Fall Short

Romans 3:23 Recapturing a delight in God’s Glory

Paul now gives the reason why this righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ is necessary (Pett) Thus we need to examine several questions: what is the Glory of God? How does one fall short of God’s glory? Who is affected by this? And what can be done to change this?

Condition of Man have sinned and fall short of

Sin originated with Satan Is 14:12-14, entered the world through Adam Rom 5:12, was, and is, universal, Christ alone exempted Rom 3:23; 1 Pet 2:22, incurs the penalties of spiritual and physical death; Gen 2:17; 3:19; Ezek 18:4; 18:20; Rom 6:23 and has no remedy but in the sacrificial death of Christ; Heb 9:26; Acts 4:12 and is availed of by faith Acts 13:38; 39. Sin may be summarized as threefold: An act, the violation of, or lack of obedience to the revealed will of God; a state, absence of righteousness; a nature, enmity toward God. (Godet).

Terms- Two Greek terms are used here to express our sinful condition; 1) have sinned Gk hamartia, translated sinned. Greeks used this term to describe warriors who cast spears but missed the targets. It was used of people who forgot to turn on a road or "missed their turn." In the most basic terms, this word meant to miss the mark , and it was used when speaking about breaking God's laws. It is failing to attain an end, it gives the idea of missing the divinely appointed goal, a deviation from what is pleasing to God, doing what is opposed to God's will, a perversion of what is upright, or a misdeed. (Price) 2) falling short Gk hustereo which means falling short of, failing, or lacking. Here it means, that they had failed to obtain, or were destitute of. (Barnes) It is not just falling short, but lacking the very means to attain it. The failing to obtain that glory which God originally designed for man. God originally designed man for a glorious immortality. But by sin he fell short of that glory; he forfeited and lost it. (Cooper) So, as a consequence of sin hamartia, they have come short of the glory of God. They have come short, as in running a race, having now lost all strength ( Rom 5:6) and ability in themselves to glorify God, and attain to the possession and enjoyment of His glory. (Haldene) We “have sinned” and are unrighteous, thus we lack the necessary righteousness to glorify God and so we “fall short” of the ability to glorify Him and thus need the righteousness of God through Christ to enable us to glorify him.

Tense In the Greek the tense of these two words is essential to understand their meaning. The first, hamartia -have sinned, is in the aorist tense describing something done in the past once forever, but whose effects continue into the present. It is a past action that affects us now. The past action was the sin of Adam. Adam was the head of the human race. Adam was God’s chosen representative for all mankind. All human beings were represented in Adam. He was appointed to act on the behalf of all mankind. When Adam sinned, God counted us guilty as well as Adam. God counted Adam’s sin as belonging to us and thus Adam’s guilt belong to

us. It was imputed to us or put on our account. We inherit the guilt of Adam’s sin and the sin principle (sin nature) entered into the human stream. And just like Adam passed on to his posterity their physical features, he passed on the inherited corrupting sin nature (Rom 5:12). This is the general character of all mankind; all have sinned in Adam, are guilty by his sin, polluted with it, and condemned for it; all are sinners in themselves, and by their own actual transgressions; this is the case of the whole world, and of all the men in (Gill).

The second term, hustereo fall short is in the present tense. It something that continues in the present. (Jones). It is falling short of the Glory of God and continuing to do so. It can be translated “keeps on falling short”. From the past tense, have sinned, flows this present, come short, the former is a thing done [past], and the latter is a thing now established and continuing (present) (Bengel) The difference in tenses tells us that accountable people do not live perfect lives. Before conversion and even after conversion, the best people still transgress God's law. No Christian has or will fully overcome sin since Paul said Christians continually fall short. (Price)

Commonality of man All Sin is universal “all” is inclusive of everyone. There is no one exempt. So, there is no difference between righteous Abel and wicked Cain? between impenitent Saul and contrite David? Are they all equally guilty before God?” In one sense all these persons are not alike. They have not all sinned in the same manner, in the same measure, to the same degree. Here there is a wide difference between them. But in the sense spoken of in the text they are all alike. They have all sinned; and here there is no difference. Though they may not be equally guilty, yet they are all guilty before God. (Barnes). As there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles with respect to their character as sinners, so there is no difference with respect to them as to the receiving of God’s righteousness — no difference either as to sin or salvation — all of them are guilty, and salvation through faith is proclaimed to them all. ‘Before men receive this righteousness, they are all under the curse of the broken law, and in a state of condemnation. Whatever distinction there may be among them otherwise, whether moral in their conduct, good and useful members of society, or whether they are immoral in their lives, entirely engaging to every vice, — they all stand equally in need of this righteousness — it is equally preached to them all — it is in the same manner bestowed upon all who believe. The reason of this is, that all have sinned — all, without one exception.

