Our lessons through the Word bring us today to the human condition. Let's dive right in into Romans 3:22b - 25!
"For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins."
We are all sinners. We all fall short of the Glory of God every single day, multiple times a day! We can't say that our condition is good because no one is good. Referencing Mark 10:18, Jesus even claimed that "no one is good except the Father himself." So if we think about Genesis 1 and 2 and how human was created in perfect and pure harmony with God, and now we are far from pure and perfect harmony with God, when and how did this happen? That answer is Genesis 3; the Fall.
In Gen 3, you see how temptation brought by the Devil to Adam and Eve led to disobedience of God and what He told them not to do. This disobedience had to have punishment because sin and The Lord do not coexist. The first half of 6:23 says "for the wages of sin is death..." which points out that there is nothing but death and punishment for all sin. This is regardless is you are a "good person" because, again, we are all not "good" people. Let's check the easiest place to see and prove our human condition; the 10 Commandments!
If you look at each of the commandments written in Exodus 20, you can see that you've committed all of them. I know at this point you might be thinking, "no I haven't killed anybody," or something, however let's scan over these and see what they really mean. The first couple are able putting anything above God. How many times have you set priorities higher than God, whether it's your job, children, dreams, money ,etc? A million times for me! That's disobeying and sinning against God. The next two are for about our reverence to God. He is the Holy, Almighty King who deserves our love, honor, and respect. If we don't give him complete reverence when discussing His name, reading His word, and resting on the Holy Sabbath of Sunday, that is disobedience and sin against God.
Continuing on, the next few are about loving our neighbors and honoring them. This is where many times we can find ourselves saying that we are okay because we haven't killed anyone or committed adultery. Well, check out what Jesus says about these commandments in Matthew 5:21-22, and Matthew 5:27-28:
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell." (vr. 21-22)
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (vr. 27-28)
So we can already see that even if you think evil thoughts or hate towards somebody, you are essentially killing them, therefore disobeying and sinning against God. And if you are not married, or are married, and looking at someone in a lustful way, you are committing adultery. This is all very intense, however it is the truth. We commit sins all the time. We try to make excuses, but there are none when you look at the Word and how awful your "little" sins are compared to the righteousness of God. He will have judgement over the sin and rejection of His word. In Romans 6:23 -- "for the wages of sin is death."
BUT! There is hope. The rest of the verse in Romans 6:23 says ....
"but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
That is HUGE news! If you repent and put your faith in Christ who became sin and died for us so that we could be washed clean, you will have this inheritance of eternal life. How exciting! We will talk more about that next time, but for now we do need to recognize what our condition is.; what our state of sin and despair means in the grand picture or the Word. If you read the Bible and simply gloss over parts talking about sin, I pray that you dive into those and recognize what you are committing against God, and repent from them. He knows we are not perfect, and that is exactly why He sent us His son, so that we can be freed. Hallelujah and Amen.
Comments