careless." Until man sees that sin is a dreadful and fatal disease, and that it is not curable by human means, he will never know his plight nor will he come to appreciate the importance and necessity of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. B. The Charge is Proved (3: 10-18) At this point God brings forth the evidence to prove "that they are all under sin." He does so by presenting a vivid and accurate moral portrait of every member of the human race. It is not a pleasant one. As a matter of fact, it is ugly. Here we see the natural man, the person outside of Christ apart from the grace and mercy of God. It is what every unbeliever is, and what every believer once was. Coltman says, "If He brews, chapter eleven deserves to be called 'the Hall of Fame,' the passage before us could properly be entitled, 'The Rogues' Gallery.' And what is not so nice is that your pic ture and mine are here. For here we once all lived." While this picture shows the entire human race as sinful and under condemnation, it also exposes in detail the total personality of each individual member of the race. This composite picture of humanity is proved from the Holy Scriptures to be accurate. Paul begins with the words, "As it is written" (3: 10). It is not man as Paul sees him, but as he is presented in the Word of God. Here is an appeal to the highest authoritative standard of right and wrong. The Greek word Paul used (gegraptai) is in the perfect tense and means, "It has been written, and it presently remains on record." The Divine record is a permanent one. The Psalm ist wrote, "For ever, 0 LORD, Thy Word is settled in heaven" (Psalm 119:89). To this testimony Peter added that "the Word of the Lord endureth for ever" (I Peter 1:25). Our Lord collaborated the permanency of the Scriptures when He said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Matthew 24:35 ). The indictment from the Scriptures is therefore legal, just and final. The Scriptures Paul uses are a collection of Old Testa ment texts from the Psalms and the Prophets. Both Jews and Christians used this method of stringing together a collec tion of quotations from the Old Testament for the express purpose of proving a particular point. Barclay says that it was a common method of Rabbinic preaching called charaz, 84
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