The Encourager
“Does This Mean Me? - by Jeff Curtis”
“Does This Mean Me?”
By Jeff Curtis
The most significant part of Romans 3:23 may be the little word “all”: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” Someone may have heard, “Surely, Paul doesn’t mean me!” “All” includes every man, woman, boy, and girl who is accountable before God. If you can read what is written in here, then it includes you.
Remember the terms used for “sin?” One speaks of falling short; another emphasizes going too far. Can any of us say that we have never failed to do what we should do? All of us must admit that we are sinners. Some are sinners saved by the blood of Jesus, while others are unsaved sinners. But all are sinners.
Sometimes we protest, “But I’m a lot better than some people I know. Surely, that proves I’m not a sinner.” Compare our “target” (the glory of God), which is a faraway continent. If you and I stood on the shore of some ocean and jumped toward that continent, you would probably farther I would. But neither of us would splash water into that distant continent with just a single leap. Instead, we would both splash into the water, pitifully short of our goal. No matter how good we may think we are, we are still an immeasurable distance from God.
There is one common denominator of mankind. It’s not nationality, race, or similar cultures. The one thing we have in common it our unworthiness before God. We are all sinners.
A church had a bulletin board in its foyer. Each week, the preacher put thoughts on the board to make people who looked at it think. One week he posted this thought, “This church is for sinners only.” A few days later, he got a letter in the mail that said, “I was shocked to learn that this is for sinners only. I have been a member of this church for 25 years, and I never realized that I was out of place and not welcome.” The next week the preacher put another message on the board, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
A well-known preacher had a practice of writing the mayor of the next city he planned to visit. He would ask the mayor for a list of people with spiritual problems, any who needed help and prayer. On one such trip, he was surprised to receive a copy of the city’s entire phone book. The mayor who sent it understood what some people don’t. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Meditate on this:
Isaiah 55:8-9
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
