New beginnings and do-overs,

New beginnings and do-overs,


When we were kids life seemed so much fuller of opportunity.
And when we would not quite hit the mark….
We would cry “DO OVER”!
As we grow older we find many days we wish we could just go back to bed and cry,

“DO OVER!”.

Life isn’t that kind….

We deal with the spouse, the boss, the kids, the car not starting, the bills, the bill collectors. You get the picture; none of these really allow a do over…
But there is One that does.
The Bible tells us in Romans 3: 23. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Notice one word here… “all”.

So let’s define this word….

Strong’s Ref. # 3956
Romanized pas
Pronounced pas
including all the forms of declension; a primary word; all, any, every, the whole:
KJV—all (manner of, means), alway(-s), any (one), X daily, + ever, every (one, way), as many as, + no(-thing), X thoroughly, whatsoever, whole, whosoever.
Doesn’t that clear it up?
Hmmm,
It may seem funny to actually look this word “all” up…yet you would be surprised that many people really don’t know what it means.
Let’s just say, “all means all”.

So let’s look again at Romans 3: 23. (Slightly paraphrased)

“Every single one of us can’t get it together enough to make it to heaven to see God.”

This seems a little harsh, and if you are one that is inclined to want to do and be perfect, well…frustrating.
Ok, let’s pull back the view a bit and look at this verse in context.

Romans 3: 22 - 24. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Let’s break this down…

Righteousness….now, what is that?!
Hmm, Webster’s dictionary says it has something to do morality.

Strong’s Ref. # 1343
Romanized dikaiosune
Pronounced dik-ah-yos-oo’-nay
from GSN1342; equity (of character or act); specially (Christian) justification:
KJV—righteousness.

Equity, or to be equal with…

So righteousness from God is equality from God….

Whoa! Equal with God?

Let me explain it this way…if we could be morally perfect we would be equal with God.
Now, where does this verse go from there?
This righteousness comes from faith in Jesus Christ…

To?

ALL THAT BELIEVE.

(Just a sideline here. Did you notice this righteousness coming from Jesus?
So, if to be righteous is to be morally perfect…then be equal with God….so what does that make Jesus?

GOD!!!!!

How’s that for a sideline?)

Let’s go on…

“There is no difference”.

NO difference in what?

Ok let’s pull back the view a bit more….

Romans 3: 21. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
22. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,
23. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24. and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
25. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—
26. he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith.

“Now a righteousness from God apart from the Law”
We know what the first part is…what is this Law thing?
The Law… let’s just say for the sake of time…it is that moral perfection we were talking about.

I can hear you now, “We can be right with God apart from His moral perfection?”
Yep, He made it known to His men… those would be the Prophets and even the Law itself was all about.

Notice that because there is not difference as “ALL” (remember that word?) have sinned, we need a righteousness that is not of our own…

22. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.


Now we get back to verse 22 were we started.

So we see we can be righteous apart from doing and be perfect as God’s Law required…by how?

By putting your faith in Jesus Christ…

“There is no difference”…between what Jesus did and what the Law required…

Now let’s go to verse 23;

We all have fallen short this moral requirement of perfection.

Yet it goes on…remember it’s in context of having faith in Jesus and the word “all”…

24. and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Justified, redemption, more of those “theological” words.

Let’s just say to justify is to set the balance equal. Like on a scale.

Redemption think of a recycling center…the steal cans go one way and the aluminum cans go the other……we being the aluminum cans as Christians.

(This illustration falls very short, and in no way am I saying that God created some to be steal cans to be unredeemable, that is a misrepresentation of Romans 9. The main point is that all are trash… yet some are redeemed.)

Grace… Unmerited favor is the textbook definition.

Let’s say it this way… We are not getting what we deserve…eternal separation from God… but because we have responded to the faithfulness of God in Jesus, we do get something we don’t deserve, forgiveness and salvation or even better it is “How God feels about us” or “God’s loving emotions toward us”..

Let’s clean this up and finish…

25. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—
26. he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith.

What I am saying is this.
Jesus went to the cross, there He became the sacrifice that pleased God’s perfect morality. Wow, God did this to show His how severe of justice needed to be fulfilled.
Basically God sends His son, to take our place which allows us to be able to be accepted by God.

So, this puts us in a place of decision.

We can take our chances and deny “all means all”. That your are the exception and are equal with God in His perfection…

Or

Trust Jesus and have faith that He made it possible to be right with God.

I hope you will take choice number 2.

Blessing,
iggy

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