Romans 3:9-31
No One Is Righteous
9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
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 held accountable to God. 20 Therefore 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.
Righteousness Through Faith
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in[h] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.
St. Paul said that not one of us is righteous...We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of the LORD...There is no one who does good, day in and day out...We all have sinned and done things we wish we had not done, or there are things we would have changed things along the way in our lives...We cannot hide the fact that we have sinned and are sinners...
We cannot erase our past and the history we have made of our lives...Our past is, well, our past...And we cannot change our past...But we can live for today and plan for tomorrow as best we can...But our own personal history of our lives now cannot be changed now...It is what it is...But we can earn from what we have done...Not only can we learn from our past but others can also learn from what we have done...
Priest Brennan Manning, who wrote the Ragamuffin Gospel, thought our past could be learned from (even our shames and sufferings and the dark things we have done) and said this, “In a futile attempt to erase our past, we deprive the community of our healing gift...If we conceal our wounds out of fear and shame, our inner darkness can neither be illuminated nor become a light for others.”...Manning further says, “To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark...In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God's grace means.” ...