"UNDER SIN!"

Romans 3:9-12                        (ESV)

"9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are "UNDER SIN",

10 as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; 

11 no one understands; no one seeks for GOD. 

12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." 

Recognizing that we are ALL "UNDER SIN" can be awfully easy to forget sometimes.  We get our attention shifted occasionally by the great deceiver and we can sometimes fail to readjust it to the CROSS!JESUS CHRIST paid a heavy ransom for my soul (and the entire world) and we do HIM a tremendous disservice if we allow our focus to be taken away from HIS sacrifice.  

In the day this was written the JEWS and the GREEKS were in a huge racial divide.   The JEWS seemingly KNEW that they were GOD's chosen people and they thought that was all they needed to be better than the rest of creation.  The GREEKS were rulers of the world at the time and they probably felt that they were invincible.   However, JESUS said in John 3:18 that "Whoever BELIEVES in HIM is not condemned, but whoever does not BELIEVE is condemned already, because he has not BELIEVED in the NAME of the only SON OF GOD."  

Having people that show no evidence of BELIEVING that JESUS is the SON OF GOD can be a tremendous burden, as we feel as though all of our friends should hear the same CALL that we have heard?  But scripture says in John 6:44 that the ONLY was anyone is saved is the Spirit of GOD must CALL them.  

Yes, we are ALL "UNDER SIN", but some of us are "CALLED out of darkness into HIS marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9) to serve HIM.  We are not better than others because of HIS CALLING, only we have received mercy and grace because of HIS boundless love.  In around 1972 Andre Crouch wrote a song entitled "I don't know why?".  The song states "I don't know why JESUS loved me, I don't know why HE cared.  I don't know why HE sacrificed HIS life, oh but I'm glad, I'm glad HE did!".  Without HIS CALLING, I would still be "UNDER SIN", and would have no hope.