I Didn’t Do It…

Vic McCormick

Denying responsibility seems almost inborn. At the earliest of ages you find children denying what they did. The lamp falls to the floor and breaks. Junior the only one in the room but he’ll tell you “I didn’t do it.” Your son borrows the family car and scratches the fender. He places it back in the garage without a word. When it is discovered and questions are raised, you can almost guarantee the first words are, “I didn’t do it.” The daughter borrows, without permission, her mother’s denim jacket and goes to the ball game. Later mother reaches for the jacket and finds mustard on the front of it. She doesn’t have to ask. Susie will say, “I didn’t do it.”

Some as they grow older don’t get over the desire to deny. The machinist in hurrying to finish a job creates a blemish. When the inspector finds it the machinist will say, “I didn’t do it.” The boss’s assistant will misfile an important paper and when it can’t be found, will deny even handling it.

A variation of such denials started back in the Garden of Eden. Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and Adam also ate. When asked, Adam did not take responsibility for his own actions, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate” (Gen. 3:12). He makes it sound like God is at fault for giving him a wife. Some men are still blaming their wives for their own short comings. The reverse also is true. Wives who are unfaithful to the Lord blame their husbands for their failures. On occasion such may be true, but most often, they seek an excuse and so blame their mate.

Paul writes, “…the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Our Lord spoke to those who thought others were greater sinners than they. They think some sins are little and don’t count. Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Lk. 13:3). Even a new child of warned, “Repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you” (Acts 8:22). Paul says there was a time of ignorance that God overlooked, but “God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent” (Acts 17:30). Again, “Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

After all, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). No, God is not out to get us or to punish us. Every day that we live is intended to be a day of opportunity. A day to admit our failures before God and receive His forgiveness. Jesus illustrated this when He told the story of the lost, but found sheep. The added, “I tell you in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7).

Paul notes that, “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23). We need to be mature enough, so as to stop saying, “I didn’t do it.” Once we acknowledge our sins and repent of them, we can build on the rock of truth, preparing for the future, both in this world and that which is to come.