A DESCRIPTION OF MAN’S FALLEN STATE

ROMANS 3:9–13a

Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit

(Romans 3:13).

The apostle Paul gathers quotations from the Old Testament to illustrate that the organs of the human body that God designed for righteousness now have become tools of wickedness: the throat, tongue, lips, mouth, feet, and eyes. The body that God gave man is used by sinners for evil purposes.

An Open Grave

Paul starts by saying that the throat is an open grave, reminding us of Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees. Jesus called the Pharisees “whitewashed tombs” (Matthew 23:27) because they were carefully painted on the outside to convey a picture and mood of tranquility, purity, and cleanliness, but they covered up moral decay and deterioration of dead men’s bones within.

Since an open grave would pollute the environment, graves in the ancient world were tightly sealed. The Pharisees at least tried to cover their sin, but Paul in describing the depravity of man uses the shocking metaphor that the throat is an open grave.

A Living Corpse

The throat is the tunnel that leads to the heart. As an uncovered grave, the throat leads to the putrefying corpse of the human heart. Thus, the center of man’s evil is his heart.

From the throat we move outward toward the tongue. Paul says that the fallen man has revealed the corruption of his dead heart by means of the lies of his tongue. The fracturing of truth is characteristic of fallen men and sets them apart from God, who speaks no lie and who never distorts the truth.

CORAM DEO

James writes that the tongue “corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell” (James 3:6). Jesus deepens our understanding of the tongue when he taught that “men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken,” (Matthew 12:36). How discernable a difference is there in your language from that of an unbeliever? How careful are you with your words? Have you ever said things you wish you could retract? Ask God today to help you guard your lips, that all you say may bring glory and honor to Him.

For further study: Proverbs 6:16–19, 10:19–21, 13:3; Ephesians 4:25–32

friday

april