All Have Sinned
But your sins have separated you from your God. . .
Isaiah 59:2
Today's Bible Reading: Romans 3:21-26.
Many people still cling to the notion that man is naturally good. We did not get this from the Greeks. Aristotle said, “There is no good in mankind.” We did not get it from Judaism. Jeremiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
We did not get it from Christian teachings. The Apostle Paul said, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We got this illusion, I believe, from the philosophers and psychologists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who taught the false doctrine that man is a helpless victim of his environment.
The Bible says that man is not naturally good. All human experience confirms it. Man is rebellious by nature. This first rebellion in history happened in the Garden of Eden, where the environment was perfect and there was no heredity on which to blame it!
For salvation, we need to get right with God. Being right with God is a matter of your response to what God has done on your behalf. He sent the Saviour, He provided the sacrifice to take away your sin (John 1:29), and He offers you the promise: “ Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21).
It is only trusting in Christ that can save you from the consequences of sin.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, when I am taken up by the idea that my deeds are so noble and good, help me to remember that it is not by works that I am saved, but by the precious work of Your Son, the Lord Jesus on the cross for me. Amen.
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