Respect Everyone

Posted on by korgrocker

“Respect everyone, and love the family of believers. Fear God, and respect the king.”
1 Peter 2:17 NLT

There are four instructions in this short verse. Two refer to being respectful and the others to love and fear. So a lot to consider.

Respect is in short supply in society today. It seems that everyone has their own ideology or set of views and they insist that whatever they think is supported and affirmed to the detriment of everyone else. As an example, strident calls are being made about gender issues, and woe betide anyone who disagrees with the multi-gender adherents. Those who disagree are branded with all sorts of unpleasant and totally unfounded names. They are pilloried on social media and no-platformed in public speaking engagements. There are many other issues in which debate and mutual respect are denied. Perhaps the root cause is society’s abandonment of Christian teaching and rejection of God, with a new morality, false in its content, emerging to replace it. An anything-goes morality that is based on a form of self identification and a declaration that the person concerned is his or her own god. Scotland, where I live, has the reputation of being the most secular country in Europe, and we are starting to see the down side of that in the legislation being produced by confused and godless politicians. But where at one time people were respected for their views – not necessarily agreed with, but respected at least – now there is little or no acceptance of another’s views. Respect is a commodity in very short supply. 

Back in Exodus 20:12 we read, “Honour your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you”. Respect starts in the home by being implanted in children through good parenting, but with so many broken families, basic teaching like this doesn’t seem to count for much these days. And the lack of respect spills over into the classrooms, with teachers being abused just for trying to do their jobs, educating the next generation of adults in our societies. In Matthew 7:12, Jesus taught about the “Golden Rule”, “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets”. 

Respect is based on grace. Our Heavenly Father has graciously accepted us pilgrims, warts and all. With all our funny ideas and sin-ridden ways, we can, through Jesus, approach His throne with boldness. He sees our struggles to make sense of a complex and evil world. He sees us agonising over the abuse of a child, or the ill-treatment of another human being. And we know that He is also saddened by the behaviour of mankind. But God had a plan and Jesus came for damaged and confused people, who were, as He said, like sheep without a shepherd. But we have a Shepherd now, and God’s plan is being worked out through His children, fellow pilgrims such as us.

Dear Father God. We are Your children, saved by grace. Please help us reach out to others, extending Your grace to those without. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Ultimate Fate

Posted on by korgrocker

“Yes, you who trust him recognise the honour God has given him. But for those who reject him, “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.” And, “He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.”
1 Peter 2:7-8 NLT

The context is that, as prophesied by the Old Testament prophets, the Messiah is to become the “cornerstone”, the “rock that makes them fall”. But when Peter wrote these verses, the Messiah had already come, and His coming produced a dichotomy that has been with us ever since. The choice is dramatic and stark – people either choose to follow God or they reject Him. They are either obedient to His Word, or they are not. There are consequences to both choices; eternal life or eternal death. Heaven or hell. There is no middle ground. No grey area between them.

When it comes to obeying God, there are those who truly and diligently search the Scriptures and sincerely do their best to follow Him, applying His Word to their lives. Such obedience is based on our love for God. “Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them” (John 14:23). Then there are those who go through the motions, claiming to be Christians, but who do not have a heart to follow Him. Jesus spoke about such people in Luke 6:46, “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?” The Pharisees fell into this group of people who externally claimed they were obedient to God. They diligently obeyed the Law, and claimed that because of that they would get to Heaven. Their self-righteousness was what Isaiah warned about in Isaiah 64:6, “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind”. 

The disobedient, those who have rejected God and His Word, are in a perilous place. As Peter wrote, “they [will] meet the fate that was planned for them”. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son” (John 3:17-18). Judgement is the consequence for all those who fail to believe in Jesus and follow His ways, for those who are disobedient.

So what is the consequence of the judgment Jesus warned of? For the answer to that we turn to Revelation. The Apostle John wrote what he saw in his vision. “I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. … And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:12-13,15). That was what Peter was referring to when he wrote “the fate that was planned for them”. A daunting thought but strangely one that most people I know in my community have apparently disregarded. 

So what do we pilgrims think? It’s not altogether healthy to live under a mantra of fear, fear of what might happen to us. But we are in a relationship with our loving Heavenly Father. John wrote in his first letter, “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them” (1 John 4:16). A couple of verses further on John wrote, “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love” (1 John 4:18). As we live and move in obedience to God and His Word we have nothing to be afraid of.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your love and grace. We worship You today. Amen.

