California Farmer 239:9 (Dec. 8, 1973), p. 28.
One of the many things people fail to understand about God is that the Lord is no respecter of excuses. In Genesis 3:9–19, God makes it clear that He regards all excuses as only ground for condemnation and judgment.
Man can never approach God with anything other than perfect faith and obedience. This Jesus Christ has done in our stead, and, in addition to this, has given us grace to obey Him. We are thus required to give Him the obedience of faith, to recognize that we have been called, not to disobey God’s law, but to obey it and to serve Him in every area of life.
But man prefers the way of excuses to the way of obedience. Our Lord ridiculed and condemned excuses in His parable of the unwilling guests, who made excuses to avoid the invitation. One man said, “I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.” Another man said, “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.” And another said, “I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come” (Luke 14:16–20). Christ was emphatic that excuses not only have no standing with God but excite instead His anger.
Be sure of this, then, that God accepts no excuses for lack of faith and obedience, for failure to tithe, for failure to serve Him in all our ways, or for failure to know His Word. The Lord is no respecter of excuses.
A world which is governed by excuses is a dangerous one. It means that, if you feel that your sin has value to you, then you have an excuse for sin. It means that a worker is free to destroy or harm an employer’s property if he dislikes his wages. It means that we excuse our children’s delinquencies because we feel sorry for them, or love them.
In brief, excuses serve as a means of justifying sin, something God will not permit. God will, however, justify, by His sovereign grace, the repentant sinner. The world of excuses is the realm of sin justified. The world of grace is the realm of sinners justified and made a new creation in order “[t]hat the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us” (Rom. 8:4).
Choose your world, a world of irresponsibility and excuses, or the world of responsibility and righteousness. Your life depends on your choice.
- R. J. Rushdoony
Rev. R.J. Rushdoony (1916–2001), was a leading theologian, church/state expert, and author of numerous works on the application of Biblical law to society. He started the Chalcedon Foundation in 1965. His Institutes of Biblical Law (1973) began the contemporary theonomy movement which posits the validity of Biblical law as God’s standard of obedience for all. He therefore saw God’s law as the basis of the modern Christian response to the cultural decline, one he attributed to the church’s false view of God’s law being opposed to His grace. This broad Christian response he described as “Christian Reconstruction.” He is credited with igniting the modern Christian school and homeschooling movements in the mid to late 20th century. He also traveled extensively lecturing and serving as an expert witness in numerous court cases regarding religious liberty. Many ministry and educational efforts that continue today, took their philosophical and Biblical roots from his lectures and books.