"proved" (Gr. proaitiaomai) means to bring a charge against, being a judicial term used in a court of law. It includes the idea of the charge having been proved. The summary of the matter is that the whole world of mankind, Jew and Gentile, except those who are in Christ, is charged with sin, and the charge stands indisputable and without distinction. The charge is spelled out explicitly in three words, "all under sin." Paul is not saying here that all are sinners, though it is true that all are sinners, but he is saying that all are under sin. It is a term he used on other occasions (see Romans 7: 14 and Galatians 3:22). The idea is that all are under the power, dominion and condemnation of sin. The sin principle is the power controlling the unsaved man. The word "under" suggests the idea of subjugation, authority. Sin is the ruling power. After World War I, about 1920, I was taken ill with the disease of diphtheria. When the family physician had di agnosed and pronounced my illness, he placed a sign on the outside of our house which read, "Under Quarantine." The sign on the house did not change my condition. It made me no sicker nor did it make me well; it merely stated my condition. That sign reading, "Under Quarantine" told every passerby that in that house there was a person with a contagious disease. When Paul wrote "they are all under sin," he was posting the announcement that all persons outside of Christ, Jews and Gentiles, are under the rule, the dominion of sin. They are confined, held prisoner in the kingdom of sin and darkness, bound by the sin principle and controlled by sin's power. The word "sin" in different forms appears in the Roman Epistle not less than forty-eight times. There are several Greek words used in the New Testament for sin, and all of them are deeply significant. Here in 3:9 the word is hamar tia, and. is literally a missing of the mark. According to God's standard of righteousness every person has missed the mark. W. H. Griffith Thomas wrote, "Another means over stepping a boundary; another, falling instead of standing; another, being ignorant instead of knowing; another, dimin ishing what should be rendered in full; another, disobeying a voice; another, disregarding a command; another, willfully 83
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