Twelve Reasons Why There are No Acceptable Excuses With God (Romans 1:16-20)
We live in a day when everybody seems to have their own excuse for why they are not submitting to the righteousness of God in Christ. Most people fail to realize that there are no acceptable excuses with God no matter how clever they may think they are. Here are the reasons that Paul gives why all people are without excuse before God in Romans 1:16-20
" For I am not ashamed of the Gospel (good news) of Christ, for it is God’s power working unto salvation [for deliverance from eternal death] to everyone who believes with a personal trust and a confident surrender and firm reliance, to the Jew first and also to the Greek,
17 For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith]. As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith.
18 For God’s [holy] wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative.
19 For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God [Himself] has shown it to them.
20 For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification]. (Romans 1:16-20)
1. Creation - Psalm 19:1-4 says: The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows and proclaims His handiwork.
2 Day after day pours forth speech, and night after night shows forth knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor spoken word [from the stars]; their voice is not heard.
4 Yet their voice [in evidence] goes out through all the earth, their sayings to the end of the world. Of the heavens has God made a tent for the sun.
The creation of God is so wonderfully made with intricate sophistication that it is evidence of God’s brilliant and intelligent design.
2. Conscious Mind - All people are born with a consciousness of their own identity. We have a sense of one’s personal or collective identity, including the attitudes, beliefs, and sensitivities held by or considered characteristic of an individual or group: Love of freedom runs deep in the national consciousness. Special awareness or sensitivity: class consciousness; race consciousness.
Alertness to or concern for a particular issue or situation: a movement aimed at raising the general public’s consciousness of social injustice. We desire freedom but it can only be found by knowing the truth in Christ which sets us free.
3. Conscience - This is the built in smoke alarm that God plants within each person. It is the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action: to follow the dictates of conscience. The conscience is the complex of ethical and moral principles that controls or inhibits the actions or thoughts of an individual. It is an inhibiting sense of what is prudent: I’d eat another piece of pie but my conscience would bother me. This conscience drives us to Christ for the cleansing from our sins and the imputation of His righteousness that comes through faith in the atonement offered to us in Christ Jesus.
Romans 2:14-16 -
(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) 16 This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
4. Cure - The gospel gives us the cure for the spiritual cancer of the soul which is sin. The wages of sin is death, spiritual separation from God. (Rom. 6:23) Only Christ can give us the remedy we need to heal our sin sick soul and cleanse us from all unrighteousness through His blood spilled on Calvary’s cross.
5. Curriculum - The Bible is the curriculum that contains the gospel that teaches us that we must:
A. Admit we are sinners and cannot save ourselves
B. Believe in Christ’s substitutionary payment for the forgiveness of our sins and trust Him to be our personal Savior and Lord
C. Confess Christ Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior by asking Him to come into our life and change us and make us the kind of person He wants us to be so we will serve Him and bear spiritual fruit in all good work. (Romans 10:9-13)
6. Conquering - God gives us the capacity to conquer tribulation, persecution, famine, hardships and despair as He makes us more than conquerors through Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us. Through the empowering, enabling and energizing ministry of the Holy Spirit we are elevated above our circumstances, feelings and hang-ups so we can live victorious over the world, the flesh and the devil. We we do stumble the Bible teaches us that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)
Christ conquering also overcame all the spiritual forces that seek to defeat us and derail us from God’s will for our lives and ministries. "Neither death nor life nor principalities nor powers will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are led as sheep to be slaughtered but in all these things we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. (Romans 8:31-37) If God is for us who can be against us?
7. Cross of Calvary - Christ’s sacrifice on the cross of Calvary is known to every student of history. It is the single most important event of all time. Christ bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might live to God. "He made Him to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ." (2 Cor. 5:21) Christ took on Himself all the past, present and future sins of the world for those who would trust Him to be their sin bearer. The wrath of God was poured out on Christ so we experience the propitiation of God through the vicarious atonement we experience through what Christ did on the cross for us.
8. Church - The church is assurance that Christ will always have a witness to the world as the proof that His bride will prevail against all forces of opposition. Jesus promised, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." (Matt. 16:18) Christ Jesus promises to build His church both qualitatively and quantitatively against all forces of world, the flesh and the devil. He will not fail so we have no excuses since the church will prevail in the worst conditions. When Christ comes to snatch His bride, the church away to heaven, then the wrath of God will be poured out on the earth in a seven year tribulation period. (Rev. 4-21)
9. Cheer - We can rejoice in our tribulations as they produce patience, proven character, hope and the love of God poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us. (Rom. 5:1-5) The Lord justifies us and gives us the confidence that we can be of good cheer as He has overcome the world. (John 16:33) The joy of the Lord in Christians is evidence that He who began a good work in us is able to complete it until the day of Christ. (Phill.1:6) The joy of the Lord is our strength and it buoys people up when they see us triumph against all odds.
10. Christian Love - When people see the love that Christians have they will come to realize that this love is from a supernatural God that transcends time, treasure and trouble. Jesus said, "By this will all men know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another." (John 13:34,35) Love finds a way when there seems to be no way. People are desperate for love and the love from Christians can be evidenced in word and deed to show the world that they are cannot find this love worth finding in no other place by in the lives of born again Christians.
11. Commands - All has been heard; the end of the matter is: Fear God [revere and worship Him, knowing that He is] and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man [the full, original purpose of his creation, the object of God’s providence, the root of character, the foundation of all happiness, the adjustment to all inharmonious circumstances and conditions under the sun] and the whole [duty] for every man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it is good or evil. (Eccl. 12:13,14)
The commandments are beneficial but necessary to show that all people will be held accountable to God for their thoughts, words and actions.
Romans 14:12 says, "And so each of us shall give an account of himself [give an answer in reference to judgment] to God.
12. Changed Lives - When people see the change that Christ Jesus has made in a persons life they cannot deny the power of God to bring about renovation, renewal and the righteousness of God in the life of a believer.
2 Cor. 5:17 says, "Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!
God’s change in our lives brings fresh evidence and testimony to the great working of the Spirit of God to bring refurbishment to minds, hearts and lives that resonate with the new life of Christ that attracts all with His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. (Gal. 5:22,23)
He delivers us from the destruction, defeat and degrading of sin and brings us into a life of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
13. Convicting Ministry of the Holy Spirit - And when He comes, He will convict and convince the world and bring demonstration to it about sin and about righteousness (uprightness of heart and right standing with God) and about judgment: (John 16:8)
Millions are coming to Christ every day as a result of being convicted by the Holy Spirit in a dream or a vision of the reality of Christ, their sin and the issue of eternity. This is happening particularly in the Muslim world where people are being spoken to by God in their dreams by the Spirit of God. No boundaries are too great for the penetration of the Spirit of God into the areas where the gospel is yet to reach.
Conclusion: The Metropolitan Insurance Company had received through the years from its customers who had reported automobile accidents. Listen to some of these excuses:
An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my car, and vanished.
The other car collided with mine without warning me of its intention.
I had been driving my car for 40 years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had the accident.
As I reached an intersection, a hedge sprang up, obscuring my vision.
I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law, and headed over the embankment.
The pedestrian had no idea which direction to go, so I ran over him.
The telephone pole was approaching fast. I attempted to swerve out of its path when it struck my front end.
The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.
The indirect cause of this accident was a little guy in a small car with a big mouth.
We all make our excuses, but before God none are acceptable. Trust Christ today and let Him deliver you, make you whole and give you a power that will help you overcome all your sins and hang-ups.
