There is No Difference: Romans 3:23

Here's the sermon I preached in class on Tuesday night. As with many sermons, this one began as a conviction of the preacher. I'm a sinner, just like them.

The church where I grew up had a habit of having the young men do the Wednesday night devotional. I remember one time when Josh, a guy a couple of years older than me, forgot that it was his turn. The look of horror on his face when he figured it out was indescribable, but he made a plan to speak. After the obligatory two songs, he went to the pulpit and said, “Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. If you have sinned, please come forward as we stand and sing.”

Romans 3:23 has been used for a long, long time to illustrate how we are all sinful. I’ve sinned, you’ve sinned, and we all fall short of God’s glory. This use is so ingrained in our consciousness that an unprepared high school kid can use it correctly in a last second sermon.

It is often used at a certain point in an evangelistic Bible study. “I’m not a sinner. I haven’t murdered, or committed adultery, and I don’t even cuss.” Romans 3:23 is our answer to that: nope, you’re a sinner, and you’d better get baptized pretty quick or it’s gonna get real hot. This text has been a text of bad news: we are all sinners.

So why would I preach a sermon on something that we already know? Because this passage has more to say beyond “all fall short”

Remember the context in which this verse is written. Paul writes to a church in Rome that is dealing with issues surrounding the Jewish Christians being expelled from Rome by the emperor Claudius in AD 49 and their return in AD 54. The Jewish Christians were banished for five years, but the Gentile Christians remained. After five years, the Jewish Christians returned.

Imagine with me what that would be like: it is as if everyone over the age of 35 were banished from this church for five years. That’s all the elders, ¾ of the deacons, and a large proportion of the fathers and uncles. Those of us young ‘uns left behind didn’t give up our faith. We continued to worship, serve, and grow. With no one around to tell us differently, we did church the way we thought it should be done. At the end of the five years, the exiles returned only to find that things were not how they used to be. The young people had changed everything! Imagine the turmoil, the discomfort, even the anger felt on both sides.
- you messed it all up while we were gone
- you’re trying to mess it all up now that you’re back
- we did just fine without you
- we built this church without you

Into this kind of division and separation, disorientation and discomfort, anger and conflict that Paul writes this letter. Keep that in mind as we read the text.

Read Romans 3:21-24- did anything jump out at you after seeing this text through the lens of a Jew-Gentile/ insider-outsider conflict? The thing that struck me the most wasn’t the usual- all have sinned, all fall short. What got me was this: there is no difference.

There is no difference. They’ve sinned, you’ve sinned, there is no difference. They’ve fallen short, you’ve fallen short, there is no difference.

But where’s the point of connection? Why would I preach this text with this message to the church here? Let me put it this way, at the risk of being too direct.

Some of the members of this church grew up here. Your grandparents went here, your parents went here, and now you and your children go here. This is your church, and you built it. Years of your hard work have gone into it. Years of your contributions have paid for its buildings, its ministers, and its mission work. You have put in faithful service to this church for decades, and this is your church. Now all of these young people from out of town are trying to change the church that you built. What does this text say to you? There is no difference! You are sinners just like them.

Some of the members of this church are new to the area. You moved to Texarkana to work, your job transferred you here. You grew up in Alabama, or Dallas, or Austin, or Abilene. You didn’t grow up in this church, but you chose it, and so this is your church. Instead of any other church in town, you have given your time, your service, your money, and your devotion to this church. This is your church. You’ve seen different ways to do things because of some of the places you’ve been. You may even have different ideas about how things should be done. You may even feel like the older people are holding you back, or even holding back the progress of the very body of Christ. What is the message of this text to you? There is no difference! You are sinners just like them.

Remember who Paul is writing to, and who I am preaching to: the church. The audience in Rome and the audience here are Christians. Paul isn’t saying that there’s no difference between Christians and non-Christians. Paul isn’t talking about who is in and who is out of the Lord’s body. Paul isn’t saying those things, and neither am I.

No text of bad news is complete without good news. I’m a sinner. You are a sinner. That’s bad news. The good news is that we share some things in common. In spite of our differences in age, in spite of our differences in opinion, in spite of our differences in philosophy, and in spite of our differences even on finer points of doctrine, this text brings good news. There is no difference! This text gives us two ways in which there is no difference.

The bad news- all have sinned. I think we understand that part.

The gospel- all who believe are justified by grace through the redemption that came by Jesus. The way I understand the New Testament is that those who truly believe will seek to participate in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ in baptism. Paul and I aren’t talking about that at all. We’re talking to the church, to the Christians, to those who have already been baptized. Inside the church, there is no difference. That means us, and that also means them. That means the young and the old, and the liberal and the conservative. All who believe, there is no difference.

By our sinful nature we share in the bad news. By our faith we share in the good news of redemption in Christ. The bad, we share together. The good, we share together. There is no us and them. There is no young and old. There is only all of us together, for there is no difference.

That's the end of the sermon. I'll probably post a hunting report some time in the next couple of days. The short version is "No deer."

Jason