‘For all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ Romans 3:23
What? Really?
Mmm… I bet! As if! Cool. And…? Recognise these responses? Yup! They were most
likely your last response when you heard this verse or something similar. So
before you leave, read this! I’m going
to be quick because I know you don’t have much time and to make this easier to
understand I have taken liberty to divide this verse up into four segments.
1.
‘For all’. Who exactly does
this apply to? For starters it applies to you, therefore it must apply to me
and every other human (Except Jesus) who
is and will be on this planet or universe! This is absolutely you and you can
never get away from this ‘all’ meaning
you.
2.
‘have sinned’. Sin. It’s a nasty
topic and unfortunately some make it seem like a good thing, but God meant sin
to mean any and every bad thing we do “Every
act of wrongdoing is sin” 1 John 5:17 (Phillips Modern English) Think about
the worst thing you’ve done. Jesus has the power to take it away, but more of
that later! It is sin that cause things like pain and suffering, this is a
result of disobedience that occurred just after we were created by God,
involving Adam and Eve. In summary ‘All
have sinned’- We have all sinned, all committed something bad, hurt
somebody or said a wrong thing. This is what sin is, and what it does I shall
explain later.
3.
‘and fall short’.
The dictionary
definition of ‘fall short’ is to not reach an amount or standard.
People always set goals for themselves and God has set a standard for us-
absolute perfection. We obviously can never reach this standard and that is why
God has provided us a way of escape from the punishment that occurs because of
this inability to reach the standard.
4.
‘of the glory of
God ’. The glory of God is so amazing and so spectacular, when Moses (a man in
the Bible) saw part of this, his face was shining so brightly that he had to
cover his face so that people could look at him. ‘And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of
Moses' face shone: and Moses put the veil upon
his face.’ Exodus 34:35. I saw a useful quote on a website (who’s name escapes my memory but not my
heart) it said, “The glory of God is the
beauty of His spirit. It is not an aesthetic beauty or a material beauty, but
it is the beauty that emanates from His character, from all that He is.”
5.
So in conclusion, You
have sinned (done bad things), you have fallen short of the glory of God (you
cannot because of your sin ever reach perfection). What then are the
consequences of sin? The simple answer is, eternal separation from God.
Otherwise known as hell. When you realise the how God holds together the
universe and how he protects you and keeps you living, you will realise what
this is like. Hell is the worst possible place to be and it lasts for eternity.
But how do we get saved from such a place? One word- Jesus. He came down from
Heaven as God and became like us, who he created. He subjected himself to human
authority, lived a perfect life (totally sinless) and died an agonising death
on the cross to crush the power of sin and then rose again to make a way for us
to spend eternity in Heaven with God. Seem a little weird, made up story? All
you have to do is admit your sin, believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection and understand
that you cannot possibly live this life to the full without God. When you do
this, Jesus stands in your place as a sinner and gives you a new life, hope and
meaning.
So, was
it worth your time? I hope so.
