Reality Check

Ecc 7:20 "Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins."

 

The reality of this verse stinks. I would love to think that there is someone, somewhere out there who is righteous and who does good. Many believe that the nature of man is basically good, but this verse kind of does away with that thought. In fact, this verse is very similar to other verses in the Bible, like: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Rom 3:23; Or, "None is righteous, no not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God." Rom 3:10,11; And, "But we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness are as filthy rags." Is. 64:6; And, "There is none who does good, not even one." Ps 14:3 Pretty sad. Pretty depressing. Pretty hopeless. We all screw up. We all sin. No one that has ever lived has escaped this truth…we are all sinners. In fact, if someone says that he has never sinned is sinning because he is lying. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." I John 1:8 We all lie. We all have stolen. We all deal with bitterness and improper anger. We all place things in the placed of God. We all have stupid thoughts. The list could go on.

 

So, the conclusion is, and this really should not come as any surprise, we all sin. We are all sinners. So what? Well, if we agree that we all sin, then there must a standard that has been broken. There must be something that defines what sin is. What is it? Falling short of "the glory of God." The judgment of God. The splendor of God. We fall short of the character of God. If my life and my character absolutely matches up to God's character and it never wavers, it never changes, it does not deviate at all, then I am perfect. Guess what? Not. That is what sin is. My life and my character fall short of God's judgment and His character. The result of this is not pretty. The result is: "For the wages of sin is death...". Rom 6:23 Oh sure, we all die, but this is beyond physical death. It is spiritual death. It is eternal death. It is absolute separation from all that is good...all that is God...forever. How do I know that? Because of the rest of the verse: "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." The payment for sin is eternal death. The gift of God is eternal life. How? Only one way, only one truth, only one life...through Jesus Christ our Lord. "Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom 7:25

Jesus did it. The one perfect sinless God-man. The only One whose character totally matched the character of God because He is God. And as God, He gave it all up so I could be set free from sin and death and have eternal life. This is crazy! This is astounding! This is wild! And this is true, for any and all who will believe it.

I don't have a clue who reads this stuff. All I know is that if anyone is struggling with the fact that sin is a reality in their lives and they want to be set free, look no further. "Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow."