All Have Sinned

Overview

• Testament: New
• Book: Romans
• Chapters: Romans 1:18–3:23
• Summary: Paul’s systematic indictment of all humanity — both Gentile and Jew — as guilty before God, culminating in the universal declaration that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

Details

The opening argument of Romans is a prosecutorial brief against the whole human race. Paul begins in Romans 1 with the Gentile world, charging that the knowledge of God is plain from creation itself — “his eternal power and Godhead” visible in the things that are made — so that idolaters “are without excuse.” Their suppression of this knowledge led to a downward spiral: the exchange of the glory of God for images, the corruption of worship, and finally the abandonment of natural relations. God’s response was to “give them up” three times over (1:24, 26, 28), handing them over to the consequences of their own choices. The catalogue of vices in 1:29-31 is not a description of exceptional sinners but of general human culture apart from God.

Having trapped the moralistic reader who nodded along to the Gentile indictment, Paul turns in Romans 2 on those who judge others: “Thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest.” The Jew who relies on the law is not excused by knowing it; “for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” Even Gentiles who do by nature the things in the law show that God’s moral law is written on the heart. True circumcision is of the heart, not the flesh — a stunning claim for Paul’s Jewish contemporaries.

Romans 3 begins with the question of whether being Jewish then carries any advantage at all, and Paul affirms it does in terms of stewardship of the oracles of God — but not in terms of standing before God’s judgment. He lines up a catena of Old Testament quotations from the Psalms and Isaiah to show that scripture itself indicts every human throat, tongue, lip, mouth, and foot. “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God” (3:10-11). The law speaks these words to those under the law, so “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (3:19). The devastating conclusion: “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (3:23).

This universal indictment is not Paul’s final word — it is the dark canvas on which the gospel shines brightest. The same passage in 3:21-26 pivots immediately to the righteousness of God revealed in Christ. The diagnosis is total so that the cure might be total. No Jew could claim a moral exemption; no Gentile could claim ignorance. All are on the same level before the cross — which is precisely the point. See Justification by Faith for the resolution.

Important Verses

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” — Romans 3:23

“There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” — Romans 3:10-11

“Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” — Romans 3:19

Cross-References

• OT Background: Psalms — the catena of condemnation quotes drawn from the Psalter
• OT Background: Isaiah — the sinfulness of Israel and all flesh
• Follows into: Justification by Faith
• Theme: Justification by Faith (Theme)
• Related People: Paul (Apostle)