There is none that doeth good, no, not one

God’s verdict on mankind is written in stark terms. Both Jew and Gentile are proved to be ‘all under sin’, v. 9, and the whole world has ‘become guilty before God’, v. 19. There is ‘none righteous’, ‘none that understandeth’, ‘none that seeketh after God’, ‘none that doeth good’. Indeed, their throat, their tongues, their lips, their mouth, their feet, and their eyes are used in the service of sin.

The law served to set out the righteous standards of God for man but it also demonstrated the complete incapacity of man to produce righteousness for himself by adherence to that law. If a person is to have a right standing before God it will not therefore be one brought about by his own efforts. God will need to provide that righteousness which we require, and in wondrous grace He has done so. ‘All have sinned’, but a righteousness from God is offered ‘unto all’ without exception, and it is ‘upon all them that believe’, vv. 22, 23.

For a just God to justify those who believe in Jesus it is absolutely essential that the claims of His righteous throne be met with regard to the question of sins. An unrighteous God would not be worthy of trust. The glory of the gospel lies in the fact that God Himself has acted so that a person is justified freely, without meritorious cause in himself, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. This redemption is altogether impossible apart from His shed blood. God has set Him forth to view - ‘a propitiation through faith in his blood’, v. 25.

We owe everything to the blood of Christ which He shed sacrificially at Calvary. On the Day of Atonement, the shed blood of a sin offering was sprinkled on, and before, the mercy seat. In picture, divine justice was satisfied and man had a righteous standing in the presence of God. The picture is of Calvary. There, satisfaction was rendered to God by the Lord Jesus Christ in the blood which He shed, and an infinite provision was made by the infinite worth of the sacrifice made by God’s infinite Son. All are guilty, but in divine grace all are offered a righteousness from God, to be received by faith in His Son now seated at the right hand of God.