Judging Others

Posted on by korgrocker

“So why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For the Scriptures say, “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to God.’” Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God. So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.”
Romans 14:10-13 NLT

Here’s another sobering thought thrown into the air from Pastor Paul. Have we ever noticed that Christians can sometimes have a tendency to offer unsolicited judgement over their fellow believers, for something that they do? So on occasion, surreptitiously of course, we condemn the other believer and, somehow, in the process, we find that we acquire feelings of smugness and adopt a “holier than thought” attitude. Of course we deny it ever happens, but denial won’t eliminate the reality that we can have a tendency to judge others. Or we can offer judgement over some perceived “crime” and then quickly follow it up with a “of course we cannot judge”. In Matthew 7:1-2, Jesus said, “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged”. Even the judgemental attitudes we hold within us will be exposed one day. Paul wrote that we mustn’t condemn, judge, or look down on other believers. We don’t walk in their shoes, and instead we must “live in such a way that [we] will not cause another believer to stumble and fall”.  

So how do Christians ever get into a situation where they fall into the trap of “judging others”? We know what we should ,and shouldn’t, do and yet we still sometimes, even privately in our hearts, find ourselves comparing others against our own standards, standards which we ourselves fail to meet. It all stems from our journey through life. Step by step the Holy Spirit works within us, cleaning up our lives, slowly but surely. But there are others on a different journey.

So how do we pilgrims avoid the trap of falling into judgement of our fellow believers? Firstly, why do we do it? Are our judgemental attitudes coming out of inner turmoil or insecurities? Perhaps we have in the past been the focus of similar attitudes against us. Or perhaps what we tend to be judging is something we are guilty of as well, and by some distorted sense of logic, we are dealing with it through another person.

Secondly, we need to stand in the other person’s shoes for a moment, and get their perspective. There is an interesting verse in John 7:24, “Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly“. How can we hope to have the right perspective on a fellow believer unless we can empathise with them and their perceived actions.

Another thought we must consider is viewing how God sees us, and them. He accepts us just as we are, and so must we of the other person. To be blunt, who are we to expect acceptance from God, with our warts and all, if we can’t do the same for another person. And finally, we have tasted the love of God. His love and grace has made us what and who we are. Surely we too must share that love and grace in our attitudes to our fellow believers. In John 13:34-35 we read what Jesus said, “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples“. And so we must do exactly that, and we pray for God to help us love others, replacing any judgemental attitudes with love.

Dear Father God. You have loved us so much. What can we do but love others, to the best of our abilities. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Dark and Dirty Deeds

Posted on by korgrocker

“This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armour of right living.”
Romans 13:11-12 NLT

Paul was writing here to the Christians in Rome. These were people who had been through much for their faith – it wasn’t easy being different in the culture of the first century AD. But Paul felt the need to write to them about the way they were living, because he was expecting the return of Jesus imminently. He compared the period in which they were living as “night”, a time period of blackness followed by the dawn. 

Here in the UK there is not a sudden transition from night to day. The sky starts to lighten in the East, and objects around us become less indistinct. A couple of years ago I was standing on the foreshore of a Scottish fishing village just South of Aberdeen, watching the sun rise. The sky was clear and the hint of a beautiful dawn was followed by the appearance of the sun. It rose over the horizon as a large red disc that gradually but perceptibly rose above the sea. It was an almost magical moment and one shared with appreciative early morning walkers.

But when Jesus appears there will be a sudden transition from the “night” of His absence to the “day” of His arrival. We read in Luke 17:24, “For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so it will be on the day when the Son of Man comes”. Jesus won’t appear gradually, giving people time to sort out their lives. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17,  “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever”. We get a picture of the sudden appearance of Jesus accompanied by “a commanding shout”, “lightning flashes” and the “trumpet call of God”. It will be an awesome experience, accompanied by some strange happenings as believers appear from wherever they had been buried, land or sea, coffins or urns, followed by those who are still alive finding themselves being “caught up in the clouds”. And as Jesus comes, He will be met by this huge gathering of His people, who “will be with the Lord forever”. A fairy story? Many may think so, but at their peril. Paul believed it would happen this way because He received a direct revelation from the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:15, “We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died” (emphasis mine).

So Paul warned his friends in Rome about what was to come, telling them to get their lives sorted out. He compared their behaviour as being like “dirty clothes”. A graphic illustration of how we must look to God. Would we behave as we do if we really thought God was looking on? Imagine turning up to a wedding wearing old and dirty clothes covered in paint and oil! In John’s Revelation, he quoted Jesus, who said, “Look, I will come as unexpectedly as a thief! Blessed are all who are watching for me, who keep their clothing ready so they will not have to walk around naked and ashamed” (Revelation 16:15).

