“They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one” (Romans 3:12).
The Biblical book of Ezekiel offers a true-to-life illustration of Romans 3:12 along with a contemporary application. A selected portion of that Scripture begins as God reveals some disturbing truths to Ezekiel that would have ordinarily remained hidden from him…
“Then he brought me to the door of the Temple courtyard, where I could see a hole in the wall. He said to me, ‘Now, son of man, dig into the wall.’ So I dug into the wall and found a hidden doorway. ‘Go in,’ he said, ‘and see the wicked and detestable sins they are committing in there!’ So I went in and saw the walls covered with engravings of all kinds of crawling animals and detestable creatures. I also saw the various idols worshiped by the people of Israel…
Then the Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, have you seen what the leaders of Israel are doing with their idols in dark rooms? They are saying, ‘The Lord doesn’t see us; he has deserted our land!’” (Ezekiel 8:7-10, 12 NLT).
But there was more to come…
“Then he brought me into the inner courtyard of the Lord’s Temple. At the entrance to the sanctuary, between the entry room and the bronze altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs to the sanctuary of the Lord. They were facing east, bowing low to the ground, worshiping the sun!” (Ezekiel 8:16 NLT).
The “inner courtyard of the Temple” suggests this meeting comprised a group of spiritual leaders who had turned their backs on God. However, such things had not escaped God’s notice…
“‘Have you seen this, son of man?’ he asked. ‘Is it nothing to the people of Judah that they commit these detestable sins, leading the whole nation into violence, thumbing their noses at me, and provoking my anger? Therefore, I will respond in fury. I will neither pity nor spare them. And though they cry for mercy, I will not listen'” (Ezekiel 8:17-18 NLT).
Ezekiel’s experience illustrates what God sees when He looks into the hearts and minds of unrepentant human beings. While a casual observer might not perceive such issues, God saw the truth of those behaviors with absolute clarity. In a similar manner, a seemingly earnest quest for God may be corrupted by motives that are clearly visible to our Creator but may remain hidden from us.
This sheds light upon our text from Romans 3:12: “All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one” (NLT). It also explains King’s Solomon’s pointed observation from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes: “Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead” (Ecclesiastes 9:3).