NOVEMBER 19, 2012
Falling
Short
Read: Romans 3:19-28
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God. —Romans 3:23
One
of the fads of 1970s America was the motorcycle jump. This
trend reached its
high (and low) point on September 8, 1974.
Thousands of spectators gathered
around the Snake River Canyon
in Idaho to see if Evel Knievel could jump across
the chasm in a
specially designed “sky cycle.” In the end, however, it was
unsuccessful.
Knievel made it only part of the way across the gulf before his
parachute deployed and he dropped to the canyon floor below. Some
spectators
asked, “How far across the canyon did he get?” But that
wasn’t the point. He
didn’t make it all the way across, so he fell short
of his goal.
This
scene is a good illustration of sin. The Bible talks about sin in
Romans 3:23,
where Paul declared, “All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God.” No
one is capable of bridging the gap between
God and ourselves by our own
efforts, but the Savior came to do
just that on our behalf. Christ perfectly
fulfilled God’s standards, then
gave His life on the cross to pay for our
failure and wrongdoing. Where
we could only fall short, Christ’s work, offered
in love, accomplished all
that was needed.
Our
response is to trust Him and receive this matchless gift of salvation.
There is no other name on earth
By whom salvation’s given
Save Jesus Christ the Lamb of God,
God’s precious gift from heaven. —Stairs
The cross of Christ bridges the gap
we could never cross on our own.
Source: Our Daily Bread 2012
