MISSING THE MARK
Romans 3:23
“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
It was the easiest archery shot I would ever take, 14 yards at ground level. The big 9 point buck, with a 4” droptine, stood broadside, feeding with his head turned away from me. It was a chip shot at my best archery buck ever. I drew, lined the sight up with the buck’s vitals and released.
At my release the buck jumped and ran and I assumed I had my trophy. But something was wrong, something didn’t sound right when I released. I could see my arrow laying on the ground, where the buck had stood just moments before and assumed it had hit the mark that I was aiming at, but the more I thought about it the more troubled I got. That’s when I noticed a perfect 3 sliced hole in the blind edging. I had shot through the thick material and the rope that supported it. My arrow had fallen short of the intended target. I hung my head, knowing I had just messed up and missed the best opportunity I may ever have for a buck of that size.
We’ve all, even those that don’t shoot a bow, dealt with this same issue in life. Each and every one of us “misses the mark” in life. All of us have good plans and then we make bad decisions or don’t follow through. We allow an obstacle to get in the way of completing our task. We’ve fallen short of God’s best for us. In the scripture above we read that there is no one that is without sin, having “missed the mark.”
When we sin we fall short of God’s standard of perfection which disqualifies us from heaven. It doesn’t matter how many good things we have done or how successful we are in life; one sin prevents us from an eternity in heaven with Jesus Christ. It is only when we understand that it is the blood Jesus shed on the cross that removes those sins that we can enter into eternity. We need His forgiveness from our sins plus we need his righteousness for God to approve. Nothing else will suffice.
So how do we go about getting right with God? Getting to that point can be difficult, but is actually very easy. Saul, (soon to be called Paul) had to get knocked down by Jesus on a road just outside Damascus to open his eyes. He had to lose his sight to gain it… No one was more religious than he was. No one worked harder or had more zeal for God than he did. Yet all of that effort didn’t get him any closer to God. He was “missing the mark” continually in life
All of his supposed righteousness didn’t pull him closer to God… no, it pushed him farther away. We, like Saul, must realize that all our best efforts are like dirty rags to Jesus (Isaiah 64:6) and that our sins have us bound for hell. It was only when we recognized Jesus as our Lord and savior are we forgiven and restored to a right relationship with God.
So many of us are working our hardest to impress God and to feel better about our failures. We are hoping that God will see us as a good person and let us into heaven. Sadly that is never enough. It will only happen when we realize that we are a sinner in need of God’s grace. We are all, “missing the mark” on our own. All of us have fallen into sin, and nothing we do can get us out of it. Only the blood of Jesus will accomplish that.
Romans 6:23 follows up on the words of Roman’s 3:23…
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The price we pay for “missing the mark” is death… but there is great news, Jesus Christ gave us an amazing gift of life when He came, lived, died and rose again to pay the wage (the price) for our sin… all we have to do is accept that gift.
What do you do when you “missed the mark”? When your sights are off and you can’t get it done on your own? Or when you’ve allowed an obstacle take you off track in life? Go to Jesus and ask for forgiveness. He will pick you up and set you on the right path. He’s already paid the price and is offering up your gift… we must just take it.
We’ve all “missed the mark” of God’s perfection. Through a relationship with Jesus, we can hit the target of God’s rightousness.
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