But then we remember His grace, and His offer of cleansing power through Jesus, constantly available to us. After David’s disastrous encounter with Bathsheba, where he broke several commandments all on the same day, we read his Psalm of contrition. he wrote, “Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7). We desperately need to allow God to cleanse us from all our sins, and he will, as we repent and turn from our “dark deeds”.

We have a choice about the way we live. God’s way or the wrong way. Which way will we choose? There is no time for complacency. “The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here“.

Father. We thank You for Your patience with us. We pray today for more of Your cleansing love and grace, removing the soil and dirt that so easily sticks to us from the societies in which we live. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

It’s Sin’s Fault

Posted on by korgrocker

“So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.”
Romans 7:14-20 NLT

Paul is perplexed. In fact, he is so perplexed that he repeats his dilemma twice in these 7 verses. He says, “I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it”. But is this really the case? Is it a valid excuse to say before a judge, “I haven’t done anything wrong – it’s the sin living within me that is at fault”? Of course it isn’t but, superficially at least, that seems to be what Paul is saying. 

The picture emerges in Paul’s mind that within him there are effectively two people. One person who loves God’s ways, who wants to spend all his time with Him, and who really, really, wants to do what is right. And to help that “man” inside of him is God’s Law, which “is spiritual and good”. The other person inside him is the “old man”, his sinful nemesis, a part of him determined to continue in the ways of evil. Perhaps an internal battle that never seems to subside. The Godly part of him mourns and grieves over the thoughts and actions of the sinful man, leading to frustration and conflict. At least Paul doesn’t blame the devil, as some have done, for his sinful man. Personable responsibility is never avoided, in Paul’s life.

Does all this sound familiar to us pilgrims? Are we too caught up in this internal battle that never seems to end? Of course we are. And in the days ahead, we will, with Paul, journey into a place where God has provided a remedy. What a wonderful Saviour!

Dear Lord. Thank You for Your salvation, a gift so freely given. Help us to grasp it and grow in the nurturing soils of Your grace. In Jesus’ name.Amen.

Becoming Holy

Posted on by korgrocker

“Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.”
Romans 6:19 NLT

Paul now introduces the Roman Christians to something called holiness. He tells them that the consequence of living in a righteous way is that they will “become holy”. We know, of course, that God is holy. At the end of Psalm 99 we read, “Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain in Jerusalem, for the Lord our God is holy!” In revelation 4:8 we read about four Heavenly beings continually proclaiming God’s holiness, “Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty— the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.”” And there are many other verses proclaiming God’s holiness. Nothing sinful can survive, or even get close, to our holy God. He is perfectly righteous, giving us the connection to being “slaves to righteous living”. But the Roman Christians of Jewish origin would have known about their need to be holy, because they would have had access to Scriptures such as Leviticus 19:2, “Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Did they perhaps think that the new freedom in Christ relieved them of such an obligation? If they did, Paul soon set them right.

What about us pilgrims? Are we living a holy life? A life set apart from the sinful world around us, a world full of people who apparently lack a moral compass and fail to do what is right? That happened before in Israelite history. It is nothing new. We read in Judges 21:25, “In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” It sounds remarkably similar to what is happening in our Western societies. Politicians who do not know the King are suggesting and approving legislation without any reference to the higher Power, and instead are listening to, and obeying, their devil-inspired, sinful selves. Of course, we cannot shut ourselves away in a protected, holy space somewhere, like a modern day monk or nun, much as we would like to sometimes. In Jesus’ longest prayer, He prayed for His disciples, and we read in John 17:15-16, “I’m not asking You to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do.” We pilgrims live in this world, whether we want to or not, but we don’t have to be a part of it. And we echo Jesus’ prayer by asking our loving Heavenly Father to keep us safe from the “evil one”. 

We pilgrims are now living as slaves to a righteous life, sanctified by the blood of Jesus, holy in God’s sight. And we don’t look back on what we once were, but we look forward in our journey to the Promised Land, Heaven itself. A place of righteousness and holiness for eternity.

Father God. We worship You, the Holy One, grateful for Your grace, and patience with us. Amen.

God’s Grace

Posted on by korgrocker

“Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realise that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.”
Romans 6:15-16 NLT


Once again, Paul writes about “God’s grace” and the freeing impact it has on our lives. He associates grace with freedom from the Jewish Law, something that the early Jewish Christians in Rome were so steeped in, that they seemed to be having problems in seeing beyond it, let alone leaving it behind in their new-found faith in Christ. But what is “grace”? I have written before about God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Paul used the Greek word, “charis” which in these verses is translated as grace. Another definition is kindness. And we know, of course, that God’s rescue plan for mankind, freeing them from sin, involved His Son Jesus and His substitutionary death for our sins at Calvary. Grace taken to extremes.

