“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”
Romans 3:23 NLT
http://bible.com/116/rom.3.23.nlt
Have you ever done something that you wish you hadn’t done? I mean something that you look back at and you think, “That was really stupid!” We’ve all been there. We all make mistakes and we all do things that we know we shouldn’t. It’s called human frailty and we all deal with it.
Us not being perfect is not an excuse to not do what God has called us to do. We are to be every striving for that perfection even though we can’t attain it in this life. It is that press that keeps us moving forward. To settle for not being good enough is just not good enough.
Romans three clearly states that we all fall short of God‘s standard, but that is not the end goal for us. Our goal is not to fall short, but to press and try to get as close as we can. We do this by faith. Paul goes on to talk about obeying the law in Romans 3. We are not obeying the law to make ourselves right with God. That is the difference between Christianity and other religions.
We obey God because we are right with God. Not to try to earn some cool points with God. Other religions do works to try to earn their righteousness or to earn some type of reward. We obey God as Christians out of our gratitude for what God has done for us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Some go to extremes, while our One God teaches us balance. There some extremist who go extreme with the law, its tenants and everything that’s written in it. Then there are others who go to the opposite extreme and totally disregard the law and say all we need is faith. When you take it to the extreme degree neither is right. It is the balance that they need that brings all things together for our good.
It’s not one or the other. It’s both. It’s not faith without obeying the law. It’s not obeying the law without faith. It’s by faith that we obey the law. Because I have faith in God, I can fulfill His commandments. Now because His spirit lives on the inside of me, I not only have the letter of the law but I have the spirit of the law to show me the true intent of what God meant by the law.
Now I have a better understanding when I do fall short, when I do make mistakes or when I sin. I understand that God is not sitting there waiting for me to mess up so He can punish me. I understand that He is a gracious, loving and forgiving father and is always ready to receive me when I repent of my wrongs.
Now the goal is when I know better, I do better. I learned from the mistakes that I’ve made and I try to improve those areas in my life to glorify God. That’s not to say that I won’t stumble or fall. I make the same mistakes again but I know I can run back to the father whenever I fall short. And as I grow and develop, I’ll see something and I’ll know not to do certain things because God has shown me a better way.
That leads us to our Throwback Song of the Week. We’re going out west to Portland, OR to the founder of Humble Beast Records, Braille. It is from his 2006 album release “Box of Rhymes.” The track is entitled “I Wouldn’t Do It” and is a who’s who of CHH. The track is produced by Tunnel Rat producer Dert and featured Surreal, Big Rec, Sivion and Theory Hazit.
Tune into Trackstarz this week and hear DJ Jeremaya spin this for the Throwback Song of the Day. Check it out and let us know what you think. Until next time…
Peace and blessings,
Damo
