Without Excuse

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Romans 1:20 says, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”  

     We like excuses.  When i was a kid and missed school, my mother would write out an “excuse” for me, which I took to school to give to the teacher.  My missed day was then marked down as an “excused absence.”  On of our biggest ways of excusing something is to blame it on someone else.  Maybe we all have been in similar situations where you are proclaimed as one who blames others for our situation.  It was evident in the Garden of Eden when God approached the man and woman and spoke with them about their failure to do what God had said.  The man passes the buck to the woman by saying, “the woman that you gave me is responsible.”  The woman then passes the buck to the serpent by saying, “The serpent deceived me.”  I would then usually say, “And the serpent didn’t have a leg to stand on.”  We also sometimes see the statement on a desk of a CEO, “The buck stops here.”

     The opening three chapters of Romans sums up the situation of mankind with the statement, “All have sinned.”  Every person is going to have to deal with the fact that they are sinners and as stated here, “...they are without excuse.”  The following couple of chapters says that every class of people is without excuse.  The Jews who had the  oracles of God were without excuse and even the gentiles were without excuse as the very creation cries out that there is a Creator.  We, as a people, need to come to the conclusion that we are sinners.  It is not easy for some to do that as they figure t hey are just as good as the next person and don’t do anything out of the ordinary and so feel that somehow, God will let them into heaven.  We like to compare ourselves to the worst sinners in the world and then conclude that  we are so much better than they are that God will overlook our personal sins.  Matthew points out that many will proclaim at the final judgment that did this or that for God, and Jesus will say, “Depart from me, I never knew you.”  That excuse won’t work at the Great White Throne Judgment.  The human race seems to be bent on ignoring God’s Word and His way of salvation and in the end, they will all be without excuse.   The new motto that is out for sale in stores is a portrayal of the repentant thief on the cross, who arrives in Paradise and someone asks, “Who said you could come?”  the thief replies, “The man on the middle cross said I could come.”  Jesus had just died on the cross and the thief then had his legs broken by a Roman Spear so that he could no longer stand to get a  breath and then he died only  to be ushered into Paradise.  The Philippian Jailer asked the question concerning salvation and Paul said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ .”  His payment had been paid by Christ Himself on the cross at Calvary.  Praise God that He gave us the Way of salvation.