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. Romans 3:19-20
It may look like Paul is singling someone out here….but he is not. Those under the law is -> every unredeemed human being. The children of Israel have the law through Moses and the Gentiles have the works of the law written on their hearts (Romans 1:20). So, every single person is held accountable to God.
“Every mouth stopped” — there is simply nothing anyone can say in their defense when God’s guilty verdict is pronounced on the whole human race. Finally in verse 20, Paul tells us that no human being can appropriately follow the law God requires. Every single one of us are plagued with the inability to follow it perfectly.
The law makes sin known to each person, but that knowledge can’t save us from the sin that has been revealed to us. This is the condition every person must come to fundamental understanding of; applied to their own lives, in order to see the amazing gift of the gospel.
APPLICATION
Even after coming to this place in my own life, seeing my own separation from God in sin that carries with it a deserving of the wrath of God, and laying all of my worthlessness at the feet of Jesus…I still need to preach this to myself every day. My justified spirit lives in this fallible carcass. My dependence on the Lord, His Word, and His Holy Spirit are His tools that give me the strength and discernment to see my sin and confess it before God and repent. I hope to get as close as I can to being like God’s Son before He returns or takes me home. That means that I must continue to throw off the old self and embrace the transformed heart that desires God, not this world or anything in it.