For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
All without exception have sinned by breaking God's righteous law of love, and stand guilty, polluted, and without any righteousness of their own. To come short is to fail to reach God's standard of glory and His moral image, which no comparing with others or trusting in one's own righteousness can satisfy. Apart from redemption all stand doomed to death, which is why Christ came as humanity's substitute and surety, bore the guilt of all, and gave His life that sinners might live and return to God. Sinners are justified freely by grace through living faith in His blood and merits, receiving Christ's imputed righteousness as a free gift, which establishes rather than voids the law. They must come just as they are with repentance and confession, and to those who receive Him He gives pardon, cleansing, and power to partake of the divine nature, overcome sin, and obey.
All Have Sinned
There is no difference among people, for the whole human family without exception has sinned and shares the same fallen condition and failure to reach the glory of God. Comparing one person with another or with one's own standard cannot show that God's claims are met, for the question in judgment is whether hearts are in harmony with God, and no one by self-righteousness or by self can attain the divine standard. Sin is transgression of God's righteous law, whose full duty is love to God and love to neighbor, and no one does good perfectly. By breaking that righteous law humanity has brought discord into God's government, and through Satan's temptation and deception the whole race has been overcome and become guilty.
God's law acts as a mirror revealing defects of moral character, and as a shining standard by which all are shown guilty, with no one free from defects of character. It exposes and condemns all as transgressors yet provides in itself no way of escape from sin's penalty, so pardon and strength to obey the perfect law cannot come by one's own strength and righteousness but only through faith trusting wholly in the merits of the promised Saviour. Every sinner has no righteousness of his own, and has nothing of his own except what is tainted and corrupted, polluted with sin and utterly repulsive to a pure and holy God. Even working to his very best ability he cannot produce a single virtue in himself, and all are wholly unworthy.
All humanity is frail and sinful, and those who live nearest to Jesus and walk in the shadow of Calvary's cross discern this most clearly. This leaves no room for self-exaltation or any boastful claim to freedom from sin, for the thought that personal sin caused the agony that broke the heart of the Son of God leads to self-abasement with the only hope in the merit of a crucified and risen Saviour.
Come Short of Glory
To come short is to fail to reach God's standard of glory, for every person has sinned and fallen short of what God claims. Comparing ourselves with other people or meeting our own standard cannot establish that we meet those claims, and human standards, our own righteousness and self-righteousness cannot satisfy God's requirements. Sin is transgression of God's law, whose full duty is love to God and neighbor, which no one keeps perfectly in doing good. The judgment asks whether hearts are in harmony with God, and people cannot attain the divine standard by themselves or keep God's law by their own righteousness.
Coming short of the glory of God is a result to be feared. It means living without the light, truth, rich grace, divine power and Holy Spirit God has promised. Without these a person cannot glorify God with soul and body and spirit.
Sin has brought humanity short of God's glory and of His moral image, so redemption is needed to restore sinners to that image.
Those who have transgressed and fallen short will recognize it plainly in the judgment, when the cross reveals the true bearing of their choices. Then excuses will fail, and those who rejected truth will understand that their sin and rejection led to their condemnation. Failing to reach God's glory is the condition of those who do not believe present truth and live out its sanctifying influence, accept Christ as their only Saviour and rely on Him. Their lives can glorify God when they serve Him together as faithful soldiers of Christ.
Christ Came to Save
Because all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory, Christ came as humanity's substitute and surety and entered the conflict on its behalf against Satan. Having taken human nature, He met the enemy's deception that had overcome the whole human family, and Satan hoped that He too would fall to temptation.
Apart from the plan of redemption every human stands doomed to death under God's sentence that the sinning soul shall die. Christ gave His life and died so that sinners might live and be saved from that death sentence. The only means of deliverance is the Son of God's self-sacrifice, condescension and love, for He alone fought the great adversary, and His sacrifice as substitute and surety opens the way back to God and gives power to become victors through His merits and to obey the Father's law by His grace.
