Falling Short.

Romans 3:21-25

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. 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.”

Have you ever stopped to really study what was being said in the above statement? In verse 21, the writer says the righteousness of God has been “manifested.” Many will call this word a revealing word, and for the most part, it is just that. Much like the manifest of a ship, plane, or even the packing slip that accompanies a container of several items showing what is in the container, these have a manifest that explains what is inside.

“God’s righteousness has been manifested “apart” from the law.” This would be a division of what is and what should be. God’s law, better known as the Mosaic Law, was a list of over 600 laws that Jewish folks were to adhere to and follow very strictly, making no mistakes. But this was impossible for a human to do, so God put in place a sin-forgiving action that required an animal to be sacrificed. Many nonbelievers will key in on this in the Old Testament and say God was a ruthless animal killer. Still, just as God required such a sacrifice to forgive sin, it would be a few 1000 years later that He Himself would come in the form of flesh as Jesus Christ and be the last “once for all” sacrifice taking on the sin of the world, and giving all who will accept and follow Jesus fully a narrow path that leads to His glory and grace.

A little further, the writer says the very well-known scripture, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Today, millions of people repeat this scripture and stop without following through with the remaining portion, “and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation (sacrifice) by his blood, to be received by faith.” If one were to never complete the rest of the verses that follow, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” one would never know or understand that God, my Father in heaven, has given all who will accept, a way to not fall short of His glory, a way to not live as a sinner, a way to be seen as perfect in His eyes.

2 Peter 1:3-4, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

All are born with a sinful nature, and without accepting Jesus as the once-for-all sacrifice, a person will live in sin, being known as a sinner. But we who believe in and follow Jesus fully are given through our faith in Jesus God’s gift of grace that comes only from His glory that all fall short of, and we are made partakers of His divine nature, as Peter says.

So, do you still fall short of God’s glory? Or have you been justified through the blood of Jesus? Do you still live the sinful nature you were born with, or have you, as Peter says, become one who partakes in God’s divine nature?

I love y’all greatly in Jesus,

Ken Dabbs.

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