Roman 3:23 “For all have fell short of the Glory of God” NOW, I do believe Mary was Sinless, I know what Luke 1 says so you dont have to give me the whole run around about Luke 1. But, its kind of hard to work around Romans 3:23…cause its like…Contradicting itself o.0 Sort of…can you please help me with this. Protestants believe she was sinful, but Luke 1 says she isn’t, Catholics believe she was sinless, but Roman 3:23 says she isn’t. How would Catholics work around Romans 3:23 to make it coincide with there belief on Mary?
We can’t take a single Bible verse out of context. It’s not the Catholic way. We have to understand who the author was, who he was talking to, and the point he was trying to make. We have to understand the social, economic and religious context under which the author and his audience wrote. Paul wrote to Romans, Hebrews, fellow priests and bishops, and Churches in far flung lands. Each of his epistles has a different message and context.
Remember that Paul was a Pharisee, a scholar of the Old Testament law. He was speaking in Romans to a specific audience, Jewish converts to Christianity in Rome, who were insisting that the Gentile (mostly Greek and Roman) Christians adhere to the mosaic dietary law, observe the Jewish religious calendar, etc. The Jewish converts insisted that the Gentiles could not be saved unless they observed the old covenant rules and that in not doing so, they were actually sinning.
Paul wrote his letter to the Romans between 56 and 58 AD. Judaism and Christianty were still tighly bound to the Synagogue as Judaism had not officially declared itself seperate from Chistianity and so had not yet kicked the Christians out of the Synagogues. Much Christian activity still surrounded the Synagogue as places of learning about Scripture. Jewish converts to Christianity in this context, were trying to force the Gentiles into becomeing culturally and religiously Jewish, and this was not the point of Christ’s teaching. And that is the backdrop, the very reason for Paul’s letter to the Romans.
Paul was simply using the Old Testament to illustrate to the Jewish converts that they had no right to brag or to insist that anyone change dietery behavior or adopt a Jewish calendar. They had no right to do so because although the Gentiles didn’t have the mosaic law, the Jews had it and did not obey it! Paul’s whole point to the Jewish converts was this… what is worse, to not have the law or to have it and break it?
***Well, then, are we *
[Jews] better off? Not entirely, for we have already brought the charge against Jews and Greeks alike that they are all under the domination of sin, as it is written: "There is no one just, not one, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. All have gone astray; all alike are worthless; there is not one who does good, (there is not) even one. (Romans 3:9-12)
Yes,
all have sinned… Jew and Gentile alike.
Yes,
all have fallen short of the glory of God… Jew and Greek alike.
Paul’s point is that all types of people are sinners and not one group is better than another, that salvation is open to all groups regardless of culture, and that observance of the Mosaic law not only had no bearing on salvation but could also cause those who are not even bound by the law to lose hope in the face of it. Paul’s words are not meant as an indictment of every single human being on the planet. We may all be sinners but that’s not Paul’s point, not what he is talking about. He is pointing out to the cultural Jews that no group is better than another and that forcing unfamiliar dietary laws on another person and causing them to falter and lose hope is itself a sin.
Again, Paul is simply teaching that while the greeks and romans didn’t have the mosaic law, the Jews had it all along and didn’t even obey it, so they have no right forcing it on anyone else.
The passage has nothing to do with Mary per se.
-Tim-
