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4
No. 1
"There is no difference"
One of the earliest impressions received by the student of nature is its endless variety. Field and forest, river and
sea, earth and sky teem with variety. Every conceivable colour, form, and structure fill the three kingdoms of
nature. One enthusiastic observer commenced photographing snowflakes many years ago. He has taken over
10,000 photographs - ALL DIFFERENT, and there is every reason to believe that he would have to take 10,000 more
before he came across a repeat!
We need go no further than ourselves to realize the bewildering variety. Each one of us has a thousand
peculiarities that mark us off from the rest of mankind. Your signature is so individual that the bank will pay out
cash upon that peculiarity alone. Your finger print is so exclusively yours that it would be evidence in a court of
law, either for or against you. Yet, in spite of our differences, we are, after all, much alike in the deeper things, and
it is in one of these unifying characters that the Scriptures find a word common to all:
"There is NO DIFFERENCE" (Rom. 3:22).
Human nature likes to remember differences. The Hindoo system of caste is built upon the observance of
distinctions. The English system of class is much the same in essence. It is humiliating to be told that high and low,
rich and poor, learned and ignorant have some levelling property that breaks through all barriers of class and
distinction.
In the days of the apostles it was the Jew who felt so keenly the slightest attempt made against his narrow class
system, and it is in connection with this spirit of pharisaical pride that we meet with the great levelling word of
Romans 3:1-23 :
"What advantage then hath the Jew? ... Much every way: ... What then? ARE WE BETTER than they? No, in no
wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; ... that every mouth may be
stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. ... FOR THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE; for all have sinned,
and come short of the glory of God".
All pride of race and privilege, of light and learning, all boast in ancestry is levelled in the dust, we are all
slaves! "Under sin" says Romans 3:9; "sold under sin" says Romans 7:14. There are countless varieties of sin,
some loathsome, some attractive, some profane, some religious, some degrading, some most refined, but "there is no
difference" in the one great fact, "for all have sinned, AND COME SHORT".
See, through that office door comes a group of rejected men. They have sought to pass the medical examination
connected with a government post. They have "come short" of the required height, that is all, yet they have failed
just as surely as those less fortunate folk who did not even get so far as to reach the medical examination stage. Do
we hear one saying to another, "But I only missed by an inch!" Has not the wisdom of this world expressed itself in
such proverbs as, "A miss is as good as a mile", and "We may as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb"? Why
therefore waste precious time in the vain attempt to extract some comfort to our pride by observing degrees in guilt?
God says, "There is no difference", and His judgment is just. Romans 3 leaves the reader with no uncertainty in the
matter:
"There is NONE righteous, NO, NOT ONE" (Rom. 3:10).
"Every mouth ... stopped, and ALL THE WORLD ... guilty" (Rom. 3:19).
and between the "None" and the "All" there is no loophole.
No difference in disease or remedy
There is good news, however, for sinners. One in need, yet we find that God has provided one remedy for all
without respect of persons or degrees of sin: