“There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed: neither hid that shall not be known” Luke 12:02

I couldn’t help myself – Is no excuse for any person

The problem boils down to this, “Am I responsible for my actions and if so to what extent?”

If I do wrong in what sense is it wrong and by what standards? Ultimately since God is responsible for the fact that I exist, is He not responsible for the fact that I am what I am? If I do good, then I am encouraged  to give God the glory and praise. But if on the other hand I do evil and am evil, surely by the same argument (though in reverse), I have the right to ascribe responsibility to God? He has permitted me to go the wrong road just as truly as He has directed me along the right road!

But let me put the case in quite a specific and unhappy, very common form. “If God knows what I did, why did He allow me to do it?  The answer is, of course, very simple. He does not allow us to do anything wrong any more than He allows us to anything right. He merely created us as human beings, with power to make either choice. And whatever pre-determining factors lie behind any choice, there is abundant room for us to say yes or no. We are not puppets or marionettes to be jiggled around at the behest of a master mind and controlling hand. 

We are children of God, born into His family on earth, and we have as much power to go wrong or right as children in any home of earthly parents. Let any child offer as an excuse for helping himself to some odd cash in a drawer, for example,  “My hand was jerked into the drawer. I could not help myself,” and see how effective

the excuse would prove? This is no more puerile than some of the excuses we offer for misdemeanors of a more serious character. Moreover, no rationalism can ease a wicked conscience, not even when that rationalization takes the form of the excuse that we are victims of social taboos and conventional prohibitions. 

The moral laws do not bend to your whims. They stand foursquare. You don’t break them, you  break yourselves on them. Put them out the door and they come back through the window. All this is just saying in other words: “Life works one way – God’s way” I know of only one road as such. It leads back to the Father’s home, where still we have the right to do well or ill, but where somehow, we come upon a desire and power to do well, because God is so near, and close, and in His presence, sin just cannot live.

We are the children of God’s own creation and love, and there is no place like home – God’s home.

Extract from “More Saturday Talks” by Rev JB Webb