Romans 3 Devotional

“What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:

                None is righteous no not one;

                                no one understands;

                                no one seeks for God.

                All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

                                no one does good,

                                not even one.

                Their throat is an open grave;

                                they use their tongues to deceive.

                The venom of asps is under their lips.

                                Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

                Their feet are swift to shed blood;

                                in their paths are ruin and misery,

                and the way of peace they have not known

                                There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:9-18)

In looking carefully at this passage, one thing we can notice is that a significant amount of time is spent on discussing the mouth: Their throat…their tongues…their lips…their mouth. Why focus so much on what comes out of the mouth?

In Luke 6:43-45, Jesus preaches a parable about the kind of fruit a tree will bear. A good, healthy tree will bear good fruit. A bad, unhealthy tree will bear bad fruit (verse 43). He goes on to explain that each tree bears its own fruit: you won’t find grapes on a thornbush (verse 44). Then Jesus says, in verse 45: “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

In Romans 3, then, the outward characteristics of the mouth show us what is inside our hearts. If our hearts are full of curses and bitterness, our mouth will be too. If our hearts are full of lies, our mouths will be as well. What comes out of our mouths shows us, as nothing else can, what is inside our hearts.

I recently saw a video of someone who had opened their Arizona tea can and found that there was a dead rat inside. They didn’t know this until the can tipped over and along with some tea came a rat’s tail. Similarly, we don’t know what is truly in our hearts until we “tip it over” and our speech shows us what is inside.

Paul’s point in Romans 3 is that no one is righteous. His larger point is that Jews are not better off than Gentiles, because all (with or without the law) have sinned. No one is righteous. No one does good. Our hearts are corrupt. And our speech is one of the ways that we can clearly see this.

But there is, of course, hope. Though our words are evil and corrupt, there is a word that is not. Romans 10:17 says “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” For those of us who are saved, the Lord has granted us to hear, see, and respond in faith to the word of Christ, that is, the gospel. Christ himself, the Word (John 1), now dwells in us, bringing about our sanctification. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16). When the word of Christ takes its home in our hearts, we are indeed transformed, enabling the overflow of our hearts to be sanctified speech.