Society today loves to make excuses. Really, we are all guilty of it at some point or another. Excuses commonly make us feel like we have a way out of whatever situation we may be in. Friends want to hang out when you really don’t want to? “Oh, we already have plans.” Showing up late for work? “There was an accident—traffic was terrible.” Didn’t finish the homework you were supposed to complete last night? “My dog ate my homework.” While many of these are the stereotypical excuses we usually hear and joke about, the fact still remains that we try to talk our way out of things. What we need to consider, though, is how often do we give excuses for our sins?
In Romans 3, Paul discusses several arguments the people in his audience seem to be making about their situation. Among these arguments, Paul addresses some very twisted logic: “if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world?” (3:5-6). Follow the reasoning in what is being argued by Paul’s audience—if we continue to do unrighteous things, that makes God look even more righteous by comparison! Essentially, the more bad things we do, the more glory is given to God. While this doesn’t make sense, as Paul points out, we can quickly catch on to what the people are doing. Because they do not want to change their unrighteous living, they try to give excuses to dismiss the problem they have. We even see a similar line of reasoning at the beginning of Romans 6—“Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” If God gives grace to sinful people, then we should get more grace the more we sin, right? As Paul responds: “May it never be!” (6:1-2).
We often read passages like these and wonder how these people came up with these backward ways of thinking. However, are these excuses any different than the ones we often make? When it comes to the sin in our lives, it is easy for us to try to talk our way out of the situation to make it less severe or to pawn it off on someone or something else. We tell ourselves, “My sin could be a lot worse! It’s nothing TOO bad,” or even “It’s just too hard for me to stop. I’m not strong enough to fight back.” While these may just be a couple excuses we make, there is really no difference to what Paul is trying to address. We can make excuses all we want, but they do us no good in the long run.
What Paul is communicating to his audience is something we need to hear. Our excuses do not change our condition. If we continue to live in sin and allow it to rule our lives, God’s wrath will be upon us (Romans 1:18). We all are sinners who have broken God’s commandments. Those sins separate us from God and ultimately will lead us to judgment and destruction. We need to stop excusing the problem we have. Instead, we need to remember that we can change! We may be sinners, but that is not the end of our story. We have been given a chance to start again and to live differently than we did before! To do this, there has to be a change in our mindset—no longer excusing the life we were living and starting to live the way God wants us to live. It is my prayer that each of us stop making excuses and start making the changes we need to be the people God wants us to be!
Spiritual Hites 