Why the Law Can’t Save Us | Romans 3:9–20 Explained
Why No One Is Righteous 🙅
7-Step QT
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🙏 Quiet Time
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📅 September 7, 2025
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✝️ Romans 3:9-20
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📖 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; (v. 10).
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📝 Paul explains that the law reveals sin, not a path to salvation. If salvation depended on perfect obedience, God’s purpose would seem unjust. Instead, salvation is by grace alone. Quoting Ecclesiastes, Paul reminds us: no one is righteous. Our hope rests not in the law but in God’s grace.
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💬 What does this passage speak to you today?
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🙏 Share below, and let’s encourage one another in prayer!
7-Step QT Notes
1. 🙏 Quiet Time
Pause.
Take a deep breath.
Ask God to open your heart to His truth and show you your need for His grace.
2. 📅 September 7, 2025
Today’s passage reminds us:
No one is righteous on their own—everyone needs God’s grace.
3. ✝️ Romans 3:9–20
Paul delivers a hard truth:
Jew or Gentile, religious or not—we’re all under sin.
He quotes Scripture: “None is righteous, no, not one” (v.10).
Why did God give the law?
Not as a ladder to climb to heaven, but as a mirror to show us our sin (v.20).
The law reveals our need for a Savior—it was never meant to save us.
4. 📖 Key Verse
“As it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one.’” (v.10)
5. 📝 Reflection
Our culture says, “I’m a good person.”
But compared to God’s perfect standard, none of us measure up.
That’s not to crush us—it’s to point us to grace.
If the law could save us, Jesus didn’t need to die.
But He did—because we can’t save ourselves.
So stop trying to earn God’s love.
You already have it in Christ.
Live in gratitude, not guilt.
Serve out of love, not fear.
6. 💬 What does this passage speak to you today?
- Do I secretly believe I’m “good enough” without God?
- How does knowing I can’t earn salvation change my view of grace?
- Where can I show humility and gratitude this week?
7. 🙏 Prayer
God, thank You for showing me my need for You.
Forgive me for trying to earn what You freely give.
Help me live in Your grace and point others to Jesus.
Amen.
Scriptures
📖 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.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin (Rom 3:9-20, ESV).
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