The guilt of the sins of all men is charged to Christ's account, and His own righteousness is imputed to man. There is a Saviour who can take away sin because in Him is no sin.
Justified Freely by Faith
No one is justified by deeds of the law, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Human works cannot reduce guilt or escape punishment, and seeking salvation through self-denial and penance brings no peace. Diligent efforts to become holy cannot earn God's favor, free anyone from sin's condemnation, or break its power, for grace is a free gift that cannot be bought.
The righteousness of God apart from the law, witnessed by the law and the prophets, comes by faith of Jesus Christ to all and upon all who believe. Sinners are justified freely by grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare righteousness for the remission of past sins. Salvation comes only by living faith laying hold wholly and entirely on the merits of the blood of the crucified and risen Saviour and on the righteousness of Christ as the only cleansing from sins and transgressions. People cannot obey the perfect law or obtain pardon by their own strength and righteousness, but receive pardon and strength to obey only through faith trusting wholly in the merits of the promised Saviour.
The righteousness of Christ is imputed to every repenting, believing sinner, and Christ's own righteousness is imputed to man. This gift is freely given to all that believe, showing God's love, and Christ gives His love and righteousness to the unworthy, though all are wholly unworthy. Imputed righteousness through justifying faith does not make the law void but establishes the law. It in no case does away with the law or detracts from its dignity but places the law where correct light shines upon and glorifies it through light reflected from the cross of Calvary, and the law is complete and full in the great plan of salvation only as presented in the light shining from the crucified and risen Saviour, which can be only spiritually discerned.
The verse means Christ was crucified for sins, rose from the dead and ascended to be Advocate and Intercessor before God. Closely connected is the office work of the Holy Spirit as Christ's representative sent forth with divine power and gifts for men. Beholding this kindles ardent faith, hope and joy that Christ is his righteousness, a joy belonging only to those who love and keep the words of Jesus, which are the words of God. The righteousness of Christ held out as a free gift to be accepted is the only means by which a person can come near to God, for every sinner has nothing of his own except what is tainted and corrupted, polluted with sin and utterly repulsive to a pure and holy God. It is a precious, great and glorious truth, full and abundant for each person, and its proclamation is the message for this time, bringing courage and hope to hungry souls in ignorance of it.
Receiving and Living the Gift
God draws every sinner who has not passed the boundary, and Christ's invitation carries no prior conditions to be met before coming. No one must first erase his own sins or become sufficiently repentant, and no one should remain faithless or trust in fasting or any act performed. The sinner must come to the Saviour just as he is, look to the crucified Redeemer, exercise faith in His word, confess sins, and claim His saving grace and the sacrifice made in his behalf. As the sinner views Christ lifted on the cross he sees that he is a sinner because the law has been transgressed and that Christ died because the law was transgressed. Forgiveness cannot be received without first feeling to be a sinner and realizing the sinfulness of sin, and this universal guilt calls for repentance toward God.
Sincere repentance brings the sense that without the pardoning blood of Christ all must perish. Sinners cannot rely on personal goodness, morality, or righteousness for acceptance with God, for personal righteousness cannot recommend anyone to Him. They need a new nature and purpose which Christ alone can give, and their only hope is to come to Jesus with repentance and rely on the sufficient merits of His blood. Casting the self in wretchedness wholly upon Christ's mercy, yielding up own will and way and pleading for Jesus to control will and actions, surrendering wholly to His mercy, brings into the position where pardon through His sufferings and death can be received, appreciated, and valued.
To those who receive Him He gives power to separate from sin and return to loyalty to God, to become partakers of the divine nature, to overcome corruption, and to become victors through His merits. Clothed with Christ's righteousness the sinner receives imparted power and strength so he does not want to sin, hates the sins that caused the Son of God's suffering because they were transgressions of God's law, and works the works of righteousness with Christ working with him and by him, though he may still make mistakes and errors. Pardon and strength to obey come only through faith trusting wholly in the merits of the promised Saviour, and Christ's grace enables obedience to the Father's law. Coming in this way brings forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness, pardon, peace and joy, courage, hope and assurance of God's love, harmony, and full and complete salvation with everlasting life, passing from death to life and not coming into condemnation. Without receiving Him and without reliance on His righteousness a person remains where he must be condemned and punished and is lost, for seeking salvation through self-denial and penance brings no peace while faith in the crucified Christ brings peace and joy.
