No One Is Righteous

Genesis 16-19

In Romans 3, Paul quotes from the old testament when he says "No one is righteous— not even one." I've probably read that a thousand times, and agreed with it without really believing that it applied to me, because I'm pretty good after all, but of course, I lie.

Today's selection from Genesis showcases one of the classic examples of the depths of depravity and unrighteousness that man is capable of... Sodom and Gomorrah. God warned Abraham that he was going to destroy the city and Abraham asked if he would really destroy everything even if there were only 50 righteous men. God agreed to withhold the destruction if 50 could be found. Eventually, Abraham worked him down to just 10 righteous men. Since ten righteous men could not be found, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were completely destroyed... and only 4 people escaped... except one of the four looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt, so then there were three. And those three hid out in a cave for so long that the two daughters conspired to get their father drunk and have sex with him so that they would have children... and they became the ancestors of the Moabites and the Ammonites... bitter enemies of God's chosen people because of their unrighteousness.

The one remaining person, Lot, he was righteous right? Well, not exactly. When the angels of the Lord came to his house and the men of the city wanted to have their way with the angels, Lot offered to give up his virgin daughters to the men of the city to do with as they wanted if they would leave the men alone. Hardly the bastion of righteousness. Looking back through the pages of scripture, there really are no righteous men. Thankfully, if we fast forward to Romans 3 again we see the solution... "Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins."