2.1 Key themes⤒🔗

• Our greatest problem is inside of us: the sin in our hearts.
• Even if you go to church and pray every day, you are still a sinner.
• Sin brings pain into all of our relationships:
  - Our relationship with God
  - Our relationships with other people
  - Our relationship with God’s creation
• Nothing in this world can take away our sin or our pain. Only God can do this.

2.2 Romans 3:9–20←⤒🔗

^3:9 What then? Are we better off? Certainly not, for we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin,

^3:10 just as it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;

^3:11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.

^3:12 All have turned away; together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, not even one.”

^3:13 “Their throats are open graves; they deceive with their tongues; the poison of asps is under their lips.”

^3:14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

^3:15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;

^3:16 ruin and misery are in their paths,

^3:17 and the way of peace they have not known.”

^3:18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

^3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

^3:20 For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

© NET Bible

2.3 Our greatest problem←⤒🔗

Everyone knows that there is something wrong with this world. Open any newspaper and you will read about corruption, oppression, and disasters. Where do all these problems come from? Many people blame their country’s leaders for these problems. Others will say, “It is because of our bad education system.” Or, “It is the rich people’s fault.”

But the Bible tells us the truth about the problems in this world. In our passage (Romans 3:9-20) Paul uses many verses from the Old Testament. All of these verses speak about sin. The Bible tells us that the real problem is not outside of us. It is inside of us, in our hearts.

Our greatest problem is not poverty, sickness, bad leaders, or bad education. Our greatest problem is our sin.

But what is sin? The Bible describes sin in many ways. Sin is hatred against God. It is disobedience to God’s law. It is selfishness. It is to miss the purpose for which you were made. Verse 12 of our passage says that sin makes us “worthless.”

Sin begins in our hearts, and then it flows to the outside. As Jesus said, “out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matthew 15:19).

The bad news is that all of us have sin in our hearts. That is what our passage shows us. There is no-one who is righteous (without sin). There is no-one who understands. All of us have turned away from God (verses 10-12)

2.4 YOU are a sinner←⤒🔗

“Me? Am I that bad? It cannot be!” That is how we normally react to the message of sin. We want to think good of ourselves. We want to blame other people, not ourselves. We think that if we go to church, we must be better than others. That is what the Jews thought. But Paul tells them, “Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin” (verse 9).

Some people sin in a way that is easy to see. For example, they get drunk or they steal money. Other people sin in a more secret way. For example, they have evil thoughts about others, or they are proud. It does not matter if your sin is easy to see or secret. Even if you go to church and pray every day, you are still a sinner. You are no better than anyone else.

Yes, it is not nice to hear that you are a sinner. But the Bible is very clear about this. God wants you to know this, because if you do not know that you are a sinner, you cannot believe in Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Mark 2:17; NIV). Jesus is the Doctor who came to save people from sin. If you think that you are healthy (without sin), you will never go to him for help. That is why every Christian must learn to say, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them!” (1 Timothy 1:15).

2.5 Sin brings pain←⤒🔗

Today we find many plans and movements for making the world a better place. There are movements for peace and for better education. There are plans to end poverty and hunger. There are plans to save the environment.

These plans can be good and we can be part of them. But if we think that they will make the world a better place, we are wrong. Even the best plans can never take away our greatest problem: sin. Sin causes pain, just as fire causes smoke. That is why we see pain everywhere around us. Because we have turned away from God, we experience pain and emptiness in this world.

Pain is part of every person’s life. Some of our pain comes from our own sin. For example, a person who does not want to work will become poor. Some of our pain comes from the sin of other people. For example, a person may become poor because other people are stealing his money.

One of the worst pains we experience is the death of loved ones. Death also comes from sin: the sin of Adam and Eve. God told Adam, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" (Genesis 2:17).

Because of Adam and Eve’s sin, God also placed a curse on creation. That is why we see floods, droughts, diseases, and many other problems in creation. God’s creation is in pain (Romans 8:22)!

God made us for three kinds of relationships: a relationship with himself, relationships with other people, and a relationship with creation. Sin brings pain into all three of these kinds of relationships:

• Instead of loving God, we become afraid of him or we ignore him.
• Instead of loving each other, we hate and oppress each other.
• Instead of enjoying God’s creation, we destroy creation and we struggle to survive.

Do you remember the king who wrote Ecclesiastes (Lesson 1)? He was rich and had everything he wanted. Yet he still felt pain and emptiness. Nothing in this world can take away our pain. And nothing in this world can take away our sin. Only God can do this¾and he wants to do it! Let us therefore confess, “We need a doctor. We are sick with sin.”