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Aug 17, 2026

Romans Road: The Universal Need (Romans 3:23)

a woman is aiming a bow at a target

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
Romans 3:23 (NIV)

Imagine you’re at an archery range. There’s this perfect bullseye target way out there. That’s God’s glory, His perfect holiness and righteousness. Now, whether you’re an expert archer or it’s your first time holding a bow, here’s the wild thing: none of us can hit it. Not even close. The Greek word here for “sin” (hamartōn) means “to miss the mark.”
 
And Paul uses a word meaning “all” or “everyone.” No exceptions, no escape clauses, no grading on a curve.
 
But here’s what makes this devastating: Missing God’s mark isn’t just about failing a test. It’s about falling short of the very purpose for which we were created—to reflect God’s glory. He made us to be image-bearers, walking mirrors of divine perfection. Instead, we’re broken glass, reflecting distorted fragments.
 
This is why Paul says the wages of sin is death. It’s the natural consequence of being disconnected from the Source of all life. Like unplugged lamps claiming they can shine on their own.
 
Yet Paul didn’t write this verse to leave us in despair. Look at the very next verse: “and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
 
God offers justification to the same “all” who sinned. This isn’t God lowering his standards or moving the target closer.
 
Instead, while our arrows are scattered everywhere, Jesus doesn’t just take a shot on our behalf. He becomes both the perfect archer AND the bullseye itself. He lives the life we couldn’t live, dies the death we deserved, and then God credits His perfect score to our account.
 
When we grasp this, it revolutionizes everything. We stop comparing our scattered arrows with others’. We stop pretending we’re getting closer to the target through our own efforts. We stop dividing the world into “good people” and “bad people.” We’re all helpless archers who’ve been offered an impossible gift: Christ’s perfection counted as our own.
 
This is why we call the gospel good news. Not because God overlooked our failure, but because He absorbed it. Not because He lowered the bar, but because Christ cleared it for us and then lifted us over with him.
 
When you think about “missing the mark” in your own life, what specific areas come to mind where you see yourself falling short of God’s perfect standard? And how does knowing that Christ’s perfect “score” has been credited to your account change how you view those shortcomings?

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