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Day

8

Nobody’s Perfect

Lent 2023

Read Romans 3:9-20

9What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

None is righteous, no, not one Romans 3:10

When our children were very young, my in-laws spent the weekend at our home babysitting. A new washing machine arrived and they thought it would be nice to place the machine in the laundry room so it would be ready when we returned. As they pushed the washer into place, the threads on the feet scratched our oak and laminate flooring. To cover up the scratches, they used liquid brown scratch cover. That only exacerbated the gouges in the floor.

When we arrived home, we immediately saw the damage. The laminate was unfixable and the wood floor required sanding and a new finish. It was going to cost a lot of time and money. We saw from my in-laws’ faces that they felt terrible. Even when we try to do good, like my in-laws did, “there is no one righteous, not even one.” No matter how hard we try to “be good,” as humans we cannot pay God back for all the wrong we have done. The Bible tells us that, “Christ died for sins once for all.” What a comfort to know we have a compassionate God.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for pouring out your love to me and declaring me forgiven. Amen.

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