Here is a very familiar verse.<\/p>\n
for\u00a0all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Romans 3:23<\/p>\n
This should disturb you very much. You are part of “all” and so you have fallen short–you’ve failed. Perhaps you gain some comfort from the fact that *all* have sinned. We’re all in the same situation but that, in and of itself, is not good news. We need the next verse.<\/p>\n
and are justified\u00a0by his grace as a gift,\u00a0through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Romans 3:24<\/p>\n
That’s better but let’s be careful. This is not automatic. This verse has a companion\u00a0in Hebrews that gives those who have the gift a job to do.<\/p>\n
\nSee to it that no one\u00a0fails to obtain the grace of God…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Hebrews 12:15a<\/p>\n
Oh…uh…danger! People can fail to obtain the grace of God. There is a way that people can not have the gift of grace–the gift of grace that justifies people, without which those people have fallen short of the glory of God. In this case, people live under sin and die in sin and are eternally separated from God.<\/p>\n
The gift of grace is available to all but not obtained by all.<\/p>\n
Christian, listen up. Hebrews 12:15 speaks to you. You, see to it that\u00a0no one<\/em> fails to obtain the grace of God. Present the gospel. Allow Jesus Christ to live in you. The next bit tells you part of how.<\/p>\n
\nthat no\u00a0\u201croot of bitterness\u201d springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Hebrews 12:15b<\/p>\n
You can’t live under grace and not provide grace. You cannot allow bitterness to be part of you. Hand over everything to Jesus–all of the hurts, troubles, pains. Our failure to live under Christ can defile many. Choose to care so much for the souls of your fellow sojourners and their eternity that you\u00a0provide undeserved favor on a daily basis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here is a very familiar verse. for\u00a0all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23 This should disturb you very much. You are part of “all” and so you have fallen short–you’ve failed. Perhaps you gain some comfort from the fact that *all* have sinned. We’re all in the same situation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions\/235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}