For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23

When it comes to sin our tendency as humans is to compare ourselves with others. And when we make these comparisons, we do not compare ourselves with people who are less sinful than we are, but rather people who are more sinful than we are. "At least I'm better than that person!" "At least I'm not as sinful as those people!" "At least I don't do that!" "At least I haven't committed adultery!"

The problem with our comparisons is this: When it comes to sin, the standard is not other people. The standard is Jesus Christ. And Jesus is perfect. All of us fall short of his glory.

In baseball, if you hit .300 for a season, that is super. In fact, if you hit .300 for your career, you will probably end up in the Hall of Fame. But life is not baseball. When it comes to life, it is not enough for us to hit .300, we have to hit 1.000 because God is perfect and the least little sin will separate us from God. Moreover, we don't have the least little sin, but we have tons of sin, sin in our attitudes, in our actions, in our words. We have sins of pride, of unbelief, of selfishness, of fear, of anger, of impurity and much more. We all fall short of the glory of God.

Bishop Handley Moule stated this truth in a vivid way: "The harlot, the liar, the murderer, are short of it [sc. God's glory], but so are you. Perhaps they stand at the bottom of a mine and you on the crest of an Alp; but you are as little able to touch the stars as they."

Father, I confess to you my sin and my sinfulness, and I am so grateful that you gave us a Savior to rescue us from our sin.