Now we know that whatever the things the law says, it speaks to those under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world be under judgment to God.
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Wherefore by works of law no flesh shall be justified before him; for by law [is] knowledge of sin.
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But now without law righteousness of God is manifested, borne witness to by the law and the prophets;
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righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ towards all, and upon all those who believe for there is no difference;
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for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
By this point in Romans, the whole human race stands guilty before God. The verse hangs on two words: "all," which leaves nobody out, and "glory," the standard nobody reaches.
The sweep of the word "all" is what makes this sentence so hard to escape. One writer puts the reach of that word next to what human effort can do about it:
W. W. FeredayLanguage this wide leaves no one a way out. It puts the whole human family under God's judgement. And nobody can lift themselves out of that condition. No amount of human effort — reforming your life, giving to the poor, and so on — can wash away a single sin.
Saying that everyone falls short does not flatten every sin into the same weight. One writer draws the line carefully. God will judge each person's works. But for salvation, everyone stands on the same ground.
Frederick W. GrantThe basic truth of the gospel is that there is no difference between one person and another. That does not mean everyone has sinned the same number of times, or as seriously. The day of judgment will bring out that difference. It will put each person who is not saved by the gospel in his place according to his works. So degrees of sin are real, and God will judge them all with perfect fairness. But that is not a question of salvation. As to that, everybody is precisely on the same footing.
Why "no difference"? It comes down to the standard God uses. Change the standard and you could rank people. Keep God's glory as the standard and the ranking collapses.
C. H. MackintoshGod measures people by one standard only: "the glory of God." All have fallen short of it, the best as well as the worst. So there is no difference. If the question were conscience, or human righteousness, there might be some difference. A human standard would let you draw fine distinctions between people. But that is not the standard. God measures everyone by His glory, and by that measure all fall short alike.
Only one man has ever met that standard, which is why comparing ourselves with other people is useless:
W. W. FeredayThere has been only one man in this world whom the glory could own as worthy of it. To Him there came a voice from the excellent glory: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (2 Peter 1:17). In Him, then, we see what the glory of God requires in a man. Do we match Him? Here alone is the true standard by which we can measure ourselves correctly. Suppose a young man wanted to join the royal guards. There is no point in him arguing that he is the tallest person in town. If he is below the fixed height, he is out.
The two verbs are not in the same tense. The sinning is a finished fact. The falling short is still going on. The writer below quotes an older translation, which reads "do come short" where the ESV reads "fall short."
The Christian's FriendNot only have all sinned. Notice the wording too: "all do come short of the glory of God." The correct reading is "do come short," not "have come short." What a standard God gives! God does not say, "You have come short of what you ought to be." Most would admit that; but He says, "You have come short of my glory."
Verse 23 ends with a comma. What follows is not a demand but a gift, and one so unexpected that no guilty person would ever have thought to ask for it.
C. E. StuartNothing will meet their case except being "justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (v. 24). But who asked for this? Who pleaded for it? No one. God in His grace, and in keeping with His love, has given what no creature, aware of its own failure, would ever have asked for. You can imagine a cry going up for forgiveness, so that the deserved punishment might be turned aside. But imagine a sinner who really feels how serious his guilt is. Who could dream of him asking the Judge of all the earth to justify him freely by His grace?
If the falling short is still going on, does it stay true of a believer too? One writer says no, and the reason lies outside ourselves:
William KellyDoes this apply to the believer? On the contrary, no believer comes "short of the glory of God." And how is this? Because there is One in the glory who bore my sins on the cross. And He who is in the glory of God is my life and my righteousness.
- All — the language shuts every door of escape, and no amount of self-improvement removes even one sin.
- Level — degrees of sin are real, and God will judge them; but for salvation everyone stands on the same ground.
- Measure — the standard is God's glory, not conscience or how you compare with other people. By that measure the best and the worst fall short alike.
- Present — the text says we do come short, and the bar is not "what you ought to be" but God's own glory.
- Answered — the verse runs straight on into being justified by His grace as a gift, one no guilty person would have dared to ask for.
being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which [is] in Christ Jesus;
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whom God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood, for [the] shewing forth of his righteousness, in respect of the passing by the sins that had taken place before, through the forbearance of God;
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for [the] shewing forth of his righteousness in the present time, so that he should be just, and justify him that is of [the] faith of Jesus.
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