The verse is given to reveal the need for Christ as a personal Saviour for each fallen person, so no one should give way to fear or remain unhappy. Each should commit the keeping of the soul to Christ, believe himself His little child, be joyful in God, and speak cheerful, hopeful words until that becomes familiar language. Only by coming to Christ can poor, erring human beings with many difficulties and problems find peace, happiness, and help, for there is a Saviour who can take away sin because in Him is no sin. Avoiding coming short, which is to be feared as living without the light, truth, rich grace, divine power, and Holy Spirit God has promised, requires complying with Christ's plain conditions, obeying God, believing without doubting, laying hold on His promises, fleeing to the stronghold in every emergency, and asking, waiting, and receiving in earnest, persevering, whole-hearted faith, which gives assurance and rejoicing in hope.
Because every person fails to reach God's glory, no one has time or right to fill the mouth with arguments to prove another is doing wrong or to point out defects in brothers and sisters. Accusing is Satan's own work and must be left to him, not aided by believers. Instead each must begin work close at home and not become church tinkers, engaging in decided reformation to be purified and made white, having individual powers elevated, purified, and sanctified until the moral taste is changed and self no longer spoils influence, cherishing all talents as a precious entrusted gift to meet the highest standard and making every effort to bring other minds under the power of truth. Receiving and acting on this light brings the conversion of souls by the wisdom and power of God, bringing them back to loyalty to Christ. Those who receive it and carry this message must also practice its truth and display Christ's pure character, making Christ crucified, Christ risen, and Christ interceding their themes in teaching, with the office work of the Holy Spirit as Christ's representative sent forth with divine power and gifts for men closely connected.
All without exception have sinned by breaking God's righteous law of love, and stand guilty, polluted, and without any righteousness of their own. To come short is to fail to reach God's standard of glory and His moral image, which no comparing with others or trusting in one's own righteousness can satisfy. Apart from redemption all stand doomed to death, which is why Christ came as humanity's substitute and surety, bore the guilt of all, and gave His life that sinners might live and return to God. Sinners are justified freely by grace through living faith in His blood and merits, receiving Christ's imputed righteousness as a free gift, which establishes rather than voids the law. They must come just as they are with repentance and confession, and to those who receive Him He gives pardon, cleansing, and power to partake of the divine nature, overcome sin, and obey.
All Have Sinned
There is no difference among people, for the whole human family without exception has sinned and shares the same fallen condition and failure to reach the glory of God. Comparing one person with another or with one's own standard cannot show that God's claims are met, for the question in judgment is whether hearts are in harmony with God, and no one by self-righteousness or by self can attain the divine standard. Sin is transgression of God's righteous law, whose full duty is love to God and love to neighbor, and no one does good perfectly. By breaking that righteous law humanity has brought discord into God's government, and through Satan's temptation and deception the whole race has been overcome and become guilty.
God's law acts as a mirror revealing defects of moral character, and as a shining standard by which all are shown guilty, with no one free from defects of character. It exposes and condemns all as transgressors yet provides in itself no way of escape from sin's penalty, so pardon and strength to obey the perfect law cannot come by one's own strength and righteousness but only through faith trusting wholly in the merits of the promised Saviour. Every sinner has no righteousness of his own, and has nothing of his own except what is tainted and corrupted, polluted with sin and utterly repulsive to a pure and holy God. Even working to his very best ability he cannot produce a single virtue in himself, and all are wholly unworthy.
All humanity is frail and sinful, and those who live nearest to Jesus and walk in the shadow of Calvary's cross discern this most clearly. This leaves no room for self-exaltation or any boastful claim to freedom from sin, for the thought that personal sin caused the agony that broke the heart of the Son of God leads to self-abasement with the only hope in the merit of a crucified and risen Saviour.
