Pastor Paul tackles the last in a series of “bad news” passages which began with Romans 1:18 and continues through 3:9-20. We are all sinners, whether unrighteous or self-righteous. The hard truth in this text is that we are all under “The Power of Sin” (v. 9); we all experience “The Pervasiveness of Sin” (vv. 10-18); and we all know the clear verdict of our condition through “The Perspective of Sin” (vv. 19-20). We are all guilty before God. To emphasize the cliffhanger of this bad news, Pastor Paul uses a literary reference to The Lord of the Rings; a cinematic-historical reference to the 2017 film Darkest Hour; and biblical references to Isa. 53:6, John 11:38-44, and the lives of Old Testament saints Isaiah and Job. Christianity offers a clear diagnosis, but also the remedy—the Redeemer—in Christ. Pastor Paul ends with two encouraging texts from Heb. 3:12-13 and Phil. 2:3-5.