, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. The world’s situation is summed up effectively by Paul: people don’t do what is right, they don’t fear God, they don’t seek God, they don’t follow God, their ways and words are evil and they don’t do good. This may well be at odds with society’s view of mankind (which seems to be that people are essentially good and that sociological reasons are the problem we must face, working on the reasoning that if these sociological issues can be ‘fixed’, man’s problems will ergo be fixed also.) Paul refutes this view emphatically in these verses, ending with the famous declaration in verse 23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
The law’s purpose is given in verse 20: “no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” All people, whether Old Testament saints or those living after Christ’s death and resurrection, are essentially saved in the same way: “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” (Rom 3:21-11) It is hard for us, bound in time, to grasp the eternal plans of God, who does not inhabit time, but the fact remains (as Paul goes on to demonstrate in Romans 4, but that’s jumping the gun!) that God’s means for salvation are the same, whether for those who lived before Christ or those who lived after. We are judged righteous by faith in God, not by the good works we do.
This teaching cuts right across human thinking which works primarily on a cause and effect basis, believing that if we are good enough, if we obey the law, we will earn favour with God and will therefore be good enough to be saved. Paul teaches that even the Old Testament backs up the view that salvation is not through works alone, that faith has to be present, that we cannot ever hope to achieve righteousness by our own merits. “There is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.” (Rom 3:30) It is that amazing truth which is the bedrock of our hope and which should fuel our service and way of life.