‘All’ means ‘all’

Dear Friends,

One of the benefits of believing that “all Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16) is that we keep wrestling with those parts of the Bible we don’t fully understand.  We’re not satisfied – or at least we shouldn’t be – to imagine that there’s anything either defective in the text or confused in the author’s words.  Any defects or confusion lie entirely with us, the readers.

I’ve been wrestling for some years, admittedly on and off, with Romans 3:22.  Why does Paul repeat himself?  Why does he say that God’s righteousness comes “through faith” and to those “who believe”?  Isn’t that saying the same thing twice?  I couldn’t work it out.  Then D.A. Carson, in his excellent book Scandalous, helped me see.  Paul isn’t repeating himself.  He’s saying something new with the second phrase.  Let’s have the sentence in full: “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”

What’s the new thing?  That little word “all”.  Paul wants to say it’s the same for everyone, every single person without distinction.  Everyone gets saved the same way.  And that’s how he goes on: “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace…” Now that’s worth hearing!  Why hadn’t I seen it sooner?  I don’t know.  What I do know is that I’d have stopped looking long ago if I didn’t believe every word of the Bible is God-breathed.

Chris Hobbs,

Vicar.