Someone collected a list of excuses offered to insurance companies by people involved in car crashes. These illustrate the lengths to which some folks will go to avoid accepting responsibility for their actions.
“In my attempt to kill a fly I drove into a telephone pole.”
“Coming home, I drove into the wrong driveway and hit a tree I don’t have.”
“I pulled away from the side of the road. glanced at my mother-in-law and headed over the embankment.”
“I was on my way to the doctor’s office with rear-end trouble when my universal joint gave way, causing me to have an accident.”
“I had been driving my car for forty years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident.”
“The telephone pole was approaching fast. I attempted to swerve out of its path when it struck my front end.”
“The pedestrian had no idea which direction to go, so I ran over him.”
These actual excuses are humorous, even silly-sounding. But probably so are some of the excuses we make to ourselves and others. Benjamin Franklin observed, “The person who is good at excuse-making is seldom good at anything else.”
It does no good to try to make excuses to God. He knows the truth about us all. He created us and the universe in which we live. The majesty of creation is evidence of his power and wisdom. “His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood by what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).
His creation testifies to his existence. Those who deny him and refuse to worship him will be without an excuse when they have to face him in judgment.
Then there are those who claim to believe in God and the scriptures but they do not live by what they profess to believe. They excuse this by comparing themselves with others. They make moral judgments about the behavior of others. The pious pronouncements they have made to judge others will be enough to condemn them before God. They, too, are without excuse (Romans 2:1).
God’s holy law is the standard by which all will be judged. And there will be no room for excuses, “so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world held accountable to God” (Romans 3:19). Silenced. No excuses.
Instead of making excuses, and trying to justify ourselves, the best thing to do is get honest with ourselves about our sins and shortcomings, and come to Jesus Christ for forgiveness. He died for us so that we could be redeemed.
“This righteousness comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood” (Romans 3:22-25).
Warren Wiersbe told a story set in a frontier town. A horse bolted and ran away with a wagon carrying a little boy. Seeing the child in danger, a young man risked his life to catch the horse and stop the wagon.
That child grew up to become a lawless man.. One day he stood before a judge to be sentenced for a serious crime. The prisoner recognized the judge as the same young man who had saved his life years earlier. He pled for mercy on the basis of that experience. But the words from the bench silenced him.
“Young man, then I was your savior; today I am your judge, and I must sentence you to be hanged.”
One day Jesus Christ will say to unbelievers who stand before him in the judgment, “During the long day of grace, I was the savior, and I would have forgiven you. But today I am your judge. Depart from me, I never knew you.”
It is a dangerous thing to presume upon God’s present tolerance, restraint and patience. His kindness is intended to lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4). Come to him now and receive his grace. Stop making excuses.
Pastor Randy Faulkner