Presented to TSA AV Ministries, 10 November 2024, by Major Michael Ramsay. Based on a chapter in his book, Salvogesis’ Guidebook to Romans Road and sermons presented to Swift Current Corps, 12 July 2009 and Warehouse 614 in Toronto, 21 January 2018
To view the earlier sermons, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/07/romans-322b-23there-is-no-difference.html
To read ‘Salvogesis’, click here: http://www.sheepspeak.com/ebooks.htm
Romans 3:23:For all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
There
is a Disney movie entitled The Emperor’s New Groove. In it, some people try to
kill the emperor with a magic potion but they get it mixed up and accidentally
turn him into a lama instead. As the movie progresses, the emperor attempts to
regain his throne and turn back into a person.
There
is one clip at the climax of the movie where the emperor finds many bottles of
magic potions without labels, all of them mixed up. While the royal guards, who
are trying to kill him, are in hot pursuit the lama-as-king hurriedly drinks
one potion after another, trying to turn back into a person. Some potions are betterl than others. One
turns him into a turtle (not so good for eluding pursuers). Another turns him
into a small bird. Frantically he downs potion after potion: turtle, small
bird, giant whale, and then finally he drinks one potion and looks down as he
changes and cheers, “Yay! I’m a lama again! . . . Oh wait!” That isn’t what he
wanted at all: he still is not a person. In the end all those potions and
adventures make no difference
The
conclusion of the second chapter of Romans, which we looked at the other week,
makes clear that there is no difference when it comes to our salvation: both
the Jew and the Gentile stand on equal footing. The Law cannot be the means of Salvation.
The Law merely points out sin (Romans 3:20, 2:17-24, 5:20, 7:7-25). For all
have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
So,
what is sin?
The
Greek word for “sinned” in this passage, hamartanō, carries with it the classic
definition of sin that we have heard before: that of “missing the mark.” An
archer aims and shoots and the arrow falls short, missing the target.
On the
surface this seems innocuous enough but if we find out that that archer is
William Tell – famous for shooting apples off people’s heads – and if we learn
that the apple is about to be placed on our own heads, all of a sudden this becomes
important! You do not want him to miss the mark!
William
Tell was to shoot the apples off the heads of his own sons and the consequence
of his missing the mark was devastating for both father and son. When we
continually sin, the consequences can be fatal. Romans 3 tells us that we have
all sinned, fallen short of this Glory of God, and the first 2 chapters of
Romans tell us that because of this we may be at considerable risk.
In a
story by John Phillips, he tells us:
Paul describes sin as a coming short of the divine standard. Two
men went to the recruiting office in London to join the guards regiment. The
standard height for a guardsman was a minimum of six feet. One man was taller
than the other, but when they were measured officially both were disqualified.
The shorter of the two measured only five feet seven inches and was far too
short; his companion measured five feet eleven and a half inches and, stretch
to his utmost, as he did, he could not make it any more. Nor did his pleas
avail. It mattered nothing that his father was a guardsman, that he promised to
be a good soldier, that he had already memorized the drills and knew the army
regulations by heart. He was short of the standard.[1]
Yes,
the taller of the two was taller than his friend (just as some people may seem
nicer, better, holier than the rest of us) but in the end it didn’t matter. He
still wasn’t tall enough and there was nothing he could do about that. He could
not make himself grow any bigger. Thus he failed to obtain his goal. Likewise,
it doesn’t matter if we are Jew or Gentile, male or female, employer or employee,
a missionary, a relatively good person, or what-have you . . . for we have all
sinned and so all fall short (Galatians 3:28).
We can
approach this text in different ways. It could be speaking about each of us
falling short and missing the mark on our own accord; that happens. Every one
of us has transgressed the will of God. This passage might refer simply to the
First Sin when Adam and Eve originally disobeyed YHWH in the garden and then
tried to hide from Him (Genesis 3): this was St. Augustine’s idea of “Original
Sin.”
Biblical
scholar N.T. Wright tells us that here the verb “tense is aorist, indicating a
single moment . . . [thus] Paul seems to be again thinking of Adam”[3] But F.
