We’re in the middle of summer and there is a deluge of sport going on.
It’s very entertaining to watch sports professionals who are mastering their game. The precision of control that is achieved by some of them is genuinely awe inspiring. And there are winners of course, people that excel. Yet, even for those for winners there are points of failure, mistakes made and areas of weakness. It doesn’t matter how good you are, you are not unbeatable.
Falling short is something inherent in our world. Have you noticed that any domestic cleaning product is only ever able to claim that it will kill 99% of bacteria. To claim 100% is just one claim too far. It’s the same in the technology industry that I move in. You cannot hope to make your web site available 100% of the time – technology fails – the best you can hope for are three 9’s, 99.9% and that accommodates as much as 43 minutes of downtime a month. Companies like Apple obsess over their products and still make elementary mistakes. Investment products are always presented with the caveat that ‘the value of your investment may go up or down.’ Food manufactures are careful not to overstate claims that their products ‘do not contain nuts’. Couriers who’s business is entirely about delivery actually can’t even guarantee you that, (owing to ‘acts of God’ and the like). In any of these scenarios people are striving for a level of perfection that is just outside their reach. It seems whenever mortal man is involved there is always a falling short.
A classic and intriguing example of this is the metric unit of length, the metre. Despite it being a universal reference point for measurement its definition has been revised no less than five times since its inception in 1795. It is now defined as “the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second.” So now, the measurement derives its value based on something which is precise, the speed of light, but that is something that man had no involvement in establishing. In passing, this strongly contradicts the claims of darwinian evolution that would imply that absolutes have emerged over the course of time. The fact is, man is incapable of defining absolutes, these have to be set by a being who is perfect and unchanging. God is both of those.
Notwithstanding the strive for perfection and precision man ultimately always falls short even if it is at the last hurdle.
What does God have to say about this? The teaching of Romans 5 is that man falling short stems from his imperfect nature inherited down the ages from his first parents who set the trend. Since then, whilst men and women have achieved, attained and accomplished, none have avoided failure altogether – well 99.9% of them haven’t. God’s Word focuses particularly on moral falling short. Paul quoting the Psalms writes in Romans 3, “None is righteous, no, not one…no one does good, not even one.” In fact, in our natural state we are unable to please God. Paul writes again in Romans 8, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” The ultimate conclusion is that “all have sinned and come short.” We understand the word ‘sin’ to carry with it the idea of missing the mark which is precisely the thing we are observing here.
This situation isn’t one that can be tolerated any more than a disciplined sports professional or an aspiring intellectual settles for falling short in their own discipline. Good enough is not good enough. Perfection is the baseline and like failing sportsmen who are no longer good enough for the team, sin alienates us from God who’s standard we have fallen short of. Sin unresolved, alienation turns to judgement and eternal separation. The interesting thing is that there have always been men and women for whom ‘good enough’ has not been adequate either, they too aspire for perfection. So much so that when God ordained a system by which the damaging effects of sin could be covered they took it very seriously. Yet the weakest link – man himself – was still present. The results were unimpressive. Some become elitist and snobbish with their law keeping. Others gave up before they even started. If men could not keep a moral standard, why would they be able to attain to the ceremonial standards exacted by the law. We are not surprised then to read in Romans 3 again, “For by works of the law no one will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” It doesn’t matter how you approach the problem of our sin, mortal man is the problem and therefore it is self-evident that he could not be part of the solution.
This situation is intolerable to the proud heart of man. In most situations, either by force or by stealth, or by throwing a boat load of money at a problem, things can be remedied. The Psalmist writes, “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts” (Psalm 10:4). And to those who’s pride is wrapped up in man-made religion, God has said, “I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand”, (Malachi 1:10). The prophet Isaiah conveyed God’s mind as follows: “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well- fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.”, (Isaiah 1:10-15). If this is what God thinks of mans attempt to achieve with a system which God Himself created what are the chances that man would be vindicated through a system which man created?
Down through the ages, countless men and women have wrestled with trying to find a way to remedy this situation. There is an absolute myriad of different ideas that are represented in politics, philosophy, science and pseudo-religion which are all striving for mans remedy. If it wasn’t to be found in man, if it wasn’t to be found even through partnership of God and man could it perhaps be found by means of giving man a living model of what perfection looks like. If God sent His Son, the very image of His character, would this be the ultimate role model to help man finally attain.
Scripture shows that Christ’s coming into the world was not well received. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not,” (John 1:11). Here was God’s own Son, a perfect role model. God broke forth from heaven on more than one occasion to declare “this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. Finally a man, albeit a very unique man, God manifest in flesh, but nevertheless truly man had attained. Though not so much attained for he never fell short. He was not conceived of natural means but by the Holy Spirit and so avoided being possessed of sinful nature. He lived a perfect life. God’s delight was in His Son. And if anyone needed a role model here He was. But instead of holding Christ up as the exemplar, the model of ultimate manhood they utterly rejected Him. They envied Him, criticised him, misunderstood him, hated him, repudiated him, abandoned him, mocked him, abused him and finally crucified him.
The coming of the perfect man then, only served to underline mans desperate, desperate need. A role model would only have improved man outwardly in any case. Moral change was impossible. Moral failure can only be addressed through punishment and ultimately only through God serving sentence on the sinner (because sin is ultimately an crime against God). The bible says that “the wages of sin is death” and that “it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this judgement.”
But that praise God this is not the end of the story, it is just the end of man. And we must come to an end of ourselves if we are ever to have our falling short, our sin dealt with. One man recognising his sinful condition said, “woe is me for I am undone”. Peter said “depart from me; for I am a sinful man.” Once we accept our condition we begin to look for a remedy outside of ourselves and indeed outside all of mankind who we have seen from God’s Word, “God has concluded all in unbelief, that he may have mercy on all.” But who is likely to be interested in a race of failures. The incredible thing about God’s salvation is that it is not offered to us because God is interested in offering us charity. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that he gave. Christ Jesus did not come into the world to be a role model. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. His death at Calvary was perfect as was his life. “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed”. God made the soul of the Lord Jesus an “offering for sin” and of course, he was the perfect offering. He satisfied God no less in this sin bearing than in his life. He rose again the third day because only by falling short would Christ have remained in the grave and falling short was impossible.
And so the problem of our falling short is not found in trying but in trusting. Trusting in the perfect man. The delightful man. The impossible to fall short man. It is faith in Him. Believing in Him, that he died for you to deal with your falling short. Faith. Not of works less any man should boast but it is by grace we are saved through faith. You cannot improve yourself but God can impart Christ’s perfectness, what the Bible calls ‘righteousness’ to you and that is called new-birth not improvement. God will not patch up your fallen nature, he will not sit down with you and come up with a plan to work on things together. He gives you His nature and so you start on the road, with His enabling and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to walk a life that can be pleasing to Him. In small measure, and by His daily grace, not falling short.
