When I was in high school, I spent the night a a friend’s house. In the middle of the night we snuck out of his house. We were drinking, smoking, and doing stupid stuff (like all that dumb stuff you see people on your neighborhood Facebook complain about). A few hours later, we walked in the door and his dad was sitting on the stairs just inside the door. I’m pretty sure my mouth hit the floor and I turned as white as a ghost. We were busted. All the evidence was in the backpack we were wearing. There was nothing we could do to lie about where we were or what we had done.
Romans 3:19 says, “Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God.”
As I was reading this verse a few weeks ago, I was really drawn to the no excuses part. Some versions read, “mouths will be silenced.” It makes me think of how when you know you are busted you just shut up. You don’t even try to explain yourself because you know you screwed up and there isn’t really an explanation. Just like my friend and I that night, we knew we had screwed up and there was no way out.
The worst part about getting busted was knowing that at some point my parents were going to find out. Up until that point in my life, I had done a pretty good job hiding some of the things I had done. As soon as the sun came up, my friend’s dad said he was taking me home. Nervously, I got in the car.
On the way home, he started the lecture that I knew was coming. He told me about how stupid the things we had done were. He told me about all the punishments his son was going to get. He told me that I wouldn’t be allowed back at their house for a long time. These were all very fair and valid points. Then he told me he wasn’t going to tell my parents. WHAT!?!?!?!? This couldn’t be true. There was no way I was really getting a get out of jail free card. He was going to leave it up to me to tell my parents (spoiler alert: I didn’t). I had screwed up, was caught red handed, and there wasn’t going to be any punishment.
Thankfully Romans 3 doesn’t end with verse 19. It goes on to talk about God’s grace and mercy. There is no excuse for me and my sin, but God is such a merciful God that He redeems me anyway. I’ve been caught red handed, but Jesus died so that I don’t have to pay the penalty. This isn’t an excuse to keep on sinning, but rather gives me all the motivation to serve God. He gave me a free gift and redeemed me, so I should honor Him with all I have.
until next time…