¹¹ There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; ¹² all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.”

Continuing through verse 18, Paul shows from a number of Old Testament passages that he is not inventing new doctrine. His proclamations are in line with the prophets of Israel. The verses he quotes are a means of facing the Jews with their own writings, which frequently spoke of God’s harsh judgment. He knows His audience well, and his interpretation and use of those texts is unassailable.

Paul is judicious in his use of Scripture in this letter to the Romans. He uses logic (albeit, inspired by the Holy Spirit) and follows with Scripture. Not that he believes logic is more authoritative, but he knows his audience well. He presents his case, and then shows from Scripture that even the Jews are included in the final pronouncement: guilty. Paul includes these in the later part of his argument, in contrast to the book of Hebrews, which was clearly written to Jewish believers (and detractors) and begins quoting Scripture very early on.

So he continues drawing from Psalm 41:1-3 and Psalm 53:1-13, emphasizing starkly that the Jewish people, God’s people, have missed the point of righteousness. There is “none who understands…who seeks for God.” The verses quoted emphasize the universal condition of all Israel: “there is none who does good … not even one.” They have not sought God but something else. What they have turned to, Paul does not explicitly state, but he brings up the evidence in their lives of having turned away from God. Earlier we found that turning away from God results in becoming futile in one’s speculations, having one’s foolish heart darkened, and exchanging the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man (Rom 1:21b, 23). To the Jews in Paul’s time, this did not mean wooden or manmade idols (although there were times when they did worship before idols, see Psalm 106:19-43). But they did take on a form of idolatry, for the Law (which showed that they couldn’t possibly meet God’s standard of righteousness) became an object of worship, with each man being his own priest before it. They had replaced the true knowledge of God’s kindness, tolerance and patience, and man’s response of repentance, with their arrogant human efforts to keep the law, with little tolerance for anyone else. This was indeed straying from God to a form of worshiping their own efforts at righteousness.

Lord, help me not become smug in my relationship with You, as though my own righteousness had anything to do with it.