Romans 3:12Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He says: “What then? Do we have an advantage? For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.

As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands, and there is none who seeks God.

All have turned aside. Together they have become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one” (Ps 13:2-3).

“Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips” (Ps 139:3).

“Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness” (Ps 9:28).

“Their feet are swift to shed blood” (Prov 1:16). “Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known” (Isa 59:7-8).

“There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Ps 35:2).

In what was interpreted before this, the Apostle compared circumcision and uncircumcision and added: “What advantage then has the Jew?” (Rom 3:1).

Here also, intending to show the superiority of evangelical grace, he said: “What then? Do we have an advantage?” For we have proved that both those outside the law and those under the law have sinned.

He also joined to this the testimony of David, since it is most fitting for the present subject.

He does this chiefly out of concern for brevity. Otherwise, to accuse the Jews he would have summoned all the prophets, who said things similar to this and still more severe about them.

Therefore the Apostle added: see Rom 3:19.

“That every mouth may be stopped” does not mean that the Jews sinned in order that their mouths might be stopped. Rather, they were exposed so that they might recognize their sin (Chrysostom).

Note. The Apostle’s teaching about the sinfulness of all men does not contradict the Old Testament’s mention of many persons who were righteous before God and did what was right.

The Apostle himself, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 11, presents a whole series of righteous persons from the Old Testament. But they were righteous by faith, not by works of the law.

When he depicts those under the law in dark colors, the Apostle does not touch those justified by faith. More precisely, he does not touch their righteousness from faith.

He says that all men, even the righteous, could not be justified so long as they hoped for salvation from works of the law.

The Apostle often unfolded these thoughts about the law for those who boasted in the law. He did this to show its true worth and meaning, and thereby restrain the pride of the foolish Hebrews.

The Apostle used the expression “all flesh” shall not be justified to show where the source of weakness lies. It is not in the law, but in us.

“As men bearing flesh, we cannot fulfill the law. Therefore there is no thought that anyone could be justified by the old law,” says Bishop Theophan.

In listing the kinds and forms of sinful men’s depravity, the Apostle points to a general turning away from the desire to know God and serve Him. He points to the wish to walk in one’s own ways, to please only oneself, and not to serve others.

He also points to mutual deceit, hidden ill will, slander, cunning and malicious treachery, and readiness for the most terrible murders. In all this, the fear of God the Rewarder is wholly forgotten.

It is clear that sinners of this kind not only cannot receive justification from God by themselves. Little by little, they also bring corruption into the whole earthly world.

Everywhere they produce discord, disorder, and malice. Men became like beasts and deadly serpents to one another, as many Roman writers of that time clearly testified.

But the Apostle Paul depicts human sinfulness on the basis of more ancient and more reliable God-inspired writings. In this way he removes every foundation for the arrogance and haughtiness of the Hebrews, who vainly boasted in the works of the law.

He also urges all to hasten to God with full repentance and to receive grace through faith.

If self-pleasing now operates through the satisfaction of the passions, lust, anger, pride, self-interest, envy, and the rest, then one who has turned away from God naturally falls into passionate corruption.

This corruption holds him in its bonds and makes him unfit for any good. Therefore it is said: "together they became useless."

"Together," hama, means at the same time. At the very time they turned away from God, they became useless, that is, unfit for any good.

For the passions that mastered them because they turned away from God drove them away from good and drew them toward the opposite evil.

"There is none who does goodness." Goodness, chrestotes, is a good heart ready for every good work with every sacrifice of self. Observe people when they are in a good disposition of spirit, and you will understand what this goodness is.

When people are in such a state, what good deed will they refuse? From what sacrifice will they draw back? All have become brothers and sisters to them, and all their possessions have become common.

Not possessions only, but even life itself they are ready to give, if only there may be good for others. This is goodness.

It is the direct reflection of God's goodness, and it is poured into the heart through communion with God, in the fear of God and love for God.

One who has turned away from God and fallen into passionate corruption can no longer manifest this mark of likeness to God. For the soul of the passions is egoism. Having made itself the goal, it turns everything else into a means.

What place, then, is there in it for goodness? Goodness has in view only the good of others, while egoism has in view only its own. They mutually exclude one another.

Thus one who serves the passions naturally "does not do goodness."

To do goodness means to carry out in deed what a well-disposed heart inclines toward. Therefore in the saying, "There is none who does goodness," one may see this thought.

There is no one who carries out in deed the good promptings of heart and conscience.

This means that they became useless, but not to such a degree that nothing good ever entered their mind. No, good does enter the mind, and an impulse toward it is felt.

Yet at that same moment passion rises up, suppresses this good, and does not allow them to do goodness.

God created our nature good and placed in it every kind of good disposition. Then the passions came and pushed these good qualities backward.

They remain alive and make themselves known whenever an occasion presents itself, but they have no authority. Their master, man, pushes them away and gives strength to the passions.

It is like someone who drives his lawful wife into a corner and commits adultery with another.

In this respect, the failure to do goodness does not occur simply because only evil thoughts and desires swarm in the soul. Rather, in their struggle with goodness, they suppress every good prompting that arises in the heart.

This increases the guilt.

"There is none, not even one." They learned from one another, and all became as one, useless and without goodness.

The passions, having become common and having taken possession of all, no longer allowed anything contrary to the passions, which all served, to appear among them.

Just as every good thought and feeling is rejected within, so outwardly no one in such a society dares to raise his voice against the common passion.

Everyone newly born in this society, or entering it from outside, is swallowed up by the common spirit or cast out.