Turning the page…
Turning the page…
Glory · Who We Are
Scripture's answer is humbling: left to ourselves, no one truly seeks God. Sin has touched every part of us: the heart is corrupt, the mind is hostile to God, and we are dead in trespasses. This is why salvation must begin with God's grace acting on us, not with our own goodness reaching up to Him.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/can-i-seek-god-on-my-own · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
Romans 3:9-20
As you read: Paul's verdict against the whole world: no one is righteous, no one understands, no one seeks after God.
9What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously warned both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin.
10As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one.
11There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God.
12They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.”
13“Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips”;
14“whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
15“Their feet are swift to shed blood.
16Destruction and misery are in their ways.
17The way of peace, they haven’t known.”
18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.
20Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
Psalm 14
As you read: God looks down to see if anyone seeks Him, and finds none: they have all turned aside, and no one does good.
1The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is no one who does good.
2Yahweh looked down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any who understood, who sought after God.
3They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good, no, not one.
4Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on Yahweh?
5There they were in great fear, for God is in the generation of the righteous.
6You frustrate the plan of the poor, because Yahweh is his refuge.
7Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When Yahweh restores the fortunes of his people, then Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
Ephesians 2:1-10
As you read: Paul's diagnosis: we were dead in sins and by nature children of wrath, and grace alone made us alive.
1You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,
2in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience;
3among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
4But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
5even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus;
8for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9not of works, that no one would boast.
10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.
Genesis 6:5-13
As you read: God sees that every imagination of man's heart is only evil continually: the corruption is deep and early.
5Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.
6Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
7Yahweh said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground—man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky—for I am sorry that I have made them.”
8But Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes.
9This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.
10Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
13God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth.
Jeremiah 17:5-10
As you read: The heart is deceitful above all things and exceedingly corrupt; only God can search and heal it.
5Thus says Yahweh: Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Yahweh.
6For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited.
7Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose trust Yahweh is.
8For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
9The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?
10I, Yahweh, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.
Paul quotes the Psalms as a worldwide verdict: 'There is no one righteous; no, not one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God.' The psalmist has God look down from heaven to see if anyone seeks Him, and the search finds no one. Left to our own momentum, our movement is away from God, not toward Him.
“As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.””Romans 3:10-12
“Yahweh looked down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any who understood, who sought after God. They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good, no, not one.”Psalm 14:2-3
Sin is not a stain we picked up on the surface; it reaches the heart where everything else comes from. Jeremiah: 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?' Isaiah adds that even our best is tainted: 'all our righteousness is as a polluted garment.' And before the flood, God saw that 'every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was continually only evil.' This is not that everyone is as bad as they could be, but that sin touches every part: the mind, the will, and the affections.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?”Jeremiah 17:9
“For we have all become as one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is as a polluted garment: and we all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”Isaiah 64:6
“Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.”Genesis 6:5
Paul is blunt about the depth: 'the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can it be. Those who are in the flesh can't please God.' And the natural man 'doesn't receive the things of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can't know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' The problem is not information but direction: our natural selves are pointed against God, and we cannot reverse the direction by deciding harder.
“because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be. Those who are in the flesh can’t please God.”Romans 8:7-8
“Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”1 Corinthians 2:14
Paul chooses the strongest word available: 'You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins.' Not weakened, not slowed down: dead. And he makes the condition shared and inborn: that we 'were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.' Death is what Scripture uses when the power to respond is gone, which is exactly the point: the dead cannot reach out, so the life must come from outside.
“You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience; among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”Ephesians 2:1-3
“even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),”Ephesians 2:5
“You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,”Colossians 2:13
The diagnosis humbles us, and it also points to rescue. Because we could not seek Him, God sought us: 'But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).' John says the new birth comes 'not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' Where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly. The point of knowing our inability is not despair; it is emptying our hands to receive what we could never reach for.
“But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),”Ephesians 2:4-5
“for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast.”Ephesians 2:8-9
“But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”John 1:12-13
“The law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly;”Romans 5:20