Getting Right with God

“…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.”
(Romans 3:23-24)

Sin is described in the Bible as disobedience of the law
of God (See 1 John 3:4), and rebellion against God. (See Deuteronomy 9:7;
Joshua 1:18) Sin had its beginning with
Lucifer (The Devil or Satan). Not
satisfied with his position, he desired to be higher than God (Pride), and that
was his ruin, and the beginning of sin. (See Isaiah 14:12-15) He brought sin to the human race in the
Garden of Eden, where he tempted Adam and Eve with the same offer, “you
shall be like God.” Genesis 3
describes Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God and against His command. Since that time, sin has been passed down
through all the generations of mankind and we, Adam’s descendants, have
inherited sin from him. (See Romans 5:12) And scripture warns us that, “the wages of
sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)

Everyone understands that humans are imperfect. Even if one doesn’t accept the Christian
doctrine of man’s depravity (sinfulness), a popular cultural saying is “We’re
only human.” It’s an admission that
people are flawed. But as believers we
should understand that this sentiment springs from the reality of sin in every
human’s life. Without “the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus” we can live our life no other way but in sin.
(Romans 14:23) And so we live our life in
a manner that leaves us “short of the glory of God.”

But the good news is that Paul didn’t stop at verse
twenty-three! We are raised from a place
of condemnation to a place of acceptance. It is as if we were on the stand during a trial
and everyone knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we were guilty. But an amazing thing occurred, and rather than
send us to pay the penalty for our crime, the Judge’s son took our place, and
we were declared justified. That is the
beauty of the cross, that the just would take the place of the unjust. (See 1
Peter 3:18) Receive your redemption
through Jesus today and let His kindness lead you to repentance. (See Romans
2:4)