- They Are Only Excuses

It is sad but true that many people are going to hell while they try to hide behind a variety of excuses. As a minister, I have never found men and women rejecting the gospel of Christ on the basis of misunderstanding or confusion. Rather, the problem is some dark place in the soul, some secret sin. The rejection of Christ is the refusal to give these things up and come to the light of Christ and follow Him.

I for one never want to be in the tragic condition of living where the light of God cannot reach me. The world of nature has its flatworms and silverfish and other slimy creepers and crawlers. All of these try desperately to stay out of the light. They can only exist by avoiding the light of the sun. They live under the rocks and in the dark caves and the damp crevices. The last thing they desire is the glorious radiance of the sun. For us, the rays of the sun are part of God’s bountiful provision for life and health, but the sun’s rays cannot penetrate the hiding places of those creeping, crawling creatures.

I do not want to be like a hidden-away flatworm. I want to live in the light of God’s grace and Spirit. Only in that way can I learn more of His love and of His person and character. Though I sense that God has already taught me much, I know there is still much more to be learned. God wants to give me more light, more understanding of His will and His ways. This is a great and far-reaching truth. John expressed it better than I can when he said:
God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:5-7) A serious-minded young man once talked with me. “Dr. Tozer,” he said, “I know that every one of us was brought into this world with a design for life and for existence. Why are there so many among us who seem to be drifting, so many with no purpose in life and with no thought of eternity?” No person can answer such a searching question for someone else! But I have analyzed it for myself and for my own life. If I should have missed—rejected—God’s plan of salvation, it would have been far better for me to have been carried from my mother’s arms to the grave while I was yet an unnamed infant. If I miss this gracious salvation, I miss the privilege of one day standing around the throne of God with the redeemed of all ages.