Come Short of Glory
To come short is to fail to reach God's standard of glory, for every person has sinned and fallen short of what God claims. Comparing ourselves with other people or meeting our own standard cannot establish that we meet those claims, and human standards, our own righteousness and self-righteousness cannot satisfy God's requirements. Sin is transgression of God's law, whose full duty is love to God and neighbor, which no one keeps perfectly in doing good. The judgment asks whether hearts are in harmony with God, and people cannot attain the divine standard by themselves or keep God's law by their own righteousness.
Coming short of the glory of God is a result to be feared. It means living without the light, truth, rich grace, divine power and Holy Spirit God has promised. Without these a person cannot glorify God with soul and body and spirit.
Sin has brought humanity short of God's glory and of His moral image, so redemption is needed to restore sinners to that image.
Those who have transgressed and fallen short will recognize it plainly in the judgment, when the cross reveals the true bearing of their choices. Then excuses will fail, and those who rejected truth will understand that their sin and rejection led to their condemnation. Failing to reach God's glory is the condition of those who do not believe present truth and live out its sanctifying influence, accept Christ as their only Saviour and rely on Him. Their lives can glorify God when they serve Him together as faithful soldiers of Christ.
Christ Came to Save
Because all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory, Christ came as humanity's substitute and surety and entered the conflict on its behalf against Satan. Having taken human nature, He met the enemy's deception that had overcome the whole human family, and Satan hoped that He too would fall to temptation.
Apart from the plan of redemption every human stands doomed to death under God's sentence that the sinning soul shall die. Christ gave His life and died so that sinners might live and be saved from that death sentence. The only means of deliverance is the Son of God's self-sacrifice, condescension and love, for He alone fought the great adversary, and His sacrifice as substitute and surety opens the way back to God and gives power to become victors through His merits and to obey the Father's law by His grace.
The guilt of the sins of all men is charged to Christ's account, and His own righteousness is imputed to man. There is a Saviour who can take away sin because in Him is no sin.
Justified Freely by Faith
No one is justified by deeds of the law, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Human works cannot reduce guilt or escape punishment, and seeking salvation through self-denial and penance brings no peace. Diligent efforts to become holy cannot earn God's favor, free anyone from sin's condemnation, or break its power, for grace is a free gift that cannot be bought.
The righteousness of God apart from the law, witnessed by the law and the prophets, comes by faith of Jesus Christ to all and upon all who believe. Sinners are justified freely by grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare righteousness for the remission of past sins. Salvation comes only by living faith laying hold wholly and entirely on the merits of the blood of the crucified and risen Saviour and on the righteousness of Christ as the only cleansing from sins and transgressions. People cannot obey the perfect law or obtain pardon by their own strength and righteousness, but receive pardon and strength to obey only through faith trusting wholly in the merits of the promised Saviour.
The righteousness of Christ is imputed to every repenting, believing sinner, and Christ's own righteousness is imputed to man. This gift is freely given to all that believe, showing God's love, and Christ gives His love and righteousness to the unworthy, though all are wholly unworthy. Imputed righteousness through justifying faith does not make the law void but establishes the law. It in no case does away with the law or detracts from its dignity but places the law where correct light shines upon and glorifies it through light reflected from the cross of Calvary, and the law is complete and full in the great plan of salvation only as presented in the light shining from the crucified and risen Saviour, which can be only spiritually discerned.
The verse means Christ was crucified for sins, rose from the dead and ascended to be Advocate and Intercessor before God. Closely connected is the office work of the Holy Spirit as Christ's representative sent forth with divine power and gifts for men. Beholding this kindles ardent faith, hope and joy that Christ is his righteousness, a joy belonging only to those who love and keep the words of Jesus, which are the words of God. The righteousness of Christ held out as a free gift to be accepted is the only means by which a person can come near to God, for every sinner has nothing of his own except what is tainted and corrupted, polluted with sin and utterly repulsive to a pure and holy God. It is a precious, great and glorious truth, full and abundant for each person, and its proclamation is the message for this time, bringing courage and hope to hungry souls in ignorance of it.
