[Springfield Reformer]

But the fact remains that “all have sinned” is in the context of “venom on the lips” and “feet quick to shed blood”, so unless you are prepared to advance the idea that Mary hastily murdered someone, you need to take the entire passage as a poetic exaggeration, including the “all” in it.

I appreciate your response.  As you might expect, I cannot agree with your assessment.  Jesus equated spiritual acts of sin with physical acts.  His teaching allows us to say that one merely needs to lust in order to be guilty of adultery.  Likewise with murder. Under the rule presented in the Sermon on the Mount, that our "feet are quick to shed blood" is a spiritual fact, not in the least an exaggeration, even if we never actually take anyone out.  I know that's a hard sentence, and it seems like it can't be so of the kind and good people we know.  But God does not let us do all that is in our hearts.  This is mercy on His part.  But what evil lives within us is still there, even if it does not come fully to the surface.  

This is the gravity of our sin with which Paul is wrestling in Romans 3.   He's not issuing fuzzy-edged generalizations.  He's making sure we understand that every man woman and child that came forth from Adam is under the curse of sin.  It is a dark and all inclusive shroud, and we are all trapped within it if we are human. The only exception, by way of incarnation of God Himself, is Jesus.  

I wish it were an exaggeration.  You have no idea how much I wish that.  But it's true in the harshest, most absolute way it can be. The only light at the end of that awful tunnel is Jesus.  No one else.  Were it not for His appearing, we would all be lost, every last one of us.  Due cause to celebrate His coming to us, is it not?

Peace,

SR

[boatbums]

But what evil lives within us is still there, even if it does not come fully to the surface. This is the gravity of our sin with which Paul is wrestling in Romans 3. He's not issuing fuzzy-edged generalizations. He's making sure we understand that every man woman and child that came forth from Adam is under the curse of sin. It is a dark and all inclusive shroud, and we are all trapped within it if we are human. The only exception, by way of incarnation of God Himself, is Jesus.

I might add that, when God talks about the sin nature of man in places such as Jeremiah 17:9, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? as well as Romans 3 and other places, He is addressing the depths to which our hearts can sink. Does everyone go off the deep end? No, thank God, but, if we are honest, we HAVE to acknowledge that we continue to be shocked at the depravity of some almost on a daily basis. A mother's coldblooded murder of her children; Islamic State's boasting of murdering women, children and the elderly simply because they refused to convert; genocide; abortion; terrorism; all the evils that repulse most of us are occurring almost daily - and that's only stuff we hear about.

So, yes, the heart of man IS desperately wicked. Who CAN know how really bad it is? Who really knows under what conditions doing the unthinkable we might be finding ourselves doing? As humans, we are ALL at enmity with God until and unless we come to faith in Christ. He is who changes our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. It isn't anything we are capable of doing ourselves.

[annalex]

our "feet are quick to shed blood" is a spiritual fact, not in the least an exaggeration, even if we never actually take anyone out

The fact remains that when the language is stating a spiritual fact contrary to physical fact, the entire passage needs to be taken outside of the realm of stating physical facts. It is not then evidence of Mary's condition nor anyone else's condition in particular; it is said in a general sense to drive the point: "he himself may be just, and the justifier of him, who is of the faith of Jesus Christ". Of course, we notice the big exception made right in this sentence: Christ is technically part of "all" but He is "just". So is Mary, His deliverer, "for by the fruit the tree is known" (Matthew 12:33)

Merry Christmas! Please pray with me.

Mary Mother of God Pointing the Way

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.
To thee to we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.