RE: Romans 3:23

From: Stevens, Charles C (Charles.Stevens@unisys.com)
Date: Fri Apr 03 1998 - 19:04:18 EST


On 3 April 1998 at 2:52PM, Jonathan Robie responds to my query about
aspect in this verse:

<<That's not unusual in either Greek or English:

> "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"
>
> >What's going on with what seems to me to be a contrast between the
> >aspects of these two verbs, and what conclusions might legitimately
> be
> >drawn from that contrast?
>
> Well, we aren't all necessarily sinning right now, but we all have
> sinned.
> And we all fail to attain to the glory of God right now.>>
>
Well, I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I've run into those that
claim that the sinning is all in the past. While the English would
support that, the past-tense sense of the aorist seems to me to be much
less strong than the English would indicate, I think.

My personal theological perspective is that our (present tense) falling
short of the glory of God is not due to our (past) sinning but at least
in part by the individual (punctiliar) acts of sin (past, present,
future) that are part of our lives. To presume that the Romans Paul
were addressing had utterly ceased sinning by the time they were being
addressed does not seem to me likely from a practical standpoint. We
all continue to "come short" of the glory of God, and one of the
reasons we do so is because we encountered, are encountering, and will
continue to encounter points of weakness and failure.

Is such a perspective defensible?
 
    -Chuck Stevens [SMTP: Charles.Stevens@unisys.com]



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