From: George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Date: Wed Jul 16 2003 - 13:02:29 EDT
John W Burgeson wrote:
>
> George wrote: "Romans 1:18 - 3:20 speaks of sin as a general problem that
> afflicts all people,
> Gentiles and Jews. "
>
> Christians too? (This is not an idle question).
>
> "While 1:18 can be seen as a introductory statement that includes
> all, 1:19-32 seems (though this is not said explicitly) to refer to
> Gentiles. & I think
> to all Gentiles, though not every Gentiles is guilty of every sin he
> lists. "
>
> I had always thought, perhaps erroneously, that Paul had in mind some
> particular group of "bad guys." With your interpretation, I have to think
> about the chapters differently.
It seems to me that 3:9-10, as Paul comes to the conclusion of this part of his
argument, makes it pretty clear that he is speaking of all people without exception -
prior to what God does in Christ.
"What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged
that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written: `There is
none who is righteous, not even one ..."
That doesn't speak directly to the condition of Christians - i.e., to those who
receive the righteousness of which Paul speaks in 3:21 ff. But Paul doesn't say that
this makes Christians sinless and 7:14-25 points in the opposite direction.
In any case I don't see how one could argue that the activities that Paul views
as sinful in 1:18-32 would not be sinful simply by virtue of being done by Christians.
(At the risk of belaboring the point, if this were true for homosexual activity it would
also be for slander & the other things in the list.) Whether or not one has
to evaluate homosexual activity differently when it is within a committed & loving
relationship is another question.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
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