Rom. 3:23
10/2/16
I want to begin this morning by reading a familiar verse, Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”i There are two verbs in that phrase and this translation accurately translates the tense. The first verb is in the past tense.ii In the past you have sinned. The second verb is in the present tense “and fall short.” The Greek present tense is used here and indicates a continuous action. You and I, no matter how sincere we may be, are continuously falling short of the perfect glory of God. Paul wrote this epistle and includes himself in the statement, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
I personally don’t struggle much with my past sins. There’s nothing I can do about them. I have asked the Lord to forgive them; and I believe He has done that. It is behind me; and I’m not going to live looking back at that. It’s a haunting life to live in vain regrets concerning the past. May God help all of us put the past in His hands and move forward in life. The past sins is not my struggle.
What I struggle with is the second half of this phrase—the stuff in the present tense--“and fall short of the glory of God.” Does anyone here struggle with falling short in your present life? You intended to pray this morning. You knew that you should pray; and you wanted to pray. But some things came up. You got distracted. And what you intended to do, you did not do. You intended to never lose your temper again. But when that guy cut you off in traffic it just came out. Coming short of the perfection God has called me too! How will I deal with that?
What do you do when you can’t live up to your own expectations? You embrace the word of God. You agree with His standards; and you want to please Him in every way you can. Yet you come up short over and over again. In Romans 7 Paul describes a struggle that went on inside of him. On the one hand, in his inner man he wanted to do good. On the other hand, he found himself not always doing good. You may remember his cry in Rom 7:24 “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” He got an answer in Romans 8. But before we talk about that, I want us to understand a bit more about the struggle. Rom. 7:21-23 “I find then a law [principle], that evil is present with me [something in me is pulling me down], the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man [in the core of my being I not only accept God’s rules but I even delight in His ways]. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” So Paul describes a struggle that goes on in people between a desire to do good and a pull to do wrong. Some theologians say this is strictly talking about unsaved people. But verse 22 convinces me that it’s actually talking about Christians. Rom. 7:22 “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.” The new nature in a believer delights “in the law of God according to the inward man.” The inward man of an unbeliever is dead in trespasses and sins and does not delight in the law of God. However, this is not a believer walking in full victory; he is still trying to serve God out of his own strength. Romans 8 describes a Christian who walks not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Instead of serving God out of a legalistic mindset, he is allowing the influence of the Holy Spirit do its work; and he is bearing fruit of victory. It is God’s intent that we learn to walk in the Spirit and gain victory over the struggle. But who does that perfectly? I am growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ,iii but I have not arrived at a state of unflawed performance.
Paul wrote in Phil. 3:12-14 “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Even Paul was work in process. It’s ok to be work in process. The title of this message is: “It’s OK To Be Human.” Hopefully by the end of this message you will see that it is more than ok; it is a glorious thing to be God’s workmanship. Eph. 2:10 says that we are God’s poiema, Greek word translated “workmanship.” We get our English word poem from that Greek word. The creative works of God are going on in your life. You are one of His poems. He has a message to send through you. You are one of His masterpieces. But you are currently work in process. The Potter is molding you and shaping you;iv and sometimes the process gets real messy.
What do we do with this gap between what is and what ought to be?
First, let me first share with you a few things we must not do.
(1) We must not lower God’s standards to fit where we are. It might feel real comfortable to reshape the gospel to accommodate our dysfunctionality; but that is really madness. The law of God is perfect.v That doesn’t need to change to accommodate us. We need to change according to the standard God has designed. Many pulpits today lower the standard in the name of love. But it’s not love at all. It leaves the person in the mess that is robbing them. The standard of God’s word needs to be held up even if we are at times coming short of it. Paul said, “I press toward the goal…”—not there yet, but at least I know where I’m going.
What do we do with this contradiction in our lives between what is and what ought to be?
(2) We must not turn inward with self-loathing. “I hate myself. I hate myself.” The Devil inspires those words. You are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”vi You are a marvelous work of God. You’re just not finished yet. In Eph. 5: 29 Paul set forth a principle that we need to understand. He is teaching on the relationship of husband and wife; and, of course, from the beginning God said, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Gen 2:24). So this principle comes in the midst of Paul’s teaching on marriage. But I want you for the moment to just hear the principle itself. Eph. 5:29 “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it….” When a person feels hatred toward himself, his own body, his own being, something unnatural is happening. It is unnatural to hate your own flesh. That tells me that self-hatred is demonically inspired.vii There can be issues of pride involved. But a spirit is driving that person to self-loathing. It is unhealthy and it can be deadly. The person suffering from self-loathing needs to declare that Scripture: “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it….” Disagree with the Devil! Audibly declare, “I do not hate myself; I do not hate my own flesh; I am fearfully and wonderfully made by God Himself; I am His workmanship; and I will nourish and cherish my body as the temple of God.viii God loves me and I will love what God loves.”