Receiving and Living the Gift
God draws every sinner who has not passed the boundary, and Christ's invitation carries no prior conditions to be met before coming. No one must first erase his own sins or become sufficiently repentant, and no one should remain faithless or trust in fasting or any act performed. The sinner must come to the Saviour just as he is, look to the crucified Redeemer, exercise faith in His word, confess sins, and claim His saving grace and the sacrifice made in his behalf. As the sinner views Christ lifted on the cross he sees that he is a sinner because the law has been transgressed and that Christ died because the law was transgressed. Forgiveness cannot be received without first feeling to be a sinner and realizing the sinfulness of sin, and this universal guilt calls for repentance toward God.
Sincere repentance brings the sense that without the pardoning blood of Christ all must perish. Sinners cannot rely on personal goodness, morality, or righteousness for acceptance with God, for personal righteousness cannot recommend anyone to Him. They need a new nature and purpose which Christ alone can give, and their only hope is to come to Jesus with repentance and rely on the sufficient merits of His blood. Casting the self in wretchedness wholly upon Christ's mercy, yielding up own will and way and pleading for Jesus to control will and actions, surrendering wholly to His mercy, brings into the position where pardon through His sufferings and death can be received, appreciated, and valued.
To those who receive Him He gives power to separate from sin and return to loyalty to God, to become partakers of the divine nature, to overcome corruption, and to become victors through His merits. Clothed with Christ's righteousness the sinner receives imparted power and strength so he does not want to sin, hates the sins that caused the Son of God's suffering because they were transgressions of God's law, and works the works of righteousness with Christ working with him and by him, though he may still make mistakes and errors. Pardon and strength to obey come only through faith trusting wholly in the merits of the promised Saviour, and Christ's grace enables obedience to the Father's law. Coming in this way brings forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness, pardon, peace and joy, courage, hope and assurance of God's love, harmony, and full and complete salvation with everlasting life, passing from death to life and not coming into condemnation. Without receiving Him and without reliance on His righteousness a person remains where he must be condemned and punished and is lost, for seeking salvation through self-denial and penance brings no peace while faith in the crucified Christ brings peace and joy.
The verse is given to reveal the need for Christ as a personal Saviour for each fallen person, so no one should give way to fear or remain unhappy. Each should commit the keeping of the soul to Christ, believe himself His little child, be joyful in God, and speak cheerful, hopeful words until that becomes familiar language. Only by coming to Christ can poor, erring human beings with many difficulties and problems find peace, happiness, and help, for there is a Saviour who can take away sin because in Him is no sin. Avoiding coming short, which is to be feared as living without the light, truth, rich grace, divine power, and Holy Spirit God has promised, requires complying with Christ's plain conditions, obeying God, believing without doubting, laying hold on His promises, fleeing to the stronghold in every emergency, and asking, waiting, and receiving in earnest, persevering, whole-hearted faith, which gives assurance and rejoicing in hope.
Because every person fails to reach God's glory, no one has time or right to fill the mouth with arguments to prove another is doing wrong or to point out defects in brothers and sisters. Accusing is Satan's own work and must be left to him, not aided by believers. Instead each must begin work close at home and not become church tinkers, engaging in decided reformation to be purified and made white, having individual powers elevated, purified, and sanctified until the moral taste is changed and self no longer spoils influence, cherishing all talents as a precious entrusted gift to meet the highest standard and making every effort to bring other minds under the power of truth. Receiving and acting on this light brings the conversion of souls by the wisdom and power of God, bringing them back to loyalty to Christ. Those who receive it and carry this message must also practice its truth and display Christ's pure character, making Christ crucified, Christ risen, and Christ interceding their themes in teaching, with the office work of the Holy Spirit as Christ's representative sent forth with divine power and gifts for men closely connected.