The daily headlines are saturated with bad news. Each story exposes the dark heart of man. But what if the most painful truth about our sinful condition was also the doorway to the most liberating news?
Well today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl teaches from Romans chapter 3. In this passage, we're exposed to the depth of our sinful state. A universal darkness that no culture, higher education, or good intentions can cure. Gratefully, our brokenness becomes the very pathway to experiencing God's transforming power. Chuck titled today's message, An Autopsy of Depravity.
This Sunday and next. We're going to be dealing with sin.
So that's what this third chapter of Romans is about. Since I didn't write it, I'm just a messenger and It's my job to declare it. Let me read a few verses from this third chapter. Romans 3, then what advantage has the Jew Or what is the benefit of circumcision? A great in every respect.
First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. What then, if some did not believe Their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be. Rather, let God be found true though every man Be found a liar, as it is written that you may be justified in your words and. prevail when you are Judged.
Verse 9. What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all.
Under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside.
Together, they have become useless. There is none. Who does good? There's not even one. Their throat is an open grave.
With their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps. is under their lips. whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths.
and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God. Before Their eyes. You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the book of Romans on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook.
By going to insight.org/slash offer. Chuck titled today's message, An Autopsy of Depravity. Back in 1886, Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson. wrote a book that exposed everybody's life. He titled it Dr.
Jekyll. Then Mr. Hyde. It's the story of a man everybody admired publicly who did great things, wonderful works. Who carried on his life as best anybody could tell, better than most who lived around him.
However, there was within the same body a dark. and sinister, even brutal creature. Given to awful thoughts, even to the point of murder. Even though Mark Twain was 15 years his senior, I believe the men wrote contemporaneously, and I believe it might very well have been from Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde that Twain picked up. a line that has become for him A famous line. You may recall it. Everybody is a moon. And he has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.
Without realizing it, Mark Twain Who never was all that interested in spiritual things portrayed one of the foundational truths of Christianity. It all starts with our need for the Savior. It all begins with the dark side of our moon. The mystery hide within us that won't go away. We may ignore him, we may deny him.
On occasion, we may even acknowledge him, but he is there. He is there. And he is that part of us. That is as bad off as he can possibly be. Take away the restraint, and our lives are as dark and sinister as the worst of anyone who has ever lived.
We are all Jekylls and Hyde. We are all like the moon. We all have that dark. Side. When Paul sat down to write what has come to be called the Constitution.
of the Christian the letter to the Romans. He began with the dark side of the moon. Because, how can anyone appreciate or even see the need for a Savior? Who does not first acknowledge That there is a Mr. Hyde within.
that won't lie down and be quiet. and will never go away. There is within every human heart A stubborn membrane. called Depravity. Don't misunderstand, depravity doesn't mean that you're as bad as you can be.
People with a Mr. Hyde nature still can do good things. This whole first section of Romans is not about life as seen horizontally, but life as seen vertically. from heaven downward. Through the lens of God.
Depravity means we are as bad off as we could possibly be. without help from above. And so Paul begins by Pulling off every possible mask his reader could have on. He addresses the overt sinner in chapter 1, verses 18 to 32. He describes this sinful individual as shameless.
Full of bravado and having no interest in changing or restraining. And three times as a result, God gave them over. God gave them over. God gave them over. And it is so brash and bold that some who read the end of that first chapter could look with.
Self-righteous eyes, and say, I'm glad I am not like they are. And therefore, in light of my goodness and righteousness, I'm not in the category of the sinful. And so Paul dedicates the first 16 verses of chapter 2. to those who were self-righteous moralists. And not wanting to miss anyone, when he gets to the end of chapter 2, he then addresses the religious legalist.
The one who would hide behind the traditions of his religion. The legalism of his Judaism, as in the case of the Jew. And at the end of each section, Paul makes it clear: there again is Mr. Hyde. There again is the dark side.
You may not want to show to anybody, but it's there nevertheless. I believe about the time he gets to what we would call the end of chapter two and the beginning of chapter three, he pauses and he looks at what has been written. Through fresh eyes. And we who write and we who speak Publicly know that there are times we need to put ourselves in the seat of the listener or the reader. Paul does that here.
Paul puts himself in the sandals of his critic. The Pharisee, and Paul was once one. The proud Jew, Paul was once one. And he raises three imaginary arguments that could come from the mind of a reader who is critical of what has been written. These arguments fall into three categories.
First, there is an argument of racial advantage. And second, there's an argument of divine faithfulness. And third, there's an argument of. Twisted logic. See each one of them unfold.
Verses one and two. Remember now, this is the imaginary thinking, the response of a critic. Who hears what Paul says, and as a Jew who has been circumcised. Who has been a recipient of all of that tradition? He says, verse 1: what then?