F. Bruce, argues that Paul also could be referring to the fact that each of us
on our own has sinned and therefore failed to make the grade.[2]
Speaking
of making the grade: When I was in high school, a fellow student, John, was in
my Algebra 11 class. On the last day of Algebra 11 the teacher decided to read
out everyone’s mark in descending order from top to bottom. Now this made John
very happy because even though he received only 11 percent, he looked over at a
friend’s paper and saw just 4 percent marked on it. For once, John’s was not
the lowest mark in the class. As the names were read down the list, and all the
way down past the failing marks. . . John was getting more and more excited
because this time he was not going to have the lowest mark. Silvia 22 percent,
John 11 percent . . . and then the moment he was waiting for - and . . . The
teacher stopped reading out the marks and dismissed the class. As everyone
rushed out of the room, “What about Mike?” John yelled. “What about Mike? Read
out Mike’s mark!” The teacher had shown me grace with my meagre 4 percent. He
refused to read my mark out loud so poor John, who did manage to fail Algebra 11
again, wound up being at the bottom of the list again.
Now
there are a couple of things to be cleared up here:
1) In
the grand scheme of things it really didn’t matter for John what mark I, or
anyone else, earned; John still earned a failing grade. He missed the mark; he
had failed to obtain the prize. Just like us. It doesn’t matter if you are a
better person than Charlie Manson, Adolf Hitler, Abraham Lincoln, or your
next-door neighbour – that is not what is going to “get you into heaven” as they
say for “all have sinned and fallen short.” It is not our actions that win us
eternal life; it is God’s gift that saves us. Anyone who repents – preceding
list included - and accepts Christ may actually be with the Lord.
2) I,
who earned 4 percent in the course, passed Algebra 11 in Summer School with an ‘A’
and later went on to actually tutor Algebra 11. I did not actually fail Algebra
11. I did earn 4 percent on the course. But because I realized that I was doing
so horribly in Algebra, I had dropped the course and audited it instead. So I
had to do all the same homework as everyone else and I wrote all the same tests;
and, yes, I fell short just as John did. However, by auditing the course I was
spared the failing mark on my report card.
We can
each be spared a failing mark even though all of us have sinned and thus failed
to obtain a passing mark on our own. In the heavenly classroom, we all score
less than a passing mark; we have all fallen short and deserve to fail. But
Jesus does not read our marks aloud nor does He condemn us (John 3:17). Like a
student auditing a course, He still wants us to carry on and complete it (1
Corinthians 9:24, Galatians 5:7, 2 Timothy 4:7, Hebrews 21:1)! In my case,
there was no difference in how the class was passed, whether in the regular
school year or summer school. What mattered was that I passed the class; so my
4-percent mark was erased forever from my transcripts and replaced with a mark
in the ‘A’ range.
Such
is the Biblical idea of justification.
In his work The Shape of Justification N. T. Wright writes,
“Justification” is thus the declaration of God, the just judge, that someone is
(a) in
the right, that their sins are forgiven, and
(b) a
true member of the covenant family, the people belonging to Abraham.
That is how the word works in Paul’s writings.
It doesn't describe how people get in to God’s family; it declares that they
are in. That may seem a small distinction, but in understanding what Paul is
saying it is vital.[4]
We
know that “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fallen short of the
glory of God” (Romans 3:22b-23), and we also know that we “are justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).
This is good news. Once you take into account that no one knows enough to
actually pass the test and merit salvation, then we really do appreciate this
grace. Grace is “a gift from God.” It is a present. It is not an award or
trophy we can earn like the Grey Cup, the Stanley Cup, the World Cup, or the
Super Bowl. Grace is far more precious than those.
It is
a special present from Our Father. It is like the gifts I make for my children
and family at Christmas time and birthdays. It is the special gifts my kids have
made for me. Our salvation is a love present, a special gift from God that He
gives us because He loves us.
Now
God loves the world so much that He did send his only begotten son to die so
that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. He
sent His son into the world to save the world, not to condemn the world (John
3:1617). and since He did all that at such a great personal expense, let us
please accept that gift today and let us not be ashamed of this good news
(Romans 1:1617). May we let all our friends and family know that the Lord our
God loves us all.
He has
purchased this special gift of salvation for every one of us; let us each
accept that love present, that gift of eternal life today. As we accept this
supreme gift, our lives will never be the same again. They will change forever,
for yes, we have all sinned and fallen short of the grace of God but, Praise
the Lord, because our Eternal Life, our Salvation, is a free gift of God.
Let us pray
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