Oh, the value of one little three-lettered word. In Greek, it is written: Pas. In Hebrew, it is written: Kol. In Spanish, todos. In French, tous. In Italian, tutti. In Russian, BCE.
In the Holy Scriptures, it is written, felt, believed, placed in all the right spots to make the biggest difference that can be found. All the best and brightest moments in scripture, I propose, come when all of Israel gathered to hear God's word read after walking back from foreign lands, when all of what would become Christendom gathered in an upper room, when all the saints went marching in.
In English, the word is ALL.
Let me point out what a difference that three-letter word can make in a sentence, in a scripture, in a lifetime of regret. All is the difference in Hebrew theology between the saved and the fallen. All is the difference in proper obedience to the Law and in fallen worshippers.
For example, in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy's 28th chapter and its beginning verse: If you obey the Lord your God and faithfully keep ALL his commands that I am giving you today, he will make you greater than any other nation on earth. Not the ones you like most. Not the ones you're most comfortable in doing. Not the best or the worst of the lot. All letter T's scrossed and I's dotted.
Then, in the Apostle Paul's letter to Rome's early Christians the theology of grace reads like this: The Savior will come from Zion and remove ALL wickedness from the descendants of Jacob ... and ...This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God ...
Gathered as wheat on a Thursday workday, bundled into being, mashed into meaning, the word ALL in scripture (I believe) is vital because 1) the Israelites were told that they must keep ALL of the law and 2) if they tried or if they didn't, the result was the same. They couldn't, didn't, wouldn't. That was significant.
Not some of them, but ALL of them. Not some of us, but ALL of us. I've got some friends that if they were Catholic might be in line for Sainthood. They're good folk, if you know what I mean. Good to their cores. Good stock. Good roux for the gumbo. Good teachers to their kids. Good and kind to strangers and as unconditionally loving to their friends as big-eyed pets would be. They've drunk a pitcher of living water; they've feasted on unlimited loves of the bread of life. They understand who Jesus is because they have a clear and valid relationship with him. They study scriptures, they pray mightily both publicly and in whatever their prayer closets might be. They feed the hungry, they read and absorb the latest spiritual books, and they have a noticeable, wonderful, enviable missional life. They are what I perceive Jesus might have looked like in terms of their actions. WWJD isn't a slogan to them; it's real as mustard seeds of faith as big as baseballs.
Oh, to a person they're also sinners, spiritual failures of a sort, because Paul tells us that ALL have fallen short. ALL. Everyone. Not a single, solitary, end of the world last person on earth kind of thing. ALL. They are all sinners. Oh, they clean up real nice, but they're sinners. Oh, they come across as well-meaning and terrifically splendid. Oh, I love them for who they are and what they accomplish for the poor, the oppressed, the least of these.
But they are run of the mill sinners. Pas of them. Kol of them. Mother Teresa and MLK and Calvin and Wesley and all the apostles and even my dear Paul. Sinners. All OF THEM.
For some that is stomach-clinching painful. Guilt eats them up like they were road kill to a hungry homeless man. They can't understand how that could be, so they try harder and harder and keep failing. Ultimately they simply deny their failure, their sin and they turn their focus on others and being to think, "Well, my sin isn't as great as they're sin." And homosexuality becomes a greater sin than egotism. Abortion becomes greater than lying. The next sin you don't have a problem with becomes greater than the one you do.
Therefore the fact that there is Good News for ALL is as surprising as it is wonderful. In Paul's letter, the second portion of the final sentence written above reads, ... and ALL are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Oh, heavenly day.
ALL are justified freely by his grace. Justified is a big ol' theological word that means SAVED. Extracted from the dump. Pulled out of the fire. Taken from the terror. And it doesn't just work for church folk on Sunday morning. In fact, those church folk on Sunday morning need a humongous handful of that saving hard-to-grasp graces just as much as the ones who were on the street corner late Saturday night if not more.
For God so loved the world. All of it. Kol. Pas. ALL.
Where we ALL failed, He was there to pick ALL of us up, lifting us past the measuring stick, raising us above the barrier every bit as tall as the wall that separates Palestine today from Israel, that separates sinner and saint like a Mason-Dixon line painted in Jesus' blood.
Here's the bottom line: God said the Hebrews must do ALL the law for salvation. They (and ALL of mankind) could not. Tried. Tried so very hard. Fingernails on the edge of the cliff effort. Tried with tears and with suffering. Tried by most, though not all. Tried, dear brethren, in the day and the night. Tried when the cost was friends and family oftentimes. Tried but still failed. ALL.
Humanity needed something else. A new way. A new song of Zion that had yet to be sung. A new light of the world. Luckily, God had already planned for All of the problem. John's Gospel said, "In he beginning, the Word already existed. ... Through him God made ALL things; not one thing in ALL creation was made without him. What mankind needed was a baby born in a tiny wayside village in the hills of a tiny wayside area called Palestine. That something else humanity needed was, is and forever will be Jesus the Christ.
ALL I can say is thank you, Lord Jesus. In the 107th Psalm I read, "They must thank him with sacrifices and with songs of joy must tell ALL that he has done.
Get up and dance ALL of you; Plow a joyful field; wet some eyes with happiness.
"God saw ALL that he had made, and it was very good."
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