Then what advantage has the Jew Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Paul's answer is simple, great in every respect. First of all, or first and foremost, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. You're a Jew, you come from Jewish lineage, your background is in that race, you have had more light. than any other of the peoples of the earth.
It was to you the Scriptures were given. It was through you the Scriptures were to be shared. It was from you the Scriptures were to be taken and spread to the world of the lost. What advantage? Why, you have the oracles of God.
Now, how about Jewish unbelief? Verse 3. What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? In other words, being a Jew and not a believing Jew, does that mean that the promises given to the Jews back in the days of the Old Testament are now nullified and forgotten?
Is God no longer faithful to His promises? Paul has a way of slamming his fist down on the desk as he writes with words like the beginning of verse four. May it never be. Absolutely not. Perish the thought.
I like J.B. Phillips' rendering. What a ghastly thought. Is that a good way to put it? Impossible.
The unbelief of the entire Jewish race will not in any way nullify the faithfulness of God. He keeps his promises. And when we get to chapters 9, 10, and 11, that will emerge and eloquently be declared by the Apostle. He waits till then to carry that out. But he puts it here in these words: Rather, let God be found true.
though every man be found a liar. As it is written. By the way, every time you read as it is written in your Bible, Remember, the writer is quoting a scripture. He's quoting here in the case of Romans 3 and verse 4, he's quoting from Psalm 51. As it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged.
Now, right now, those just seem like words on the page. But if you pause to remember Psalm 51, you'll recall its origin. The writer, turn back. The writer of Psalm 51 is David. And not only is that significant, but the timing of it.
Is significant. According to the superscription, which appears at the base of the or at the very beginning of the title of the Psalm, Psalm 51. No. This is a psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone into Bathsheba.
So this is a psalm of repentance. David has admitted his wrong, he has declared his guilt in adultery, and now he says, verse 4 of chapter 51: Against you, God, you only, I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Here is a Jewish king who has done what is wrong.
However, He steps back and says, that has nothing to do with your character. Look.
So that you are justified when you speak. And blameless when you judge. My wrong in no way makes you wrong. The darkness of my moon in no way casts a shadow on your character.
Now, back to Romans 3, you see the point. May it never be, even though the Jew may live in unbelief. God is still going to keep His word. The quantity of wrong. done does not in any way change God's promises.
And the extent of wrong. done does not cancel. God's promises. God is true to His name.
Now there's one more argument. Imaginary though it may be, it was one that was probably being used against Paul at the time. Put briefly, and I'll read it in a moment. Um Since my sin causes God to respond in goodness and grace to me, why not sin more? That's a sinner's favorite way of thinking.
If sin brings out the greatness of God, hey, live it up. And we'll know grace like we've never known before. Stop, says the apostle. Or verse 6. Perished the thought.
What a ghastly thought. But first the argument, verse 5. If our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? I'm speaking in human terms.
May it never be. For otherwise, how would God judge the world? But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? If you take this logic all the way to the end, verse eight, why not say, as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say, let us do evil, that good may come? Strange kind of thinking.
It's sort of like saying if fires and disasters. Give firemen and paramedics. An opportunity to display their skills and bravery. Why not pray for more fires and disasters so we can see the bravery of these firemen and paramedics? God forbid.
What a twisted way to think. First of all, sin never glorifies God who is holy. never glorifies his justice. And second, it really does reveal how condemned we are. Look at the last sentence: their condemnation is just.
It's Paul's way of simply saying in a few words: what I've said about the lost is more true than ever. Anyone who thinks like that reveals how dark their dark side is. God is truthful. We are people of lies. God is faithful.
We are unfaithful. God is Is our only hope being just, and we are hopelessly lost. Think of it like this. We have a a root problem with depravity. It came from Adam.
And that depravity, as it works its way out, reveals itself in sinfulness. Think of them as dominoes sitting on the end. bumping up against the other and knocking it down. Depravity. creates the sin.
The sin. bumps up against life and creates death. And as a result, we cannot unscramble the egg. Speaking of which. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men could not put Humpty Dumpty together again. I decided some time ago to do a serious study at a library on Humpty Dumpty.
So, I showed up and there sat a librarian. All of them are very serious. Most of them wear trifocals. And she stared at me over her glasses as I said, have you anything in your research stacks on Humpty Dumpty? I tried another approach, then she wouldn't answer me.
How about something simple like the etymology of Humpty? Realized immediately I was now on my own, and I found out some very interesting things. I found out that Humpty Dumpty never was an egg. It never came from the concept of an egg. The brokenness of Humpty Dumpty had nothing to do with an egg shell.