But God’s grace doesn’t just set us free from the “law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2), it provides for us benefit after benefit, all coming from our new-found righteous relationship with our Heavenly Father. Let’s start with the benefit of our coming salvation. When we embraced and accepted Jesus’ gracious sacrifice, we started the salvation process. 
Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God –”. 
1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Romans 10:9-10, “if you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” 
So these teachings from Paul indicate that we have been saved, are being saved and will be saved. A comprehensive study and manifestation of God’s grace. Yes, our salvation won’t finally be fully realised until the day we cross the Great Divide into eternal life with Jesus, but our salvation process started at the Cross of Jesus Christ.

But when did God first exhibit His grace? It happened long before Jesus died at Calvary. Time and time again in the Old Testament we read about God’s grace. Take Adam for example. We read in Genesis 3:10,21 “He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’ The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” God could have zapped the first couple, and started again, but instead He graciously not only allowed them to live, but He also provided for their need of clothing. That’s grace.

There is something we refer to as “common grace”. God provides for mankind continually, with Planet Earth’s physical stability, with a constant source of heat and light from the sun, with the ability of the soil to provide crops. And that provision is independent of mankind’s status before God. Even those who have rejected Him enjoy His grace.

So we pilgrims are a blessed and favoured people. God’s grace has provided freedom from the sinful lives that were holding us back in a lost and hopeless state. We are slaves no longer. But around us so many people are enslaved, but don’t realise it. Isn’t it strange that, spiritually, they walk around carrying chains and other items of bondage, just like Jacob Marley’s ghost? Heavy loads that weigh them down. And they don’t need to – Jesus has set them free as well.

Dear Lord. You are the ultimate bringer of freedom. How can we ever thank You enough? Amen.

God’s Abundant Grace

Posted on by korgrocker

“God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 5:20-21 NLT

Paul finishes chapter five of Romans with an intriguing thought. The more we sin, the more God’s grace will flow to cover it. Perhaps some of Paul’s readers might have drawn such a conclusion, but something within me rebels at the very thought. How could I have the audacity, the arrogance, to think such a thing! But Paul moves on to this topic in the next chapter in Romans.

Paul reminds his readers that the Law is the plumb line. The standard against which we can measure how well we are doing. But the result is depressing. All we find out is how sinful we are. But thanks to Jesus, God’s very own Son, His plan for redeeming people from this sinful world in which we find ourselves involves His unlimited and unmerited grace. Grace so abundant that it more than covers all sins ever committed, past, present and future. And we have this wonderful dichotomy, sin leading to death against grace leading to life. The death eternal punishment. The grace eternal life.

The old Apostle, John, spoke gently and kindly in his first letter. He wrote, “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:8-9). God’s grace may be abundantly available, but we must never abuse its provision. Once we become a believer, now that we have put our faith in Jesus, we start a journey. It starts at the Cross, where we find ourselves exposed in a dark place, but illuminated by the light of God’s Son, and it continues throughout our lives as we use God’s light to show us what we need to do to transition from who we were to who God wants us to be. We read in Ephesians 5:8-9, “For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true”. 

The Law showed God’s people “how sinful they were”. Darkness exposed. Sin brought under God’s spotlight. He allows a particular sin to be brought to our attention, and shows us the way to deal with it. And how patient God is! Are we not relieved and very grateful that He doesn’t expose all our sins at once! But through His gentle whispers, and Holy Spirit inspired nudges through His Word and our fellow Christian friends, He graciously helps us in our journey to become more like Jesus.

Sometimes there is a blockage on the path. A boulder of insurmountable proportions that we are unable to deal with. A problem so great that we cannot see it, or don’t want to deal with it. At times like this He loves us too much to leave us there. We read in Proverbs 3:11-12, “My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline, and don’t be upset when he corrects you. For the Lord corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights”. God’s discipline is sometimes necessary to give us a shove, rather than a nudge. A good kick up the backside even, It can be painful, but through it we emerge the stronger in our faith and our assurance about God’s caring love. And we can say with the Psalmist in Psalm 40:2, “He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along”. What more do we need? 

Dear Lord. Praises and thanks are due to You without limit You, the wonderful gracious God. Amen.

