What are you aiming for?

The divine influence upon your heart and its resulting outworking in your life. (See the last part of the entry for Jan. 27 below.) That is truly what grace is. That is a rightly understood definition of the Greek word used for "grace" in the Bible.

"No," you may say. "It means 'unmerited favour'." Well, that may be what you were taught that it means. But look it up in a classical Greek lexicon and rightly apply it to all the biblical references - and you will see that it has to mean much more than simply "unmerited favour".

We are going to look at one verse that oh so many traditional legalistic Christians use to try to make people believe they are less than they really are - that they are "sinners in the hands of an angry God". Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

Let's break this down some. What is "sin"? It seems easy for some people to categorize everyone as "sinners" - but they don't really know what they are saying. Are they saying that everyone is evil? Well, intentionally or not, that is the connotation which people derive from it. But, you see, it really is not that bad of a thing.

"Sin" simply means "to miss the mark". That's it. It comes from a Greek word that is actually more of an archery term. It is referring to shooting an arrow and missing the bull's eye - missing the mark. So a "sinner" would simply be someone who missed the mark. Thus "sinners", plural, is just a bunch of people who what? Missed the mark. Simple. Not evil.

So let's look at this over-used verse again - replacing "sinned" with its meaning: "For all have 'missed the mark' and come short of the glory of God." By replacing a word which has, for generations, brought feelings of shame and guilt - we can begin to actually see some light and understanding. But - what of this bull's eye - this mark - which we have all missed?

According to this verse, we have missed the mark and "come short of the glory of God". So, the mark - the bull's eye - is "the glory of God". See, the bull's eye we were supposed to have been shooting for has never been a set of rules and regulations set forth by whatever religious system in which we find ourselves encompassed - it has never been that which Paul often referred to as "the law" - which not only included the "ten commandments" but also the hundreds of other religious rules and implications that were written in the "old testament" and which the scribes and Pharisees added to and enforced.

See, the "law of Moses" was never intended to be the bull's eye for people to shoot for. God never intended nor expected man to try to gain acceptance nor justification by the things we do or don't do.

Then what is/was the point of the "law of Moses"? What is this "glory of God" which is to be our bull's eye? Where does grace fit in this?