If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. [1 John 1:8-10 (NLT)]
When the woman joined our group at the table in the school gym, she said, “I got a late start so I was speeding to get here. If a cop stopped me, I was going to tell him I was doing the Lord’s work and, since God will forgive me, he should too.” She insisted that speeding for a godly purpose was a justifiable offense and, since God offers forgiveness, so should the police. Granted, we were doing God’s work by packing meals for the needy but, as the Blues brothers learned when they saved the orphanage, a mission from God is not a “Get Out of Jail Free” card.
Short of rushing someone to the hospital in a life-or-death situation, I’m not sure there is a valid excuse for speeding. While the bags we filled with rice, beans, and seasoning could be considered life-saving, some fifty of us packed food for over three hours so her tardiness had negligible impact on our work. If the woman’s speeding had caused an accident or injury, would she still consider her “mission from God” a valid excuse?
Having pointed my finger at this woman, two were pointed at me and I plead “guilty” as charged. None of us like consequences and so, like her, we all make excuses. In fact, a 2020 poll found that the average American makes six excuses a day! If not to traffic cops, we make them to our teachers, bosses, classmates, co-workers, neighbors, parents, children, spouse, and even to ourselves! We claim we ran out of time, forgot, were too tired, or having a bad day. Instead of blaming the dog for eating our homework, we blame the heavy traffic, the computer that crashed, or the bad weather.
Worse, even though I’ve never had to excuse my driving to the police, I’ve offered a variety of excuses to God for greater offenses! I don’t think I’m alone on this. Rather than a contrite confession, we probably offer a litany of excuses justifying our various transgressions. Like the child who cries, “He started it!” we hold others accountable, claim inexperience or naivete, defend our motives, or blame extenuating circumstances. If a rose by any other name is a rose, I suspect a sin is a sin regardless of how skillfully we try to justify or defend it!
God doesn’t need to be told what we’ve done—He already knows that. He doesn’t want excuses because there is no excuse for sin. He wants us to repent of our sins and turn to Him! The Greek word translated as repent is metanoeó which is more than regretting one’s sin. Its literal meaning is to think differently afterwards. Eerdmans Bible Dictionary defines repentance as “a complete change of orientation involving a judgment upon the past and a deliberate redirection for the future.”
That change of direction can’t happen if we rationalize our sins by blaming others or validate them with excuses. Until we honestly recognize and admit our sins, we’re not likely to repent of them. We can’t turn away from what we’re unwilling to acknowledge doing! Unacknowledged is unrepented!
Although being on a “mission from God” is not an excuse for sin or law-breaking, part of the woman’s theology is correct—God will forgive her! She was, however, totally wrong about why. God doesn’t forgive us because of our good works or great excuses. It is only by God’s grace and our faith in Jesus that we are forgiven. It is when we truthfully look at our sins, contemplate how pitiful and unworthy we are, and offer our failures in their naked ugliness without excuse that we can understand how loving, compassionate, generous, and forgiving our God really is. It is only then that we truly appreciate the gift of God’s forgiveness Jesus gave us on the cross.
True repentance is no light matter. It is a thorough change of heart about sin, a change showing itself in godly sorrow and humiliation – in heartfelt confession before the throne of grace – in a complete breaking off from sinful habits, and an abiding hatred of all sin. Such repentance is the inseparable companion of saving faith in Christ. [J.C. Ryle]
Saul, a man willing to kill his son rather than concede his error in making a foolish vow, wasn’t quite as eager to fulfill other vows he made. Later, he promised his daughter (along with exemption from taxes and military service) to the man who killed Goliath. While the vow prohibiting his men from eating came from his desire for revenge, this one may have come from fear. It was the king’s job to lead his men into battle and Saul, as the tallest man and the only one with bronze armor like Goliath’s, was the obvious choice to take on the Philistine. Perhaps Saul hoped the promise of wealth, honor, and a place at the king’s table would be incentive enough for someone else to volunteer to face the Philistine. For 40 days Goliath had taunted Israel but there were no takers until David.
Last week, when writing how Jephthah’s reckless vow caused his daughter’s death, I remembered how Saul’s equally foolish vow nearly cost his son’s life. While Israel was at war with the Philistines, Saul and his 600 men were camped near Gibeah. Israel was seriously out-numbered by the better-armed Philistines and, because their enemy controlled the pass at Micmash, Saul’s troops could proceed no further. Although the rest of Saul’s men were afraid, Jonathan and his armor bearer were confident that the Lord was with them. Tired of the hopeless standoff with their enemies, the two snuck out of camp and headed toward the Philistine garrison. After passing through two treacherous cliffs and scaling a steep slope, they entered the enemy outpost and, outnumbered ten to one, killed them all.
In the years following the exiles’ return to Judah and the rebuilding of the Temple, adherence to the Law grew lax. Knowing how to live a Jewish life depended on knowing the commandments of the Torah but the people had drifted away from God and His word and were committing the same sins that got them exiled! More than fifty years after the Temple’s rebuilding, Ezra arrived in Jerusalem. As a priest and teacher of the law, Ezra was shocked to find such disobedience. He tore his clothes and pulled his hair in sorrow before kneeling in prayer. He led the people in prayers of confession and repentance after which they swore a solemn oath to follow the Lord’s commands.
Even without knowing what a petard is, we probably know that when someone gets “hoisted by his own petard,” he’s been foiled by his own scheme. When Shakespeare’s audience heard this phrase spoken by Hamlet in 1600, they knew a petard was a bomb. In the bard’s day, hoisted had more than one meaning. Along with lifted, it meant removed or taken out. Taken literally, Hamlet’s phrase meant that his enemy would be blown up by his own bomb!
In a classic Peanuts comic (drawn by Charles Schulz), the meek Linus asked his bossy big sister Lucy, “Why are you always so anxious to criticize me?” She answered, “I just think I have a knack for seeing other peoples’ faults.” When Linus queried, “What about your own faults?” Lucy replied, “I have a knack for overlooking them.” Along with her over-sized ego, Lucy has what psychologists call “fundamental attribution error.”
Devotions of the Heart 