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Day 316, or November the 12th. You are unique,

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but not unusual. Our thoughts today come from

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Romans chapter 3, verse 23. For all have sinned

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and fall short of the glory of God. And now the

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big picture surrounding this verse. Paul's letter

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to the church in Rome is generally acknowledged

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as his greatest work, and comes first in his

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collection of thirteen letters. It is also the

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longest one he wrote, and it is to a church that

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he had never visited. The first three chapters

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make the case for our need of God's righteousness,

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because by ourselves we are all short of the

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standard God requires of us. Paul explains why

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the Gentiles are in need of God's divine help,

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and then surprisingly for many of his readers,

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he goes on to confirm that the Jews are no better

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even with the law of Moses. It seems probable

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that this letter was written by Paul during one

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of his stays in Corinth, and is a true ancient

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masterpiece by the world's first and perhaps

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greatest missionary, the Apostle Paul. And now

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for today's action step. In this 21st century

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world, which seems insistent that we are all

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equal and have equal rights, it's refreshing

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to read that we agree with God. Paul confirms

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that we are all short of the standard required

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by God, because we have all sinned. Then the

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debate begins. Many of us would say that we are

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not sinners, we are certainly no worse than anyone

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else. Sin comes in three varieties, thoughts,

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words, and actions. Thinking a bad thing, saying

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a bad thing, and doing a bad thing. If we only

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commit one of each type every day, by the end

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of the year, we have amassed over a thousand.

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For listeners to this audiobook, that means tens

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of thousands so far, and counting. So it's impossible

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to be pure and clean and acceptable. It is if

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we remain independent. However, with God's help,

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perfection has already been achieved with the

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sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. So we are all

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equally less than perfect, and we are all equally

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offered the pardon we need to wipe our slate

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clean. Now that's true equality. It may be time

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to listen to day 21 again.