“The LORD looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:2–3).

At first glance, these verses paint a pretty bleak picture of the human condition. To set the scene: 

The creator of all things, God, looks down from his heavenly throne on all of humankind. He wants to know if there are any who understand, any who seek him, the one who created them and this world they live in. And what does he discover?

“All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:3).

That is indeed a bleak picture—one that the apostle Paul emphasized in his letter to the Romans. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

How do we fall short?

God’s standard, his glory, is perfection. He wants his creation to be holy, just as he is holy. We need to be holy if we are to be with him in heaven. But because of our sin, we fall short of that holy glory of God—far, far short.

There’s nothing we can do to change that. No amount of good that we can do to try and earn our way into heaven. Our sinful, corrupted hearts naturally turn away from God and want nothing to do with him!

A bleak picture of the sinful human condition… but a breathtakingly beautiful picture of God’s amazing grace as well. To set the scene: 

The creator of all things, God, looked down from his heavenly throne on all of humankind. He saw that all have turned away, corrupted by sin and the evil desires of our hearts; he saw that there is no one who does good, not even one. He knew that because of our sin, we have fallen short of his glory. 

He saw all of that and said, “I will change that. Because I love my creation too much to let them remain lost in darkness and confusion and sin. I want them to be with me forever in heaven.”

So what did God do?

He sent his Son Jesus to do what we could never do.

And through the Holy Spirit, he inspired the gospel writers to record the words and works of our Savior so that by faith we know beyond a shadow of a doubt what Jesus has done for us. 

Jesus lived a perfect life in our place, the only one who perfectly understood and sought God at all times. Jesus never turned away from God. He always followed his will perfectly. Incorruptible. Perfect. Holy. That was for us. 

Jesus died the death we deserve for our sins. He took our corruption and said, “This is mine, not theirs.” He paid for our sins in full through his innocent suffering and death on the cross. 

Jesus rose triumphant from the grave to assure us of his victory over sin, death, and the devil. And he gives to us through Spirit-worked faith in our hearts his perfection; his holiness, so we can stand before God blameless.

That is indeed a beautiful picture of God’s grace—one the apostle Paul emphasized in his letter to the Romans… in the verse immediately after his one of sweeping condemnation:

“All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).

Dear Christian, our Savior-God turns our hearts to him through his Word and sacraments. He gives us understanding and creates in us the desire to follow and seek after him. He assures us that we are forgiven and dearly loved. Not because of anything we’ve done to earn or deserve his forgiveness and love, but all because of Jesus. 

Let’s go and tell the people in our lives what amazing things God has done for them too.

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