“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God” (Ecclesiastes 5:1). To us who go to church this Ash Wednesday, to religious people, people beginning Lenten practices, the Bible advises caution. To those reputed to be properly religious, the Pharisees, Jesus said, “You have neglected the weightier matters of the law” (Matthew 23:23). God’s law, His teachings about how we should be, show that you and I are more sinful than we know.
I find Romans 3:23 humbling. “There is no distinction. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” “All have sinned,” past tense; I’m fine with that. Saying that is the Lenten drill, but the verse goes on. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” “Fall short” is present tense. All have sinned, you and I, and now we’re still falling short of the glory of God, even as we go to church, even as we begin our Lenten observance. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart”(Jeremiah 17:9). Church-goers are still falling short.
“The Message” is a paraphrase of Romans, not a literal translation as I was commenting in the previous paragraph, but a rewording of the text. Here’s how “The Message” paraphrases the teaching that you and I are still falling short. “There is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us.” True introspection this Lent will show that we’re worse than we know, but Jesus is more necessary than we can comprehend. God alone does it for us.
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