God’s Gracious Gift

Posted on by korgrocker

“But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.”
Romans 5:15-17 NLT

We could feel that an awful lot of blame has been dumped on Adam. After all, he committed one sin and then, because of that, he was immediately removed from the Garden and spent the rest of his life fighting thorns and thistles as he scratched a living in circumstances never intended. Genesis 3:17-18. “And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains.” If that wasn’t punishment enough, the blame game for man’s sin focused on Adam. Paul wrote that Adam’s sin “brought death to many”, “led to condemnation” and “caused death to rule over many”. 

Perhaps it is fairer to empathise with Adam, and put ourselves in his shoes (if he had any at this point). Would we have behaved any differently? Whether it was Adam’s fault or not, we all sin. Of course, we could look at the spiritual connotations of the Genesis account, and see Adam as a spiritual representative of mankind. Fronting up God’s human creation, using Adam as a name for all mankind. We are effectively all Adamites. But whatever our opinion, it would be wrong to use the excuse “It was Adam’s fault”. As Paul said in Romans 3:23, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard”. 

But, thankfully, things didn’t end with the human race being doomed through Adam’s sin. God had a rescue plan in the form of a gift. “God’s gracious gift”. Just three words but behind them was a manifestation of God’s love so breathtaking that it has completely turned the world into a sphere of hope. Imagine it. We stand before a Judge, knowing that we are guilty, and just before the verdict is passed a Man steps forward and says to the Judge that He will take the punishment. That would be amazing enough in the natural, but when we find that it is the Judge’s own Son who steps forward we can only stand in amazement and gratitude. Emotions beyond all that we can even experience. That’s “God’s gracious gift”. But what is even more amazing is that most people in our societies will stand before that Judge one day without realising that if they had only accepted “God’s gracious gift” earlier then they would not have had to do the time themselves. And it will be a long time. Eternity.

God’s loving grace is available for all. No exceptions. And we pilgrims, having found a wonderful treasure, can only invite others to take a share. God has a personal gift available for everyone. It has a gift tag attached which reads, “To [put in your own name]. Here is a “gift of righteousness”, a passport to eternal life with Me”. And we reach out and take it, trembling and overwhelmed, knowing that it is totally undeserved. What a Saviour!

Dear Father. What else can we say than thank You. Amen.

All Have Sinned

Posted on by korgrocker

“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.”
Romans 3:23-26 NLT

A bigger than usual number of verses today. But what Paul wrote is a concise yet profound exposition of God’s love and grace, and this Biblical paragraph cannot really be subdivided. These verses start with the reality that no human being is capable of achieving God’s righteous standard. Why is that? God requires all those in His presence to be sinless, but through Adam, sin polluted everyone ever born. Once a sinful act has been committed, then exclusion from God’s presence is mandated. Paul said “we all fall short of God’s glorious standard”. I always think of it as an examiner setting a pass mark for an exam, for example 70%. Those sitting the exam may find that they have all failed, with a range of marks varying between 20% and 50%. But it is no good for the one with 50% saying he is better than the one with 20% – they have both failed the test by failing to achieve the pass mark. “God’s glorious standard” is unachievable by sinful human beings.

Thankfully God has supplied a remedy so that we can achieve His standard. And it is all through His grace. Jesus was and is the only sinless human being. He is divine because He is the Son of God, part of the Trinity of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. But He was born to a human being, a young peasant girl called Mary, as part of God’s gracious rescue plan for mankind. Jesus became human so that He could sit the exam instead of us, and, being sinless, He achieved “God’s glorious standard” with 100%. 

For us pilgrims, we managed to stumble across this amazing truth. It may have been that someone had shared with us what Jesus did, and something within us responded to God’s grace. We may have picked up a Bible one day and discovered the truth for ourselves. We may have, in a moment of crisis, happened to walk past a church and entered there, finding the grace we needed at just the right time. But however it happened, there was a day when we believed in Jesus. 

Around us are many people who have not yet made that step of faith. They are still quite ignorantly making their way through life, blissfully unaware of what is coming towards them. They fail to realise that, by default, they have chosen a life separated from God because of their sin. So we pilgrims must take every opportunity to share the truth about Jesus with our friends and families. It may not make us very popular. In some countries it can lead to imprisonment and death. But share Jesus we must. We can’t keep this amazing truth to ourselves. It’s very simple – everyone, without exception, has sinned, and through His love for mankind, God has provided a remedy. That’s it!

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your grace and mercy. Every time You look at us You see Jesus and His righteousness. We don’t deserve Your mercy, but we’re grateful. Amen.