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The words accuse and excuse are words that are poles apart. To be accused of something is to have the finger of blame pointed at me. To be excused of something is to have that blame deflected or to be exonerated from such an accusation. In the eternal world to come, that distinction is the literal difference between heaven (eternal bliss) and hell (eternal condemnation). In this message we will note how these two words impacted the Gentile nations in previous dispensations and how they still impact persons living today.

Paul wrote, “For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.” (Romans 2.12-16).

Paul’s first point is the fact that a mere hearing or possession of the law was of no benefit to the person hearing or possessing it. It was true that the Law of Moses was given to the Israelite nation, but that in and of itself, was of no spiritual significance as far as their eternal destinies was concerned. It was the “doers of the law” that were to be justified [declared righteous] and not those who merely received it. So the first myth of the Jewish nation of Paul’s day was dispelled – they had no spiritual advantage due to the mere fact that they were possessors of the oracles of God. Paul will comment later in the third chapter of Romans to this point, but he will not alter the statement he just made, i.e., “For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified…”

Man is a creature of conscience whether Jew or Gentile. That God-given part of man is connected to the moral accountability which is inescapably connected to being human. When God made man, He placed within him the moral capacity for good and evil as well as an inner voice that accuses or excuses each of his actions; this is not to say that that faculty can never be wrong (e.g. excuse an action that is contrary to absolute truth), but it does say that man is accountable first of all to his own sense of right and wrong and then to a higher power. The plain fact is this: No man who ever comes to accountability has perfectly honored his conscience; we all violate that which we think to be right and wrong. It is this unalterable fact that leaves each and every accountable person condemned before God apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul further stated that this principle would be operative in the day when God would judge the “…secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.” In that day, all accountable men will stand before God condemned by their own conscience should they die apart from the saving grace that exists only within the gospel. It is not the gospel that condemns (accuses), rather, it is the gospel that justifies (excuses). Our potential condemnation is not the result of the gospel; it is the result of our own actions that violate whatever laws to which we are answerable.

The conscience is a valuable faculty that must be protected, but the gospel is greater in that it can provide actual remedy for violations of conscience and law.

Questions

1. Why is the conscience alone not a safe guide in matters religious?

2. Why must we honor conscience in our actions?

3. Does the gospel condemn? Why or why not?

4. Does any accountable person have a absolutely perfect conscience? If not, what hope does that person have of being excused (justified) of their transgressions of conscience and law?

"'Christ in You...'" from Dale Krebbs

Time And Chance