Sun 21 May

To the question, "Is anyone righteous?", there would be those who would answer "No!" Of course, no one is righteous. And to back up such a response they would simply ask you to take a look at the world and ask yourself where are the righteous in the midst of all the evil and terror being committed? There are none. But then there would be those who would respond by saying, "Of course there are righteous people! I am not like one of those evil people so I must be righteous." What would you say? Are there any who are righteous? The Apostle Paul answers the question in this section from his letter to the Christians living in Rome by saying there is none who are righteous. There is no one who does good. But Paul does not use subjective analysis of the world to back up his response. Instead, Paul heads straight for the Scriptures, and it is the Old Testament that he uses to put forward his case that there is no one who is righteous. It is a grim picture that is painted of man for us."There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one" (Psalm 14:1-3).If that is the case and there is none who is righteous, where does that leave us in our standing with God? What it does tell us is that we cannot be right with God in and of ourselves. As we explore Paul's letter further we find we need Jesus! However, the first step is recognising that we are not good. Have you realized that?