Don’t Stop Short


 

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Romans 3:23

For some reason it seems this verse is popping up everywhere I turn. I’ve heard it in sermons, at our family Bible study and read it in more than one devotional.  It’s true, we have all sinned. I’m not denying or arguing the veracity of the words.  Those words on their own are the quick and easy evangelism road. “Are you a sinner? Yes you are! ‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ It says so right in the Bible. Now what are you going to do about it?”

          Left alone, presented that way, that precious verse is watered down, too easily ignored and basically just an ad for fire insurance. “Do you want to burn in hell? I didn’t think so!” Yuk! That’s what happens when we pull one little piece of Scripture and flail it around.  Look at it alongside the next verse....

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23-24

There it is! Where the first half, verse 23 is too often misused as a scare tactic, it is truly a door opener for the amazing, beautiful truth of redemption. Verse 24 holds the key…. JUSTIFIED.

          I’ve heard a few sermons on that word but one always sticks in my mind, justified, just as if I’d never sinned.  Just as if I’d never sinned. Wow!

          I don’t know about you but that is grace, real, amazing, all encompassing grace to me. It is easy, very, very easy for me to see myself in verse 23, all have sinned. Yes, unfortunately, that’s me.  Sin? Check. Fall short?  Check. Forget completely about God’s glory? Check. So what can I do? If you read that and said a resounding, “me too” what can you do?

          We can read verse 24. “All are justified by the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (emphasis mine) Justified.  As my granddaughters love to say… Wait! What?

That’s right, all have sinned but all are justified as well. What’s the catch you ask? You are.

          That justification is yours for the taking but the price is humility.  Lay down pride, accept that you cannot erase the sin and that you desperately need a Savior and then there it is. It sounds simple and it can be but too often we make it harder than it has to be, often by getting bogged down in verse 23.

          Take a second and listen to the heartbeat of Abba. Listen to the voice of Jesus whispering forgiveness and mercy in your ear. Justified….. There it is!

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Applause, Applause and Protection

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, Hebrews 12:1 Reading some Scripture this morning I was reminded of a message that I watched from Louie Giglio. In it Louie described a child of God leaving her home for the day. He goes on about how the heavenly beings see it. With great excitement, he tells of the joy and applause going on in heaven as the woman gets in the elevator, gets to the parking lot and gets in her car. It’s hilarious and over the top, (remember I did say it was Louie Giglio!) but there’s a great lesson in it. My husband and I were watching a TV show about a fictional former president. At one point the poor man is just over the Secret Service detail. He’s tired of them following him around so he fires them. It takes less than five minutes for him to start to see all that they’ve been doing for...
Read more

My Father Saw That

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me, “for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” Genesis 16:13 There’s a movie from several years ago that I absolutely love! It’s called “The American President.” The premise is that the president, who is a widower, has begun to date. He’s dating a lovely woman while running for reelection. His opponent is awful. He knows he doesn’t have much of a chance against the popular incumbent so he tries to make a mountain out of the molehill of the standing president’s romance. At one point there is a news clip that shows the woman in a protest during her college days. After the clip plays the opponent refers to the president’s lady friend as “the president’s whore.” She groans and says to the president “My father saw that!” She is devastated, not because what is being said is true but because her father, who she loves and respects, saw the clip and heard those words spoken about her. I thought of ...
Read more

Not Really god, where are you?

Then they called on the name of Baal from morning to noon.”Baal answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said, “Surely he is a god! Perhaps his is deep in thought, or busy or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 1 Kings 18:26b-27 Those who know me would be quick to tell you that I am a bit sarcastic. It’s a quality that I have passed on to my children and even some of my grandchildren. Some days I feel a little guilty. Is that really a quality that God wants to see in me? Certainly that cannot be my go to attitude but there are times that it comes in quite nicely. This morning, reading a totally unrelated verse, I was reminded of this account in the first book of Kings. (It begins at verse 16 and continues to the end of the chapter. I highly recommend reading it if you haven’t and it if you have reread it. It’s great!) In this p...
Read more