Without excuse

Someone once said that an excuse is the "skin of a reason - stuffed with a lie."

That can be true.

This evening, we will be looking at Romans 1:18-32.

Lots there to unpack.  Lots there to wrap our minds around.

One of the most troubling thoughts (troubling in the sense of being difficult to understand) from this passage (and there are many) is the idea that the "heathen" (those without a connection to Jesus Christ) are without excuse before God.

Paul writes in Romans 1:19, 20, "Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

The question is not, "can a person acknowledge and understand God through his conscience and through nature," but will that knowledge save them?

The answer is no. 

Knowledge of God through creation and through the conscious can only make man aware of God's presence - which in turn can only condemn him and not save him.

People die and go to hell because they are sinners.  Rejecting Christ only "seals the deal."

Follow the logic:

God reveals himself to a person through his conscious (or that "God-shaped vacuum in them - the realization that there is a 'higher power') and through nature around him. 

That realization prompts him to live a life of choosing between right and wrong.

A person cannot live a consistent godly life without the power and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

It is only through Jesus that a person can be saved.

Now then:  the challenging thought is that it is only through Jesus that people can be saved - our responsibility is to share Jesus with the world around us.

Just a thought for a Wednesday.