Some points I’d like to address.
- Do you know what Paul was quoting, scripture wise, when he spoke of “None are righteous?”
- Once you check and find that it was Psalms that he was speaking of, such as Psalm 53:3, then check Psalm 52:6-7.
- Once you notice that the verse (mind you, I’m using an NRSV) addresses the Righteous, 'who see and fear and will laugh at the evildoer", and look at Psalm 53:3, which says “none are righteous”, you find that you cannot take it literally without context. There are righteous people, those who are hears AND doers of the word (reference James 1:22). And before then you had Job, who was “blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.”
- In reference to Romans, if you read before, it speaks of how both the Jews and the Greeks are under the power of sin. What does that have to do with anything? Well, this reference to Scripture by Paul was to express the truth that there is now no more division. While the Jewish people remain the holders of the Original Covenant and the forebears of the New Covenant as well as the people into which Christ the Lord was born into, it was that both the Jews and the Greeks are equal under Christ. This is why the Scriptural reference was made, to show that the Jews and the Greeks (Gentiles) were not separated as they were before, with the Jews as the Chosen People. For both Jew and Greek are equal under Christ.
- So, yes, Paul was speaking of “all” of humankind, but not to say that there is not a single person righteous (as seen in Psalm 52 as well as Job), but that both are equal under Christ.
The only time ZERO is ZERO when referencing to Scripture is that there is ZERO proper understanding without the teaching aid of the Catholic Church. Read
all of Romans 3, as you advised PRmerger earlier.
Rom 3:9-18 What shall we conclude then? Are we any betterb? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
12All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”c
13“Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”d
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”e
14“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”f
15“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16ruin and misery mark their ways,
17and the way of peace they do not know.”g
18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”h
It is clear Paul is declaring there are none righteous Jew or Gentile because all are lost and do not seek God v11. God must first intervene in the human condition in order for anyone to be saved. PR was trying to put words in my mouth to say Jesus was not righteous because He was somehow not God.
These references are from many different scriptures and combined show how ALL are unrighteous and lost. Righteousness doesn’t take place in a vacuum. You are not righteous because YOU want to be. It is Gods’ prerogative to impart righteousness and save whom He will.
Footnotes:
a 4 Psalm 51:4
b 9 Or worse
c 12 Psalms 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Eccles. 7:20
d 13 Psalm 5:9
e 13 Psalm 140:3
f 14 Psalm 10:7
g 17 Isaiah 59:7,8
h 18 Psalm 36:1
I have read All of chapter 3.
Oh and yes, ZERO is ZERO when the Bible says so.