As best we can tell, it goes all the way back to the days of the colonial America. where children learned their lessons on hard oak benches. by teachers who used the New England primer to teach them their ABCs. How often the New England primer would be opened as children learned A. Yeah.
C and D. And how often those letters were wrapped around theological truths. Which in the days of political incorrectness, may they return, a teacher was able to declare the truth. of the little English couplet. In Adam's fall, we sinned all.
Xerxes the Great did die. And so must you and I. To teach the children A and X. The teacher showed them the little couplet. which they memorized.
Not even knowing that they were memorizing one of the great theological truths on the depravity of humanity. Let me show you. Romans 5, verse 12. Just a little preview of coming attractions if you're wearying of depravity. Let me show you the hope that's in front of us.
Romans 5:12, therefore, just as through one man, sin entered into the world. What's the name of that one man? Good for you, Adam. As in Adam's fall, We send all. Look at how it unfolds.
Through one man Sin entered into the world and death. Through sin. Let me explain that. Had Adam not sinned, Adam would never have died. Adam and Eve would have lived on forever with their Creator God.
However, upon sinning, The root of depravity drove deeply into the human race. and it yielded the fruit. of sinfulness. Remember the dominoes? Depravity led to sin.
Saddam led to death. Adam and Eve, at the moment of sinning, immediately died spiritually. Death is the concept of separation. They were separated from their Creator. Their hearts that once loved God no longer loved God.
Their minds that knew God no longer knew God. Their wills that once obey God no longer wish to obey God. They were depraved as a result of the sin. And as a result of the sin, Death. happened at the moment and began to happen physically.
Dying, you will die. Says the Lord, when he makes his creatures in the garden, do not eat of the tree the day you eat of it dying. You will die. You will be in a process of dying physically, but you will die at that moment spiritually. Back to Romans.
Romans 5:12, through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all sinned. There is no egg. But a teacher, no doubt taking her thought from the New England primer, decided to illustrate it. In some way, as best we can tell, and an egg was used since you cannot. Unscrambled an egg that's broken.
You cannot put back the shattered pieces of the shell. In the same way, you cannot Get rid of hide. and have only Jekyll. Why? Because in Adam's fall, We send all.
That's what he's getting at.
Now when we get to Romans chapter 3 and verse 9, he asks the question, what then? What then? Are we better than they? Are we Jews better than those Gentiles? Are we Gentiles, these Greeks, better than those Jews?
Not at all. Not at all, for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks, and that's humanity. are all under sin. Paul is about to begin an autopsy. of a spiritual corpse.
I had a friend speak to me following one of our worship services today. He has been in the funeral business for 35 years. And he said rather quietly, and In a dignified manner, he said, I have seen what most human eyes will never see. And I can tell you from years of experience. when you cut inside.
They all look the same. And it is never attractive. I read somewhere that it is wise not to enter into two procedures. prematurely. One is divorce.
The other is The embalming. Which is good advice, and I would add a third. A third would be an autopsy. You've got to be sure before you do this autopsy. that you've got a cadaver.
That you got a corpse on your hand. You don't want the guy going, hey. While you start cutting. You want to be sure he's dead.
So there's never anybody to go, hey. Let me show you. Verse 10, there is none righteous, not even One. You're listening to Insight for Living, and we're midway through our study in Romans chapter 3. Chuck Swindahl titled his message An Autopsy of Depravity.
You know, your learning may start with this daily program, but it doesn't have to end here. Insight for Living offers a wide variety of Bible study tools so you can dig into God's Word on your own. For instance, our creative team has published an interactive Bible study for Romans. Because of the depth of this New Testament book, the Bible study for Romans comes in two volumes, and the first volume is available right now when you go to insight.org/slash offer. Also, the Insight mobile app provides all of Chuck's Sermons from the Romans series in their entirety for free.
This allows you to hear each sermon on Romans from start to finish at your convenience. Just download the Insight mobile app from your favorite app store. These opportunities to deepen your understanding of the Bible are enjoyed by thousands around the world. because friends like you financially support Insight for Living. We're especially grateful for those who give on a monthly automated basis, our monthly companions.
And today, as a special offer to our monthly companions, we're pleased to offer a free PDF download. It's a special chapter on faith from Chuck's biography of Abraham. This time-limited offer is also available to anyone who decides to become a monthly companion today. Signing up is easy and you can do it right now by calling 800-772-8888. We chose this chapter because Chuck will be diving into Abraham's faith very soon in our study through Romans.
If you want to take advantage of this special offer, just go to insight.org slash monthly companion. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindahl continues to describe what he calls an autopsy of depravity. Tuesday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, An Autopsy of Depravity, was copyrighted in 2006, 2010, and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R.
Swindahl, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
