Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans.  Tonight is study #23 in Romans 3,  and we will read Romans 3:12-18:

They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood:  Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.

I will stop reading there.  In the first part of verse 12, it says, “They are all gone out of the way,” and the Greek word that is translated as “gone out of the way” is a translation of one Greek word.  It is Strong’s #1578, and this word is found three times in the New Testament; once here, and once in Romans 16:17:

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.

The word “avoid” is a translation of this same word.

And the third (and last) time this word is used is in 1Peter 3:10-11:

For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.

So to “go out of the way” would be to “avoid” those that cause division, and it would also be to “eschew” evil, or to “go out of the way” of evil.  It is similar to the situation when Potiphar’s wife set eyes on Joseph, and she wanted him to lie with her, but he took himself “out of the way” or “avoided” her.  He went out of the way as far as she was concerned, and that would be a positive use of this word if we looked at it from a godly perspective.  We go out of the way of them that would bring dissension and division doctrinally; that is, from those that bring a false doctrine or another kind of gospel.  We go out of the way of evil itself, and if anything is evil, we would eschew it or go away from it.  This is the mindset of the true elect children of God because God has given us a new mind, heart, and spirit that desires to do the will of God.  And the will of God is certainly not to do evil, but it is to go away from evil.

Again, Romans 3 was quoted in the Old Testament in Psalm 53 and Psalm 14, but I will just go to Psalm 14:2-3:

JEHOVAH looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

In verse 3, the similar statement is at the beginning: “They have all gone aside.”  And that would be equivalent to “they have all gone out of the way.”  By the way, in Romans 3:12, the word “way” is not in the original text, but we will see that “way” is definitely in view.  One of the first things I thought of when reading this verse in the King James English was John 14:6 where Jesus declared that He is “the way, the truth, and the life.”  So to go out of way would be to go off the narrow path that the Lord declares, as Jesus is the Word, and the Scriptures are the way.  So to go out of the way would be to go on that broad road that leads to destruction.  That is what I was expecting, but that Greek word “way” used in Romans 3:12 is part of the translation of that word “avoid” or “eschew.”  The word “way” itself, such as used in John 14:6, is not in the text.  However, I was not surprised when I went to the Old Testament to look up the word translated as “all gone aside,” to find that what they have gone aside from is the way of God’s commandments.  We will see that right away if we turn to Exodus 32:7-8:

And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

The Israelites that were waiting at the bottom of the mount when Moses went up to receive the Ten Commandments (the Word of God) “turned aside” quickly “out of the way” which God had commanded them, and they became involved with idolatry.  It was just horrible.  How could that be?  How could these people who had seen the mighty works and miracles performed in Egypt, including the parting of the Red Sea, so quickly turn aside?  Well, it is within man’s fallen nature to do so.  It is his natural fallen condition since Adam and Eve fell into sin, and all mankind have descended from their “first parents,” who had also turned out of the way concerning the matter of the command of God concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  God had said, “…thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”  As long as they followed that commandment, they would live and be “in the way.”  But there came the day when the Serpent deceived Eve, and Adam followed suit, and they went “out of the way” of following God’s commandment.  Instead, they obeyed the lie.  And as a result all mankind would go out of the way from the commandments of God unless God intervenes in their lives (through salvation). 

We also read in Deuteronomy 11:16-17:

Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; And then the JEHOVAH'S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which JEHOVAH giveth you.

This was spoken to Israel as a warning to them.  In the same chapter, it says in Deuteronomy 11:26-28:

Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of JEHOVAH your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of JEHOVAH your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.

If they turned aside out of the way from the thing God had commanded, they would be cursed.  And this curse has come upon mankind.  Israel was a people that God had instituted when he took the children of Jacob, the twelve tribes, and He carefully watched over them.  He multiplied them in the land of Egypt, and He brought them out of captivity, and yet, what was their continual problem when God would command them to do something, and they would be blessed?  Keep His commandments, and they would be blessed.  But time, after time, after time, they disobeyed, and they did the opposite of the thing God had commanded, and they “went aside.”  This was the ongoing sin in Israel because there had not been a change in their hearts.  They were natural, fallen men.  In their relationship with God they followed some of the outward, ceremonial, sacrificial Laws, but none of these things impacted their heart condition.  So they could give an appearance for a short while of following the Lord, like after God had delivered them, but they would quickly turn aside. 

And the same problem and situation existed with the New Testament churches and congregations.  They would quickly go aside from God’s commandments, and they would develop other kinds of gospels and doctrines, and they would imbed them in their confessions and creeds.  And they would be just like Israel of old that created “high places,” idolatrous practices of worship that they would turn aside to, as we saw in Exodus 32.  It was idolatry that God likened to “turning aside.”

We read in Judges 2:16-17:

Nevertheless JEHOVAH raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them. And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of JEHOVAH; but they did not so.

The word “turned” is our word.   They turned aside from the commandments of JEHOVAH, again, and again.  That is what we find when we search out this word.

We will just look at a couple of other verses.  Let us turn to Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, which would confirm to us that this continued to be the spiritual situation with the Jewish nation throughout the entirety of Old Testament times.  It says in Malachi 2:8:

But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith JEHOVAH of hosts.

It is the same thing.

Also, it says in Malachi 3:7:

Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith JEHOVAH of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?

They have gone away, or gone aside, and this is what we read in our verse in Romans 3:12:

They are all gone out of the way…

That is, every human being.  It goes along with the previous statements: “There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.  They are all gone out of way…”  All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  It is a terrible sin sickness that has afflicted all humanity since Adam’s sin, and it is only if God entered into the life of a sinner that this could change.  And we know He only did this for the few, His chosen people.  God changed these elect by giving them a new heart  and a new spirit, and then they are able to keep His commandments.  There is no sin in the soul of the individuals that are born again, so there is perfect obedience, which means they stay perfectly within the boundaries of the Law of God, the “ancient landmarks,” and they walk the narrow path that God has set before them.  And that path will lead God’s people throughout life, and into the kingdom of heaven and eternity future.