YFC Training

 October 25, 2024

Last month I was thinking about the basics of our faith and remembered the “plan of salvation” I was taught in a Youth for Christ leadership training retreat led by Sterling Huston and Fred Thomas. Those of you who grew up in the Rochester area in the 60’s will know who I mean. This method of sharing the Gospel lays out in an orderly way how a person can go from lost to found, sin to salvation, death to life.

We’ll begin with Romans 3:23—“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” 

It’s pretty straightforward, except for one thing: we often give assent to this Scripture, but don’t really believe it. “All have sinned” sounds pretty judgmental and condemning. When I look at people, I don’t automatically think to myself, “There is a sinner.” Most of the time I see “good” people, not sinners. 

My problem is in the meaning of the word “sinner.” We tend to think of it as being a bad person doing bad things. But that’s not what the word means. The most common word for sin in the New Testament is a military term which simply means “to miss the mark.” You aim your gun or bow and do your best to hit the bullseye, but miss. That’s sin. Bad people sin, but so do good people. 

We may do our best, but we all miss the target of God’s glory. We fall short. Some aren’t aiming at all; others are being as careful as they can, but we all still miss. That’s sin. Tomorrow, we’ll look at what the target is.