A short essay in answer to the question below: (this was an assignment in a class on Romans)

Chapter 3, verse 23 states, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." There are some key elements that stand out for me in that verse:

…all have sinned… I know people who think that any ‘wrongdoing’ [‘Sin’ is apparently too strong of a word for them] that they might do is either appropriate to, or validated by, the situation or actions of others around them. For example, swearing or yelling at someone in traffic after they cut in front of you. That person cut you off, they deserve to be yelled at – so in their mind, that can’t be wrong, (and certainly not a ‘sin’) that other person got exactly what they had coming to them. It works like this; they did something to me, so I got them back – it balances out, I had to do it and therefore I didn’t sin. Paul has written otherwise -- ALL have sinned.

Some people I know would not classify themselves as ‘sinners’ due to the idea that they don’t commit any "major" sins. They have not murdered anyone, cheated on their spouse, or stolen anything expensive, etc. These people don’t seem to think that they are ‘sinners’ because they haven’t done the things that the real ‘sinners’ do. Once again, Paul has informed us of the simple truth -- ALL have sinned.

It is my understanding that in the catholic religion, the pope is believed to be infallible. While I have not witnessed the current pope sinning, and I do agree that he is a good man, but he is still a man. As a man, the pope falls under the category of ‘all’ and like us, has sinned. In my opinion, believing oneself to be infallible (or sinless) is a sin in itself.

Paul repeats the truth that we have all sinned in 5:12. "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned." All sinned, all of us. Paul makes this very clear.

…and fall short of the glory of God… I know many people who believe that if you live a good life, generally treat people good, and don’t commit any of the so-called ‘major’ sins – God will let you into Heaven. It seems the only ‘fair’ deal, in their mind they are good enough. Paul has written how we fall short of the glory of God. We are not God; we are not even close. Even those ‘little’ sins are enough to cause us to fall short.

…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… It occurs to me that some people may separate these two statements. Even some people who may admit they sin once in a while, may not believe that their sin is enough to keep them from God (and out of Heaven). Our falling short of the glory of God is a direct result of our sin. I think some people may not realize this. Paul wrote in 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death." It does not say the wages of "those big sins" is death, it says, "sin" – all sins, even the sins that we humans may consider ‘minor’.

I think that it is important to understand that all of us have sinned, even if we think are sins are ‘minor’ or just little ‘wrongdoings’ – it is still sin. And due our sin, we have fallen short of the glory of God. We, in fact, deserve death (the wages of sin). There are many people that do not understand this, there is likely a large number of people I know who are stuck on this truth. People who do not believe that they have sinned most likely will not believe that they need to be saved from anything (death).

I hope to be able to explain this to them as I increase my own understanding.