Do not turn inward with self-loathing.ix Instead turn to God in humility and ask Him to work the changes that need to happen in you. Trust His workmanship.
(3) We must not try to make it happen by sheer willpower.
The frustration expressed in Romans 7 is what happens when we try to improve through our own tenacity. Trying harder through self-effort always leads to legalism, even if the intentions are all good. It produces a rigid, hard veneer that has lost its naturalness. It becomes a plastic rose that looks right on the surface, but does not have the fragrance of a rose.
What was the solution to the struggle in Romans 7? It was the life of Jesus imparted by the Holy Spirit. Rom 8:2-5 “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” What made him free? The life of Jesus operating in him! 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” It is the influence of the Holy Spirit that makes us better. The more influence He has on us, the more of the fruit of the Spirit is produced in our lives. It all happens through His influence. What we can do is choose to avail ourselves of that influence. We can choose what we will pursue. We can choose what we will set our minds on. “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”
In John 15:4 Jesus said, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
A branch gets its life from vine on an ongoing basis. The branch does not have life independent of the vine. We are dependent on the flow of life from the Lord every day. It’s our connection with the Lord that brings transformation in our lives. It’s drawing upon His influence. We get that in several ways. Often we get it through other believers. It might be a sermon like this. It might be a simple word of encouragement. Time together in worship brings strength because the Lord inhabits the praises of His people.x Of course, prayer time with the Lord is another way we abide in Christ and receive of His strength. Reading and meditating on the word of God facilitates our connection with the Lord as well.
It’s not by just trying harder; it’s by getting with Jesus!xi
What should we do about the disparity we see in our own behavior and I desire to do it 100% right.
(1) Recognize that you are work in process.
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected…” In 2 Cor. 4 Paul talked about the struggles he experienced in ministry—feeling the pressures, and persecution, and hardship from various directions—stoned, shipwrecked; at one time they even had to secretly let him down from a window in a basket so he could get away. It was a humbling experience. You might think this man full of the Holy Spirit could just say the word and knock his persecutors off their feet. But God doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes He
lets us feel the full weight of our own weakness. In fact, later in this book God says to Paul, “My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).
So Paul knows that being a human full of the Holy Spirit does not mean exemption from some painful, perhaps humbling, experiences. This is what he says in 2 Cor. 4:7 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.”
Here is the dichotomy we have to recognize. On the one hand, “we have this treasure.” We are partakers of the divine nature.xii The all-powerful Holy Spirit dwells within us. We are children of the Most High God. Regardless of what the world thinks, we are really something! God has deposited in us awesome wealth. On the other hand, we have this “in earthen vessels.” Your body is not yet glorified. Mortality has not yet put on immortality. You are God-breathed; but you are also made from the dust of the earth. It’s really a strange combination. But it serves God’s purposes perfectly.
No matter how much Paul prayed, no matter how spiritual he became, when the stones hit his body, it hurt. When the ship went down and he was in the Mediterranean Sea, it was cold. Serving God did not exempt him from the human experience. There were times when he shook the viper off in the fire unhurt.xiii But there were other times when he couldn’t get Trophimus healed and had to leave him at Miletum sick (2 Tim 4:20). There were times when he and Silas sang in the prison and the doors shook open.xiv There were other times when Paul simply sat in the prison writing his epistles.
Are your expectations of life realistic? I read a statement the other day that struck me as true. “Life is hard for most people, most of the time.” If you think it’s easy for everybody else except you, you’re going to be pretty upset. You may even have a “poor me” attitude and an entitlement mentality. We live in the richest nation on earth. We have more comforts and conveniences than we have time to enjoy. Billions of people are glad they got some clean water to drink and a little food. Millions are in war zones and abusive situations. Get a handle on life. It’s not supposed to be all peaches and cream. It wasn’t for Paul; and it probably won’t be for you. Paul wrote to Timothy and said “…endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. (2 Tim 2:3). We are being shaped and molded through the experiences of life. 1 Peter 4:12 “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.”
I read the account of a man who found a cocoon on a twig that had fallen beside the road. He loved butterflies so he decided to take it home and put it in a mason jar so he could watch it emerge as a butterfly. Sure enough a few days later he watched as the cocoon moved ever so slightly. After a while it was trembling with activity. But it remained tightly glued to the twig, and there was no sign of the wings.
Finally the shaking became so intense that the man thought it would die from the struggle. So he removed the lid on the jar, took a sharp knife, and carefully made a tiny slit in the side of the cocoon. Almost immediately one wing appeared and then the other. The butterfly was free. It walked along the edge of the mason jar, and then along the edge of the mantle. But it didn’t fly. At first the man thought the wings just needed time to dry. But time passed and the butterfly did not take off.
