If you are a pastor or lay person who wants to use this to preach in church – that is why I posted it. I don’t care about credit, I only care that God’s word is preached and Christ is glorified. I pray He uses this sermon in a mighty way through you. You have my permission to alter it (which you’ll have to do by either omitting some of mine and adding some of your own illustrations) and use it however God leads you. God bless you in your ministry. You can bookmark this to check out the other free written sermons on my blog.
Romans 3:23 – “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”
Sin – heard it translated “miss the mark”
I remember going to Florida after 9/11. We went in November. My dad thought we were crazy. I remember seeing armed men with machine guns watching the lines at the Kennedy Space Center. No doubt, watching people, categorizing them. A white man and woman with 2 kids, probably not drawing much suspicion. If I were of middle eastern descent, probably would not have been the best time to go to the space center.
Sometimes we find it way too easy to categorize people. We often look at classes of people, see people by skin color, or we might say “those Baptists”.
I remember going to the Continental Tire Bowl – Virginia making fun of WV?
In the first step on the Romans Road – Theologian Karl Barth says that Paul is reminding us that every distinction, every remarkable separation, every difference that we have with anyone else….
It’s all overshadowed by the one thing we have in common. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. It’s the one thing we have in common with everyone else in the world. No matter where we were born, no matter what color our skin, no matter our sexual preference, no matter what difference separates us…
What unites us is stronger than what divides us. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer says this about sin: If my sin appears to me to be in any way smaller or less reprehensible in comparison with the sins of others, then I am not yet recognizing my sin at all.
Bonhoeffer’s saying when we look at bad people and think we’re actually pretty good people, that’s a big stumbling block to salvation.
In society, there are definitely classes or categories of sin – gossip is not the same as cheating on your taxes is not the same as killing someone. But in thinking about the perfection it takes to get to heaven to be with a perfect God, it all misses the mark. Jesus says, even our thoughts can be sin. The Bible says ALL have sinned.
And the second step on the Romans Road tells us that our sin “EARNS” us something.
.Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Wages – something you earn.
A lot of college kids are finding out When you go to college, you may earn a degree, but you don’t necessarily earn a job. You probably hope your degree gets you a job.
No guarantee.
Here’s what is guaranteed in this passage, The wages of ONE SIN is death. Just one. One time we steal, one time we cheat, one time we lie, one time we lust, and we’ve earned death. That’s the consequence of just one time we fall short of perfection.
The good news is we don’t have to wonder if we’ve done enough good to outweigh the one bad. That’s not an option. There’s only one thing that can cover sin, and it can cover on and all. You might say it’s like duct tape. It will take care of any and all. And it’s nothing we can earn. It’s a gift. And a gift is Something you receive without cost to you. Not like when your kids get you a gift and you have to pay for it.
It’s a gift from God, and it’s the perfect gift.
The gift is Jesus and we go to step 3 of the Romans Road:
Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
God decided how he was going to handle it. I didn’t and you didn’t and we may not agree. You may feel like Christ dying for your sin is a little extreme. But what a way to prove His love for us? It’s BIG, HUGE, this way that God has proven His love for us.
There’s this story in 2 Kings 5 – Namaan was the commander of an army, a pretty important person – and he had leprosy. There was a man of God named Elisha who was wiling to heal him of his leprosy – Elisha sent word to Namaan to wash 7 times in the Jordan River and he would be cured of his leprosy, to make him “clean”. Namaan was furious. This was too easy. Namaan wanted to have to do something bigger – it wasn’t bold enough. Namaan had to be talked into doing it, because he didn’t think washing 7 times in the Jordan was enough to make him clean.
If God had placed a certain star in the sky and said wish upon that star and you will be saved, we would have thought, man God must not hate sin very much because he really didn’t make getting cleansed from sin that gig a deal.
When God demonstrated His love for us, there was no way we could think that something bigger could be required to cleanse us from our sin. It was and is a big deal. God sent His Son, who was with Him in heaven, to earth to die on the cross, so we would know how serious God takes sin and how valuable we are to Him. We didn’t deserve it, we were/are sinners by committing one sin, but big or small, the blood of Jesus covers them all.
Step 4:
Romans 10:9 – “…if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
If you confess with your mouth and don’t believe in your heart, will this do it?
If you believe in your heart and don’t confess with your mouth, will this do it?
You see, the 2nd step says it’s a gift, but a gift must be accepted. Adam Hamilton Cheesecake. It’s right there – receive it.
How do you receive god’s gift? Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart.
Step 5:
I’ve spent a significant amount of time trying to convince some of you that the slightest sin, the slightest mistake, can keep you out of heaven and separates you from God. That’s because most of us think we’re not that bad. We’re basically good.
I want to remind you of what Bonhoeffer wrote:
Dietrich Bonhoeffer says this about sin: If my sin appears to me to be in any way smaller or less reprehensible in comparison with the sins of others, then I am not yet recognizing my sin at all.
Step 5 is the good news for those who think they’re not worth it, or those who think God could never forgive them for what they’ve done.
Romans 10:13 – “…for everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Who can be saved? Everyone. People who think their sin is not as bad as other peoples don’t like to hear this. But for those of us who realize how God looks at sin – If you’ve broken one commandment, you’ve broken them all, the fact that everyone can be saved is great news. that means you can. That means I can. And not only can you, but you will – If you call upon the name of the Lord by confessing with your mouth and believing in your heart.
Scott Knowlton's Blog 
Romens 3:23 says” For all have sinned, and come short of the Glory of God ” ( missed the mark ) No doubt, watching people, categorizing them, we some times find it easy to do. Paul the Apostle reminds us that every distinction, every remarkable seperation, every difference that we have with anyone else…
It’s all overshadowed by one thing we have in common, we all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God, What unites us is stronger than what divides us we have all sinned and come short of His Glory. (A remarkable writer once said ) If my sin appears to me to be inany way smaller or less reprehensible in comparison with the sins of others, then I am not yet recognizing my sin at all.
If ! Were looking at other’s ( unsaved souls) and think were actually better, I pray we fall to our ness. Scripture reminds us in Romans.5:8
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. There is a hurting world, but untill we relize were Saved through Grace and that not of ourselves” we will never feel the pain of reaching out to others as Christ reached out to us.
Welcoming others to the cross of Christ brings such a satisfaction to my soul . Have a bless day .
I liked your emoji at the end of your article of a smiley face — so happy w/ tears! But then it disappeared. Can you resend it to me please?