Character of God – Glory of God The Glory of God is the splendor or brightness that surrounds his presence. It is the visible manifestation of the excellence of His character. It is the expression of the greatness of his being and the perfection of all his attributes.(Grudem).It is what Moses wanted to see of God (Ex 33:18). God created the universe and man to display his Glory (Is 43:7). The reason we exist and everything else is to display the greatness of the perfections of God. The universe is all about God. The reason there is so much dysfunction and misery in the world is because the world is in rebellion against the purpose of the world. It shouldn’t surprise us that, if the world was designed by God to display his glory, and the human race is intent on glorifying everything but God (Piper) So the chief end (or purpose) of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. God is to receive the glory to which He is entitled. He requires that all His creatures shall glorify Him. He has created them for His glory; and when they fulfil the purpose for which He created them, then they do glorify Him. Thus “the heavens declare the glory of God (Ps 19:1).” What, then, was the end and purpose for which man was made? To Glorify God by loving, obeying, and serving him as our Maker. (E. Cooper.) To Glorify God is to live a life that exemplifies and expresses the character and attributes of God. It is living in conformity to his word and his will (John 15:8). Adam was created in the perfect image of God that he might display the glory of God. Everything about him was perfect. He perfectly expressed the character and all the communicable attributes of God: perfect love, perfect patience, perfect holiness, perfect faithfulness, perfect goodness, perfect happiness, perfect truthfulness and more. But in the fall the image of God was marred and the ability to Glorify God was destroyed, and this distorted image and destroyed ability to Glorify God spread to all humanity. Jesus was also created perfect (Luke 1:35) He glorified God by perfectly obeying Him (John 17:4, 2 Cor 5:21). He exemplified and expressed perfectly the Glory of God. He fully and faithfully displayed God’s glory (John 1:14, 17:4-5, Heb 1:3). He perfectly imaged God (Col 1:15, 2 Cor 4:4) Unlike Adam, he did not fall or fail to Glorify God in all that he did. He was and is the righteousness of God and the one that we must turn to restore our right standing with God and enable us to glorify God. The word “glory” ( δόξα doxa) is often used in the sense of praise, or approval John 5:41, 5:44; 7:18; 8:50, 8:54; 12:43. (Barnes) It is God’s approval or praise (Gk doxa), which man has forfeited (Stott). Mankind is falling short of the praise and approval of God. The Jews had sought to be justified, or approved, by God; but all had failed. Their works of the Law had not secured his approval; and they were therefore under condemnation. It is to be unworthy of any praise from God by coming short of that which is indeed God’s glory--His perfect image and likeness, It is coming short of the honor or approval which God bestows. (Vincent) So what does it mean to fall short of the Glory of God? It is two fold 1) It is a failure to accomplish the purpose of our Creation, to display God’s glory and 2) a failure to receive praise and approval of our Creator, the delight of God. When we live a life that selfish, self-gratifying, self-seeking and self-glorifying we do not display the God’s Glory, rather we portray ourselves and our own delights and desires. We display our own image rather than the image of God. People do not see Jesus in us, but ourselves and the world. The picture we have is that all have sinned and that sin is essentially rejection of God and his glory as the supreme value of our lives. Sin considers God and his glory, and instead of loving God’s glory and treasuring God’s glory, sin exchanges God’s glory for something else. (Rom1:23, “(they) exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image.”) That is what sin is. Sin has to do with God, mainly. It is not mainly hurting people, though it does hurt people. Mainly, it is dishonoring God. It is belittling his glory — by not trusting him and not treasuring him and not wanting him as the foundation and center of our lives. All have sinned and are exchanging and, therefore, lacking the glory of God and, therefore, dishonoring the glory of God. Now that is a great guilt. All have sinned and are lacking the glory of God. We have traded it away. We have loved other things more. And so we have treated God and his glory with indifference and periodic, weekend, lukewarm attention. What is it that might treasure, value or love more than God and his glory? That is sin! There is, therefore, a massive problem for every one of us: How shall we get right with God, and be saved from this God-dishonoring condition of sin? How shall we ever be accepted in eternity by God when all of us have scorned his infinite worth so deeply by treating him as if he had less worth than a weekend hobby? (Piper) So, we need to reevaluate the purpose for which we were created, that is to display the Glory of God. As believers, as new creations God has restored our ability and capability to Glorify him (Rom 3:24-25). So we need to get refocused and re-centered, placing our relationship with Christ as the central passion and pursuit of our life. When we are off centered in life, in relationship and even what we pursue to find fulfilment and happiness we fall short of the Glory of God, we don’t display God. Falling short of the glory of God is not only not only a failure to display God’s glory, but a failure to receive God’s praise or approval. The glory of God means the approval of God, as in John 12:43, where it is said, that “they loved the praise (glory) of men more than the praise (glory0 of God.” And thus he summons us from the applause of men to the applause of heaven. (Calvin) Because we are continually falling short of the glory of God, we must daily evaluate our life. (Ps 139:23-24, Lam 3:40) Are we pleasing God in all that we say and do? Does God “approve” of the life we are now living? Do others see God’s Glory manifest in our life? Are we more concerned about what people think about us and don’t care what God thinks about us? Is being “liked” by our friends more important than being “liked” or approved by God? Do you make compromises and concessions to gain the approval of others, but give no regard to and “fall short” of God’s approval? Are we living a double life hiding our secret sins with no desire to turn from them and please God, but all the while putting on an air of godliness among our Christian friends? Are we seeking to please ourselves or our friends, but do not care whether we please God? Let our aim be to display the glory of God to receive his delight. To seek to gain his approval in all that we do. Let it be that whatever we do that we do it for the Glory of God to gain his praise over the praise of men. (1 Cor 10:31).