Shodan has it in one.
For purposes of this post, grant the presumption of a Creator God who lays down laws for humanity – and that those are enumerated in the Bible. (This is an “assume this for the sake of this argument” request – debates on whether He exists and what He expects have been and continue to be fodder for other threads.)
The gist of the “we are all sinners” idea is that God expects nothing short of perfection of us. According to the old conceptions, He made Adam and Eve sinless, but with the free will to sin or not, and gave them opportunity to if they so chose – and they did. Whether or not anyone gives credence to this story, the fact remans that there are examples of man’s inhumanity to man rife in the world, and that no person completely and perfectly carries out the stringent teachings which He laid down as proper behavior.
[ul][li]“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and all thy mind, and all thy strength.” Know anybody who does this, to the degree of completeness specified, at every moment and in fullness? Me neither.[/li][li]“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Same story. Those who are most ardent in proclaiming this find it the hardest thing to do – because somebody just plain irks the hell out of them, or is suitable fodder for exercising one’s sense of superiority.[/li][li]“Be ye perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” This sums up the whole problem in a few words.[/li][li]“Judge not, lest ye be judged.” Right. Except for them gays, or them Catholics, or them Mormons, or them hypocrites, or them Southerners, or them Ay-rabs. Or whatever. And those of us who proclaim this most ardently seem to have made our own except about judging the jdugmental![/li][li]The whole Ten Commandments. Most people manage to avoid committing the majority of them – but there are exceptions. Take this one:[/li][li]“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his servant, man or woman, nor his ox, nor his ass [donkey, that is], nor anything that is his.” And we have an industry which is assiduously encouraging covetousness in us. Ever see a Lexus commercial? “Just do it.” You too can look like him/her if you only will buy our product.[/li][/ul]
I could go on at length. But the point is that, on the assumption that the God of Judaism and Christianity does in fact exist and has laid down these laws, nobody keeps them in full, nor is able to.
Failure to keep God’s commandments is sin. Therefore, we’re all sinners, in need of His Grace, which, fortunately, is fully avalable to us.
Now, it is important to recognize that this is not a Divine Catch-22. He is merely illustrating, by the Law, our inability to live up to the ideals we ourselves aspire to, and our consequent need of His strengthening and healing Presence – which He lovingly provides on request.
For this reason, many of the more “liberal” churches downplay the whole sin issue, and instead focus on the new life of Grace available through knowing and loving Him.
But th point is there, nonetheless.