People who deny the demand to obey God's Commandments are called by Scripture LAWLESS. That is what they are and lying to protect themselves is proof of their losstness. God said that Abraham was justified because he KEPT His laws, commandments and decrees (Genesis 26:4-5.
Paul said the same thing:
1 Cor 7:19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God.
Therefore, the FAITH ONLY dogma invented in about 1525 by Zwingli has been totally misapplied to defend original sin, which was invented by Augustine because he could not otherwise rationalize his own sins or a world consumed with evil.
When Paul speaks of justification by LAW he is speaking about the SUBJECT of concern: The Law of Moses which was added because of musical idolatry and NOT to save people. It was to protect the helpless against the rulers who had been turned over to worship the starry host (Acts 7, etc.)
However, the Jews believed they were PREDESTINATED and therefore SINLESS because God gave THEM the Law and did not give it to the Gentiles. They said that a Gentile COULD NOT be saved because they were CEREMONIALLY IMPURE without becoming a Jew.
Paul's point, PAUL'S ONLY POINT, is to prove to the Jews that NO human is righteous enough on their OWN MERIT or by BIRTH to obligate God to send them to heaven. Calvinists pick just ONE VERSE out of context and therefore are not yet DISCIPLES.
It is true that poems tend to be poetic. We know that many were seeking God, many were righteous, and many had not gone aside to become filthy. The antecedant here is THE JEWS who boasted that they were righteous BY the Law. By the Law, none were righteous.
Paul is trying to convince the Jews that salvation is open to ALL PEOPLE: the Gentiles are not UNRIGHTEOUS by birth.
Rom 2:17 Behold, thou art called a Jew, and RESTEST in the law, and makest thy BOAST of God, Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Then, they murmur, if not to make us RIGHTEOUS then what good was the Law? JEWS as a nation and GENTILES as a nation were dominated by sin NEITHER of them were without sin. Therefore, the Jews could not prevent Gentiles from becoming Christians. Romans 9 points to Malachi and the prophecy was that JACOB and ESAU were not two INDIVIDUALS but they were the HEADS of TWO Nations. God loved Jacob who is ISRAEL and therefore made HIM the head of the Patriarchal line of descent for Messiah. God did not HATE Esau in the sense of actively hurting him. Any Jew in Rome who was NOT of Israel could NOT use that choice of God to prove their own choice. In the same way, any neo-Jew who is not an ISRAELITE is lost. That is why God circumcises the SPIRIT at baptism and that REMOVES any racial connection.
In the same way, when Paul said there are NONE righteous it is important to see the antecedent as JEW and GENTILE because we know many righteous INDIVIDUALS out of both groups. HERE IS THE QUESTION which has nothing to do with original sin:
Rom 3:9 What then? are WE better than THEY?
No, in no wise: for we have before proved
both JEWS and Gentiles,
that THEY are all under sin;
Unless Paul is speaking in a NATION sense, then Paul has just said that JACOB could NOT have been predestinated righteous. Furthermore, Jacob was NOT righteous in this silly absolutest sense.
You will notice that the SUBJECTS of this discourse are explained by Romans 1. They WENT aside and were not BORN sinners. The Gentiles who worked righteousness and honored God honored the Laws of God. Being righteous on a human level they were fit subjects of God's Righteousness. THAT is Paul's FULL SUBJECT. To prove to the JEWS that he was correct, he QUOTES from Psalms which is poetic :
Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
None means JEWS and GENTILES. The Jews were not righteous BECAUSE of the Law which was added because of transgression. Neither were the Gentiles righteous because they lived according to "nature" or the natural transmission of codes of conduct.
Well, we KNOW that is NOT the fact in an absolute sense: Paul is saying that NONE is made righteous based on the LAW because ALL violate the Law and James says that showing partiality makes the whole weight of the Law crush you if you TRUST the Law.
