Romans 3:10 says that no person is righteous before God, not even one. Paul is claiming that every human being, whether Jewish or Gentile, falls short of the standard of God’s righteousness and needs a righteousness that comes from outside themselves. The apostle Paul wrote this sentence in his letter to the church in Rome, and he introduced it as a quotation from the Hebrew Scriptures, the books Christians call the Old Testament.
As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one.
Romans 3:10 (WEB)
What Romans 3:10 Means
The phrase “as it is written” tells you Paul is not making this up. He is quoting a passage that his readers already knew from Israel’s Scriptures, mainly Psalm 14 and Psalm 53, and he is using those words to support a point he has been building since the start of the letter. The sentence “there is no one righteous” describes a general condition, not a single bad moment. The second part, “no, not one,” is an emphatic way of saying that the exceptions people might hope to find do not exist.
What the verse does not say is that people are worthless, or that they cannot do any good. Paul is speaking about standing before God on the basis of one’s own record. The verse does not promise that every person behaves as badly as possible, and it does not say that moral effort is pointless. It says that righteousness, in the full sense of being right with God, is not something any human being has earned by their own performance.
The Context of Romans 3:10
Paul wrote Romans around the middle of the first century, and he addressed a congregation in Rome that included both Jewish and Gentile believers. In the verses just before this one, Paul states that both Jews and Greeks are under sin, which means both groups stand in the same need. Many Jewish readers would have taken pride in the Law of Moses and assumed that their heritage placed them in a better position. Paul is steadily dismantling that assumption.
The verses that follow in the chain of quotations, verses 11 through 18, describe the human condition in strong terms: people who do not understand, do not seek God, turn away, and speak deceit. Read in that setting, Romans 3:10 is not a stand-alone insult. It is the opening statement of a case Paul builds to show that the whole human race has need of God’s mercy, and that this mercy is what he goes on to describe in the following chapters.
Key Phrases in Romans 3:10
Romans 3:23
For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God…
(WEB)
This verse states that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It widens the lens from the individual to the whole human race and sets up the good news that Paul describes in the verses that follow.
Psalm 14:3
They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good, no, not one.
(WEB)
This is one of the Old Testament passages that Paul draws on when he writes Romans 3:10. Reading it in its own setting helps you see that the diagnosis of human need is an ancient one, present in Israel’s prayers long before Paul quoted it.
A Short Prayer From Romans 3:10
Lord, you see me more clearly than I see myself. When I am tempted to measure my life against other people and feel secure, remind me that no one stands righteous before you on their own strength. Keep me honest about my need. Thank you that the standard you set is met not by my effort but by your mercy. Teach me to receive that mercy with gratitude and to extend the same humility to the people around me. Amen.