Nobody is right with God
9 So, what do we learn from that? We cannot say that we Jews are in less danger than other people. No, certainly we cannot say that! I have said already that sin has power over everyone. That is true for both Jews and Gentiles. 10 This is written in the Bible:
‘There is nobody who is right with God.
There is not even one person who is like that.
11 There is nobody who understands what is true.
There is nobody who wants to know God.
12 Everyone has turned away from God.
All people have become completely bad.
Nobody does what is good or kind.
There is not even one person who is like that.
13 Bad words come out of their mouths,
like a bad smell from a grave.
They tell lies all the time,
so that they deceive people.
The things that they say hurt people, like a snake's poison.
14 They are always saying bad things against people,
because they want to cause trouble for them.
15 They hurry to kill people.
16 Everywhere they go, they destroy things.
They make people very sad.
17 They have never known how to live in peace.
18 They refuse to respect God in any way.’
19 We know that God's Law belongs to the Jews. God told them to obey everything that his Law teaches. As a result, nobody can say: ‘I am not guilty.’ Everybody in the world must stand in front of God and he will judge them. 20 Nobody can become right with God because they obey the Law's commands. Instead, God's Law shows people clearly the wrong things that they have done.