AND the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Ge.7:1
Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Heb.1:9
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. Heb.11:4
Righteous does not mean SAVED or REGENERATED: anyone who does RIGHT is a righteous person. Anyone who DOES justice IS justified. Those who were UNRIGHTEOUS became so on their OWN: God does not create unrighteousness
and to say so is blasphemy:
For the heart of this people
is WAXED gross, and
their ears are dull of hearing,
and their eyes have THEYclosed;
LEST they should see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their heart,
and should be converted,
and I should heal them. Acts 28:27
Calvinists DENY the sovereigny of God: they claim that from eternity past God SELECTED who would burn in hell. If that is so then God LOST His Sovereignty (not a Biblical word) and COULD NOT have saved them and was therefore LESS interactive than my dog. THEY claim that it is IMPOSSIBLE for a person to be SO EVIL as to lose their SECURITY. They claim that the most RIGHTEOUS person in history COULD not obey the gospel EVEN if they wanted to. THEY are ignorant of the Bible and their "fathers" such as Luther and Calvin.
Be it known therefore unto you,
that the salvation of God is SENT unto the Gentiles,
and that they will HEAR it . Acts 28:28
Using the ABSOLUTEST method of the Calvinists, you MUST admit that ALL OF THE GENTILES have been SENT salvation; ALL of the Gentiles WIL hear the gospel. Therefore, ALL Gentiles are predestinated.
Paul is quoting Psalms 14 to prove that NO ONE was righteous in a Godly sense so that THEY by their own MERIT earn the power to regenerate their spirit and resurrect their bodies from the dead.
However, we know MANY under the Law of Moses who were righteous. There was not ONE of them made righteous by keeping the Law because the Law was impossible to keep. However, Hebrews 11 identifies many who were justified BY FAITH because they OBEYED what they were commanded to do OUTSIDE of the Law of Moses.
THE LAW OF MOSES IS STILL THE SUBJECTS OF WHICH THE JEWS ARE BEING DISABUSED. IF YOU ARE NOT A JEW AND ARE NOT TRYING TO PERFECTLY KEEP THE LAW OF MOSES THEN PAUL IS NOT WRITING TO YOU. If you believe that as a class like the Jews that you are predestinated then you fall under the condemnation of this chapter.
Why would they be blamed if they did NOT even seek God? The fact is that they were NOT born sinners but they HAVE GONE out of the way and there is NONE good enough to be predestinated.
Rom 3:11 There is NONE that understandeth, there is none that SEEKETH after God.
Rom 3:12 They are all GONE OUT of the way, they are together BECOME unprofitable;
there is none that DOETH good, no, not one.
Paul in Hebrews 11 shows MANY who were justified (not saved) by FAITH because he said:
Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
No one can SEEK faith: it is the GIFT of God. How does Augustine, Calvin and Luther say that God GIVES us Faith? He did it by giving us His WORDS in the gospel which includes what is required of us AFTER we receive FAITH BY HEARING THE WORD OF GOD. But, of the SELF- or LAW- or RACIAL righteous claimed by the Jews, and the Gentiles who did not have the Law have proven BY THEIR FREE WILL that they do not have RIGHTEOUSNESS of MERIT enough to raise them from the dead or FORCE God to add them to His church.
Rom 3:13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues
they have USED deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
Rom 3:14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
Rom 3:16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
Rom 3:17 And the way of peace have they not known:
Rom 3:18 There is no fear of God before THEIR eyes.
TRUE disciples will grasp that Scripture NEVER blames people's SELF MOTIVATED sin on their predestinated nature: it is a big fat lie and the MOSE EVIL charge which could be made against a Holy, Loving God and is THEREFORE the PATTERNISM of blasphemy of the Spirit who wrote NOTHING about predestination to Hell and wrote 100% proving that people have the FREE WILL to decide whether they want to live with God or burn with Satan: Isaiah 30 proves that MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS mark those marching to Canaan land to burn.
Are Calvinist willing to claim that YOUR child who is NOT a Calvinists is a CONGENITAL LIAR? Do they have the VENOM of the asp under their tongue? Why is it that they call BIBLE SPEAKERS liars and lie about other people?
