"For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God..."
Almost all of us have memorized this verse.
We use it at camp all the time......I've used it when I present the Gospel.....my kids memorize it at Awana......we all know it.
But like so many other verses, we pull it out of the chapter, memorize it, and seldom ever think about where it came from again. It is powerful enough to stand on it's own.....I've personally seen it open wide the eyes of a lost person as they finally realize all their efforts have been in vain....it's a life changing verse.....
But what about the 'good news' that comes after that verse? Few people seem to mention that....including me. But as I was reading through chapter 3 of Romans, taking in all that Paul was saying about faith and the law, about our position and our righteousness (or lack of..."there is none righteous, no not one!"), I came across the familiar verse, reminding me that we all fall short of His glory. I was reminded that "His glory" is what we should be aiming for....not praise from man, not rest from work, not the "right thing", not even our own satisfaction.....but our goal, our aim should be to glorify God!
But there is a comma after the phrase '...come short of the glory of God,'......that means there's more.....
"being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;"
That is good news....that's the hope. That we have been FREELY justified through Christ...the gift from God....so that we might declare His glory! (that's my "nutshell" version....there is SOOO much stuff in this verse...take the time to study it word by word...it's worth it!!!)
Our goal is to glorify God.....AIM for that daily....let all the other stuff fall away. If I could only truly grasp this and live it out in my life.....wow.....