6. No One is Righteous (Romans 3:1-20)

Story: "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Hans Christian Andersen
A certain emperor who was quite vain and concerned with appearances.
He hired a group of clothing designers to make him some new and expensive clothes.
They promised a garment that would be so magnificent, so refined, that only the wise 
and pure in heart would be able to see it.

Then these con men went to work pretending to weave.
The king's officials checked on the progress of the work, and though they couldn't see any clothing being produced, rather than be accused of being foolish and impure, they reported to the king that the garments were extraordinary!

Well, you know the rest of the story:

The king, not wanting to appear stupid, also claimed the new clothes to be beautiful!

He gave the designers medals and then paraded through town in the buff as the 
whole city praised the beautiful new clothing, lest they be thought of as fools.

However, one little innocent boy timidly finally said, "The emperor has no clothes!" 

At once everyone acknowledged the truth of the statement and the hypocritical 
pretense of an entire nation was stripped away.

The moral of the story:
People, through peer pressure and social stigma, can be influenced into denying what would otherwise be plainly obvious.

The world says that man is basically good. Our persistent problems stem from lack of education, substandard environments, lack of economic opportunity, lack of government intervention, and poor self-esteem. This view is continually reinforced by psychologists, liberal media and even religious leaders.

But in chapter 3 of Romans, Paul strips away the psychobabble and diagnoses our real problem: we are sinners! We may not like to hear that. We may resist it. We may reject it. But it is true, nonetheless. The problem of mankind is sin. Until we admit that the root of all evil in the world is found in the heart of every man woman and child on the face of the earth, any human effort to eliminate the effects of sin will fail.

Paul had spent a great deal of time, going from place to place, teaching the principles found in the book of Romans, so he was very familiar with the fundamental objections that the Jewish mind would raise.

Blessings,
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