WHAT PAUL IS QUOTING AND PEOPLE MUST UNDERSTAND.
WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? THEY ARE FOOLS. ARE ALL OF US FOOLS? I HOPE NOT. IF WE ARE NOT FOOLS LIKE THE JEWS WHOM JESUS REFUSED TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO, SO THAT THEY MIGHT BE SAVED THEN WE ARE NOT THE SUBJECT OF THIS CHAPTER.
Psa 4:1 THE FOOL hath said in his heart, There is no God.
THEY are corrupt, THEY have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
WHO ARE THEY INCLUDED AMONG THE NONE DOETH GOOD?
These are FOOLS who deny the existence of God. THEY are the ones who are corrupt and they have DONE abominable works: they werre NOT said to have been ABOMINABLE from eternity past. Thererofre, Romans 3 cannot be used to support PREDESTINATION in the Calvinist sense.
Psa 14:2 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and SEEK God.
Psa 14:3 They are all GONE aside, they are all together BECOME filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
14:4 Have all the WORKERS of iniquity NO KNOWLEDGE? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord.
Jesus came to His OWN in a NATIONAL SENSE but His own DID NOT RECEIVE HIM. Does that believe that no Jews were saved? No. But as many as received Him to them gave he POWER TO BECOME songs of God.
The same Paul has said in Hebrews 11 that there were MANY who sought God by faith.
WHO IS THE SUBJECT OF THIS DISCUSSION"?
Those who were under the law and RESTETH on the law:
Rom 3:19 Now we know that what things soever THE LAW saith, it saith to them who are under the law:
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Rom 3:20 Therefore by the DEEDS of the LAW there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Rom 3:21 But now the righteousness of God WITHOUT the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Abraham was righteous BY FAITH because he OBEYED God's laws, covenants and decrees BEFORE the LAW of Moses. Therefore, THERE IS NONE GOOD is for those who TRUST in the Law of Moses or Natual Laws.
WATCH IT: THIS IS NOT A ONE STEP PROCESS TO SALVATION. THE ANSWER IS "THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE."
Rom 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference:
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Rom 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Jesus REDEEMED all mankind: past, present and future by the ONE TIME offering of Himself. All of the debts have been paid. Does ALL being justified freely mean that ALL are justified? Potentially that is correct. ALL who believe in God and that historic fact have the POWER to take hold of it and appropriate the free gift. NOT ALL have faith and therefore ALL being justified does not MEAN all in the true sense. Those who accept that free gift are the only ones who have the POWER to be saved.
Paul declares that
THE LAW does not MAKE one righteous or ceremonially acceptabe with God. Faith in the completed SACRIFICE of Christ means that one is justified. Paul said that this is the way that Abraham was justified by
THE FAITH which is not contrasted to personal
UNBELIEF but
to
THE LAW: God said that Abraham was justified BECAUSE he kept his COMMANDMENTS but NOT The Law of Moses (Genesis 26:4-5). The same Paul said that we become a child of Abraham which is BEFORE any Jew-Gentile distinction WHEN we are baptized int Christ (Gal 3:36-27)
Jesus declares FAITH as requirement for Baptism which does the SAVING by a
n act of God. Peter told those who BELIEVED and were therefore CEREMONIALLY acceptable to typically enter into the Holy Places that they had to REPENT and BE BAPTIZED before they were sanctified with A holy spirit. God in Christ then ADDS or admits one into the Holy Place which was typically entered only after the washing by the priest.
Rom 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are PAST through the forbearance of God;
Rom 3:26 To declare, I say, at this time HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Rom 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay; but by THE LAW OF FAITH.
Paul intends to make ONE POINT: to prove to the Jews that they were not justified because of the Law because HE could prove that they were sinners and the Law had not MADE them righteous or just.
Paul says NOTHING about anything BACK BEYOND the point where Jews who RESTED on the law (added because of musical idolatry) BEGAN to practice UNRIGHTEOUS acts such as LYING about God.