Romans 3:23-24
"For all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a
gift"
God's purpose is his
glory; that means everything he does is to that end. We and all creation with
us are created for purpose. That is why God reveals himself to us. He has
revealed his love through the cross, his creativity and genius in creation, his
mercy in Jesus's healing the sick, his compassion when he rescued the
Israelite nation from Egypt, his faithfulness to the Jewish nation although they
constantly turned away from him, his kindness in clothing Adam and Eve when
they were in shame, his gentleness when Jesus asked John to look after Mary,
his power in raising Jesus from the dead. Throughout history God has revealed
more and more of himself to us and for us.
Yet sin makes us
fall short of being swept up in the praise and dance that is the glory of God.
For although "what can be known about God is plain to" us because God
constant reveals himself to us, sin causes us to ignore it and reject him. Sin
deprives us of purpose, it takes God's blessings and turns them to curses, it
takes knowledge of God and turns it into ignorance. Yet even in this God's
glory increases, just as light is brighter if all you have seen is darkness.
God's love, faithfulness, gentleness and power because of sin is now in
contrast to our hate, faithlessness, ruthlessness and weakness. The cross; it
symbolizes two things. It symbolizes the epitome of mankind's sinful corruption
and God's supreme glory. By the cross Christ was broken culturally, physically,
spiritually, in every way possible; yet doesn't the depth the shame of the
cross just accentuate the supremacy of God at his resurrection?
Through the cross we
see the true perfection of God, the sinful corruption of man and the colossal
gap in between. Yet the cross not only makes God an object to be glorified but
it also creates glorifiers who "are justified by his grace as a gift"
and so bridge that colossal gap. Our meaninglessness, our ignorance, our
rebellion, the curse that we lived under has now been nailed to the cross along
with all our sin. It is now that we are truly free, free to live out our
purpose, free to glorify God all the more now that he has revealed so much of
himself to us throughout history and on the cross.
