'Disgustingly Normal'! Romans 3:10-26

Text: “...for there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God...”                                                                                                                                                  Romans 3:22-23.

Good morning, disgustingly normal Christian!  In your daily sins and mine we are in a natural state of being utterly disgusting in the sight of a pure and absolutely Holy Lord God.

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the Truth (Christ Jesus) is not in us.” (1 John 1:8) (John 14:6)

“But we are ALL as an unclean thing, and ALL our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we ALL do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”  (Isaiah 64:6)

God’s Word doesn’t seek to sugar-coat our natural state of sinfulness; it tells it like it is, and we are forced to admit that we are of ourselves, disgusting in the eyes of God Almighty.                     (Habakkuk 1:13)

The Psalmist, speaking under the full inspiration of God the Holy Spirit writes:  “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”    (Psalm 51:5)

Job concurs, under the same Spiritual inspiration: “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?  Not one.”  (Job 14:4)

Therefore it follows that, we do not become sinners when we commit our first sin.  We commit our first sin because we are natural born sinners!  Sinning is completely natural for all mankind born in Adam’s fallen image.  That’s the bottom line for us all. 

“And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years (after his Fall from grace in Eden); and begat a son IN HIS IMAGE; and called his name Seth...” (Genesis 5:3)

Only a complete and unenlightened fool, blinded by self-righteousness, would even dare to argue with the above Scriptural conclusion of mankind’s utter and disgusting sinfulness when compared to the impeccably pure Holiness of God the Son, Christ Jesus.  (Solomon's. Song 5:16)

However, praise God, this is not the end of the story for us.  Read on, the Lord has provided ‘Good News’ indeed for those who will admit to our disgustingly sinful state. 

“As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” (Proverbs 25:25)

Our text today concludes that “...all have sinned and come short of the glory of God...”, and if we accept the above stated position on our natural state, then most of us will readily admit to the truth of the text.  Not one human being who has ever walked on two feet on this earth, has ever been able to come up to the perfect standard of Jesus Christ, who is in fact ‘...the glory of God...’.  Hallelujah!  It is so, amen.  (Hebrews 4:15)

However, it is the first part of our text that I want us to focus in on today - “...for there is no difference...”.  Wow!  What Godly insight!  Who knows the creature better than our Almighty Creator Lord God?  God declares here in His Word that, between all men/women who ever lived after the Fall, or who will ever live, “...there is no difference...”, we are ALL the same - sinful.

Oh yes, there are those of us who may be more adept at disguising our sins; at hiding our natural state; at deceiving others or, at times, even deceiving ourselves!  But the message is clear, in God’s mind and eye, “...there is no difference...”.  We are sinners.  Some of us are saved sinners and some, sad to say, are still yet lost sinners.  Yet, we are ALL sinners nonetheless.  We have God’s Word on the matter.

Now, here’s the good news.  When we are, by God’s free grace, given faith to believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we are saved from our sins, for time and Eternity.  Thanks be to God!  We thereafter TRY to the best of our limited abilities to live Godly lives.  We, at no stage, become sinless - but we certainly do begin to sin less!  Praise God for the power of His Spirit!  We confess our exceptional failings daily, and receive God’s promised cleansing from our daily sins.  This is the doctrine of Progressive Sanctification. What a Saviour! (1 John 1:7-10) (1 Peter 1:4-5)  (Acts 1:8)

We believers KNOW what each other are going through daily, because we know our own daily battles against sin, and “...there is no difference...”.  We are thus able to empathize completely with each other and support each other in daily prayers for victory over our sin.  (James 5:16-20)

When we begin to see ourselves and each other in the light of our text above, we begin to be able to cope better with our circumstances and our varied shortcomings daily.  We have more sympathy with a brother or sister who becomes ‘...overtaken in a fault...’; we thus approach that person with the intention of restoration, and ‘...in a spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.'  (Galatians 6:1)

In this manner, and in this spirit, we deem ourselves at all times to be merely ‘disgustingly normal’ believers in the pure and Supernatural Saviour, Jesus Christ.  Christ receives the glory, the flesh is denied; the Devil is thrown into confusion; the world wonders, is convicted of sin, and, in many ordained cases, saved.  Praise God for His grace to sinners like we!

Thought:  God gives grace to Christians who deem themselves to be ‘disgustingly normal’ sinners in need of it, daily.