As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” - Romans 3:10-12
I have to be honest that there was a time when I read this passage and it felt to me like a bit of an exaggeration. I mean seriously, how can he say that nobody does good? I see people doing good deeds all of the time, don’t you?. How can Paul claim that nobody seeks God? I have talked with many people who genuinely want to understand who God is.
So I will admit confess that I have wondered if Paul wasn’t just overstating things in order to make his point (after all, as a preacher I have been known to use a rhetorical flourish from time to time myself).
But as I have delved deeper into this passage, I have come to see that Paul is not exaggerating at all, he is making a very profound point about the nature of the human heart. First of all, Paul is actually quoting from the Old Testament book of Psalms in this passage.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. - Psalm 14:1-3
God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. - Psalm 53:2-3
So, at the very least we can say that if Paul was exaggerating, then so was King David who wrote these Psalms. The point here is that this idea is not new, it did not originate with Paul. Paul is not saying that nobody ever does a good deed or has a divine thought (of course they do), he is saying that even in our best efforts to do good and to seek God, we are still sinful.
Isaiah 64:6 - All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Isaiah 53:6 - We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way
We tend to look at individual actions and evaluate them as good or bad based on the external results they produce. The Bible, repeatedly, asks a different question. It not only asks “What did you do?” but “Why did you do it?” It asks the question of motivation. From a biblical perspective, the motivation for an action is as important, or even more important, than the action itself. No one wants others motivations towards them to be impure.
Consider a few examples: What wife would enjoy her husband coming home with flowers, giving them to her, and saying, “Darling, I’m doing this because it’s my duty” – or, “I’m doing this because I feel guilty and I want to appease my conscience.” What poor person would appreciate someone who is better off serving him/her and then saying, “I’m doing this so that I can feel better about myself” – or, “I’m doing this to win points with God.” In other words, the motivations behind and beneath our actions matter. They matter immensely!
So, when Paul says that nobody does good, he is saying that none of us do good purely out of love selflessness, we all have at least a little impurity in our motives. When paul says that no one seeks God, he is saying that nobody seeks God purely for love of God alone, we all seek God for what we think God will give us.
One of the easiest ways to discover that you are utterly, and irreparably trapped in sin, is to analyze the motivations of the heart. To begin to ask yourself, “Did I do that because I loved that person or because I love myself?” “Did I do that because I love God or because I want something from God in return; i.e. blessing, forgiveness, comfort, joy, etc.?”
Jeff Frazier
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