Cool! Me too!
Why then do you limit God in dealing with others of His people? Think about it.
>>I have...we only have the two instances as noted in the Bible.
And yet... John 20:30 & 21:25.
Nope...no straw man. Taking what you said and trying to understand it because your points don’t line up with Scripture.
I tried to simply tell you... now I'll also understand it for you...
Looking at the context of St Paul in Romans 3, he quotes the Psalms in verses 10-12; specifically Psalm 14:2-3: "As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away; they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." Looking at this, is St Paul saying that there truly are no righteous people? I gave you a short list of those called "righteous" right after that: Joseph, Zechariah & Elizabeth and even a "company of the righteous" spoken of just two verses later in Psalms.
St Paul's language of not one righteous (and then backing it up with demonstratives) in the midst of the Bible showing those who are indeed righteous should tell you you've got the wrong interpretation of Scripture. Your wrong interpretation applies to Rom 3:23 as well... as I showed in my earlier post.
Were Joseph, Zechariah & Elizabeth in need of a Savior then?
The Bible clearly teaches that all people have sinned — except Jesus (1 Peter 2:22). Romans 3:23 clearly condemns all under sin.
But when it mentions people like Job, Noah, Zacharias, and Elizabeth as people who were “blameless” and “righteous” it is not saying that they are not sinners. It is saying that they were godly people, who kept the commandments of God and in that sense, they were righteous.
But of course, we realize that no one can keep the commandments of God perfectly which is why all people are deserving of damnation (Eph. 2:3) and why we need a savior.
If righteousness can come through the Law, then Christ died needlessly (Gal. 2:21).
That is an interesting eisegesis of Romans 3:23. Read the verses before after, well read the entire epistle. It is addressed to the Romans so you are Roman read it all. Then read what Augustine wrote on Romans. His expository is a lot closer to what protestants and evangelicals preach today.
Let me expand a bit. There are two types of righteousness Paul is pointing out. One by perfectly following the Law as The Father in Heaven is perfect. Only One met that standard-—Jesus Christ, not Mary, not Enoch etc. Only Jesus Christ. Then there is the Righteousness of Christ which we have access to by His Shed Blood. Mary could only access the Righteousness which is worthy of The Father by being perfect as The Father is perfect or access by The Blood of Christ. Choose your answer wisely.