The man called a neighbor who taught high school science to see what he should do next. He told him the story of how he had found the cocoon and brought it home and the terrible trembling as the butterfly struggled to get out. He told him how he carefully made the small slit in the cocoon. At that point the neighbor stopped him and said, “That is the problem. The struggle is what gives the butterfly the strength to fly.”xv Your struggles, my struggles, Paul’s struggles are part of a process that prepares us for eternity.
What should we do about the disparity between the ideal and the reality in our lives?
(2) Keep pressing into God. Look at the Philippians passage again. Phil. 3:12-14 “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
You can give up or you can keep running the race with perseverance. You may take three steps forward and two back; but keep taking those three steps forward.xvi What other alternative do you really have? Jesus alone has the words of eternal life.xvii Whether you’re thriving or faltering, there is only one place to go. If you turn and go to something else for your solace, it will become a snare to you.
The Lord is not shocked when you fail. He saw it coming whether you did or not. He is able to walk you through the whole process if you will just keep coming to Him. You may not get there over night; but He’ll get you there.
Think about the patience of God with Abraham. Twice he lied about Sarah. Sarah lied to God; yet, the Lord fulfilled His promise in her life. David faltered in his walk with God. He suffered the consequences; and we always suffer the consequences of our disobedience. That is part of the learning process. It never pays to disobey God. Jesus did not reject Peter when he failed. God is merciful and full of compassion. He does not overlook sin. If you sin, you will wish you hadn’t; but God does not necessarily reject you for the failure either. Ps 103:13-14 “As a father pities his children, So the LORD pities those who fear Him. 14 For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.” Are you one of those “who fear Him”? You sincerely want to please Him. The Father’s mercy is there for you. Come to Him for grace and you will receive it.
It is ok to be human. It is ok to be work in process. It is ok to have not yet fully attained. It is not ok to turn away from God.xviii Keep coming to Him. Keep humbling yourself before Him. Keep growing and maturing.
(3) Keep your eye on the goal. “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith….” (Heb 12:2).
There is a purpose in all of this. There is a destiny for the child of God.
1 John 3:2 “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” We have not yet entered into the fullness of our salvation. Our bodies have not yet been glorified. There is a certain “now” aspect of our salvation. Your spirit has been joined to the Holy Spirit and has already been made perfect. Your soul is being sanctified and renewed day by day. And one day your body will be glorified. We are now the children of God. It’s not
something we hope will happen someday. If you have been born again, you are a child of God. But we have this treasure in earth vessels right now. One day the vessel will be transformed. Someday the trump of God will sound, maybe at a time like this during the Feast of Trumpets. Our mortality will take on immortality. Our bodies too will be transformed and our salvation will be complete.
I may not look like much right now, but wait until you see God’s finished product. You may look in the mirror and find all kinds of flaws in your body and perhaps in your soul as well. But God is not finished with you yet. “…remember,” C.S. Lewis wrote, “that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship….”xix “…it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him….”
Reading from The Message translation, 1 John 3:1 “What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called the children of God! That’s who we really are. But that’s also why the world doesn’t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he’s up to.”
Is it ok to be human? It is more than ok. As a human, you were created in the image of God.xx You were designed to reflect His glory. Sin has interfered with that intent. But God has the perfect remedy for that problem: the blood of Jesus Christ.xxi God has a place for you in His eternal plan that nobody else can fill. He is molding you and shaping you for that place. His destiny for you is glory, not shame. His destiny for you is victory, not defeat. His destiny for you is to be with Him forever and ever in glory.
Invitation
END NOTES:
i All Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
ii Rom 3:23 Aorist tense: "sinned," looking back to a thing definitely past-the historic occurrence of sin.
(from Vincent's Word Studies in the New Testament, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft).
iii 2 Peter 3:18; 1 Peter 2:1-2
iv Jeremiah 18 uses this analogy in relation to God’s work with the nation of Israel. Also see Rom. 8:29 and 1 Peter 1:6-9.
v Psalm 19:7-8; James 1:25; 2 Timothy 3:17-18.
vi Psalm 139:14
vii The man in Mark 5:5 was cutting himself, destroying his own flesh, rather than nourishing it.
viii 1 Cor. 6:19
ix Introspection done under the supervision of a loving God (Ps 139:23-24) can be productive, as God points out specific changes to be made. But introspection under the influence of an accusing devil can be very destructive. The devil’s accusations tend to produce a generalized sense of condemnation and self-rejection.
x Psalm 22:3
xi 2 Cor. 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
xii 2 Peter 1:3-4
xiii Acts 28:3-5
xiv Acts 16:25-26
xv “Struggles,” Stories for the Heart, compiled by Alan Gray (Sisters Oregon: Multnomah Books, 1996) pp. 207-208.
xvi Chuck Swindoll actually wrote a book entitled Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back: Persevering Through Pressure.
xvii John 6:68
xviii Hebrews 10:23-27, 35-39.
xix The Weight of Glory
xx Genesis 1:26-27
xxi 1 John 1:6-8 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
