No Excuses

If ever there were people who had reason to have excuses, it would have been the Roman Christians. They were vastly outnumbered in the heart of an alien culture with pagan standards. Their Caesar, Nero, could be unstable and rash.

They easily could have blamed their problems on the hostile culture and circumstances they faced. Just imagine trying to live a victorious Christian life when surrounded by people living the way Paul described in Romans 1:18-32! It was a world of ungodliness, unrighteousness, and vile behavior. People were given over “to uncleanness” and “the lusts of their hearts.” There were “whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things.”

Nonetheless, Paul didn’t want them to think about this evil, but to realize that they had “no excuse” before God. Suddenly he began talking not about “them” (as he had in Romans 1) but about “you.” There are 15 uses of the words “you,” “your,” or “yourself” in the first five verses of Romans 2.

These Romans could not feel superior or even judgmental. In fact, Paul was leading them to realize a great truth: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Paul understood that we aren’t justified before God because of anything we have done, but “as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24). He taught that all of us deserve death, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Today, remember that you owe everything to God. How wonderful to have your sins forgiven—to be clean and pure, freed from guilt! Thank Him for His Word! His love! His mercy and grace! Offer yourself as a “living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God” (Romans 12:1).