Is anyone righteous?

Hey everyone. I hope you are doing well during your summer. Yesterday we talked about if God is righteous and today we will take if any of us are righteous. Well let’s just be honest here. We aren’t, and this verse confirms that.

“What then? Are we any better? Not at all! For we have previously charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one.”

Romans 3:9-10

Hcsb Bible

Earlier today when going into work, I listened to a short documentary on some of the atrocities that were implanted in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. One of them in particular called ‘cannibal island’. They would place people they suspect of being against the government and placing them in this area. They were given almost no food at all. If they tried to escape, they were shot. After a while, people started starving to death. It first started by people starving so much that they ate the dead bodies of the other prisoners.

It doesn’t stop there though. They then started eating almost dead people and eventually trapping other prisoners and eating them alive pretty much. I could get more graphic, but I would rather not.

Now these people were almost forced to do this by the terrible oversight of the guards there that didn’t care. It’s because of the EVIL nature of the Soviet Unions leadership that has this idea and let it happen. Thousands died this way. There own citizens. This is evil on another scale that most have never heard of or seen and I hope none of us actually do see it in our lifetimes.

These are the acts of an atheistic communist nation that had nothing to keep them in check. Not any checks or balances like in the United States, or even a higher power that they believed in to keep themselves in check.

Now this is not saying that all people will do that if they’re given the opportunity because there are various degrees of sin that people have allowed to control them. For example, some atheists and others do good acts for others. By giving them good and helping them with their situation or defending them from oppressors.

But we also have to understand that our good works are compared to filthy rags(Isaiah 64:6). The reason being that we have a reason that’s not completely selfless when we do good things compared to God that loves us selflessly.

This is very different than the humanist movement that says that people are naturally good if given the right circumstances. If that was true, Stalin wouldn’t have done such evil things to his own people, even though he had everything that he needed.

So this should affect how you think about politics, your interpersonal relationships. If people are naturally bent towards unrighteousness, then why would you give people that you don’t know more power over your life in the form of government. A phrase ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’ is mostly true throughout history and personal experience.

Of course this is not to say have a pessimistic view of everyone you meet, but be aware. The Holy Spirit though can change us dramatically. That’s because the power that comes with following the LORD.

So God is righteous, we unfortunately are not. We need the life changing power of the Gospel to change us.

If anyone has any questions, just comment below and I’ll respond when I can.