All God’s dealings with people rest on the basis that they are sinners in need of salvation (cf. Rom. 3:23). To deny that we have sinned is to make him out to be a liar. Put negatively this means his word has no place in our lives. In many parts of the Bible the ‘word’ has a dynamic character. It effects God’s purpose (cf. Is. 55:11). Those who deny that they are sinners thus make out that God is a liar and they show by that fact that God’s effectual word is not in them.
D. A. Carson, R. T. France, et al., eds., New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition (4th ed.; Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 1401.
