Romans 3:10-18
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good, not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Catholics and Calvinists often turn to this passage to claim man’s “total depravity.” However, when brought into harmony with the whole counsel of God, it is obvious that their cherry-picking of Scripture is abusive and that the passage does not say what their pre-conclusions demand.
- “None is righteous, no, not one” – Does this statement indicate that no one has ever been or will ever be righteous? If so, what are we to do with the following words:
Genesis 6:9 (ESV) Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
Romans 4:3 (ESV) “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
- “no one seeks for God” – Does this statement indicate that no one ever has or ever will seek God? If so, what are we to do with the following words:
2 Chronicles 17:3-4 (ESV) The Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David. He did not seek the Baals, 4 but sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments…
2 Chronicles 34:3 (ESV) For in the eighth year of his reign (Josiah), while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of Davidhis father…
Acts 17:26-27 (ESV) From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
- “Their throat is an open grave … The venom of asps is under their lips” – Q: Was their throat an actual grave? Did they literally have the “venom of asps” under their lips? Notice that, in many translations, the entire context of Romans 3:10-18 is set off in a different format. This is done to indicate a unique literary style. One of the qualities of this unique style is the use of rhetorical overstatement throughout (Divine hyperbole).
Conclusion: Mankind is not “totally depraved.” The Holy Spirit’s use of rhetorical overstatement throughout (Divine hyperbole) was done to provide emphasis on the prevailing condition of the world, not to give credibility to the false doctrine of “Original Sin.”