June 4

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, — Rom 3:23 BSB

What does it mean to “come short of the glory of God”? It means to act without any thought of His glory. Every single thing we’ve ever done, if it wasn’t done with a clear eye to God’s glory, carries the stamp of sin. But who, in an unregenerate state, has ever had such an eye for the glory of God? Has such a thought ever crossed the natural heart? To live, speak, and act for God’s glory? Before such a desire can even enter our hearts, we must have seen the invisible God. We must have, by faith, caught a glimpse of the glory of the triune God. We must have been given, by the Holy Spirit, a single eye to see that His glory outshines all earthly things.

Every selfish desire, every movement of the heart that seeks to please and exalt itself, is a falling short of the glory of God. This truth marks every religious service performed in a natural state as sin. It places the religious on the same level as the irreligious and cuts down both the professing world and the profane world with the same sword. When people in a natural state claim to be religious, is their religion aimed at God’s glory, the glory of free grace, the glory of the Mediator between God and man, the glory of the Holy Spirit as the only teacher of God’s people? Even in its best and most righteous form, isn’t this religion just another form of selfishness, trying to climb to heaven by the ladder of self-righteousness?

Isn’t this falling short of God’s glory? Beyond that, God’s glory demands that everyone accepted in His sight must be without spot, stain, or blemish. A pure God cannot accept, look upon, or take pleasure in impurity. The more pure and holy Jehovah is, the more offensive even the slightest impurity or deviation from absolute perfection must be in His sight.

This is something all of God’s elect are made to feel, more or less. It’s the solemn and necessary preparation of the heart for mercy. It’s the Spirit’s way of bringing the soul to the place where grace is experienced and known. This awareness is absolutely necessary for all the elect of God, for all those who have been ransomed and quickened by Him, to feel in their conscience that they “have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”