For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (Romans 3:23)

God is righteous, perfect, and infinitely holy. That’s His standard. It is sometimes called “glory” in the New Testament. Let me paraphrase Romans 3:23:

For all have sinned [that’s our condition] and fall short of the perfection, holiness, righteousness, and glory [that’s His standard] of God.

Unlike all humanity, God operates from a different level of expectation. His existence is in the realm of absolute perfection. He requires the same from others. Whoever hopes to relate to Him must be as righteous as He is righteous. How different from us! To relate to me you don’t have to be perfect. In fact, if you act like you are, I get very uncomfortable. “Just be what you are,” we say. But God is not like that. God doesn’t shrug, wink, and say, “Ah, that’s okay.”

Let me put it another way. God’s triangle is perfect. And in order for you and me to fellowship with Him our triangles must be congruent. The sides and the angles must match. So must the space within. Perfection requires matching perfection.

Ah, there’s the rub! We have sinned and fallen short of the perfection of God. No one qualifies as perfect. Don’t misunderstand, there are times that our goodness is astounding. We take great strides; we produce great achievements. We may even surprise ourselves with periodic times of goodness, gentleness, and compassion. But “perfect”? Never. Or “infinitely holy”? How about “pure”? No, only God is those things. Paul called God’s perfection, holiness, and purity “the righteousness of God...witnessed by the Law and the Prophets” (3:21 NASB). Compared to that standard, all humans come up short.

J.B. Phillips, in his paraphrase, puts it like this:

Indeed it is the straight edge of the Law that shows us how crooked we are. (3:20 PHILLIPS)

Isn’t that the truth? He is perfect and spotless white. Not a taint of grey. Not a hint of blue. And along comes our blue rectangle, trying to work its way into that perfect, holy, and pure triangle. And the two just won’t match! There is no way that we can match His righteousness.

Taken from Growing Deep in the Christian Life by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 1986, 1995 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com