That Old Devil!
The Rev. Lou Tiscione, Pastor, Weatherford Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Flip Wilson the comic had a response to why people do bad things. His answer was, “The devil made me do it!” His answer came to be known as, “Flip Wilson theology”. Rather than take responsibility, we could say, “That old devil is at it again!” I have no reason to believe that his answer reflected Flip Wilson’s philosophy of life. But, when he said it, genuine laughter ensued. The reason is we don’t naturally want to own up to the things that we do. Consider the responses by Adam and Eve to God in Genesis 3. We naturally look for someone or something else to blame.
Even the stages of building projects reflect man’s tendency to shift the blame. I remembered that one of the stages was called the “reward of the non-participants”. Another was referred to as the “persecution of the innocent”. But each stage had an activity called “fixing the blame”. When a problem would stop progress, there was an exerted effort to fix the blame. It didn’t matter whether the blame was deserved. The important thing was to hold someone else responsible for the problem.
“Fixing the blame” is not only reserved for building projects. As mentioned above, it’s as old as Adam and Eve. Adam sought to blame God for his failure. After all, it was God who gave him the woman (Genesis 3:12). Adam’s argument didn’t impress God. Adam bore the penalty for his sin and the entire human race fell with him and inherited his sin nature.
The Bible declares more about man’s sinful tendency to fix the blame. God said, “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? As I live, declares the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine; the soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:2-4).
fixing the blame, denying responsibility is like a father eating sour grapes and his child experiencing the sour taste. God said that would not be. Rather each one is responsible for his sin. Denying our responsibility will not make it go away. We will all stand before a holy God and give Him an account.
The way Lord and GOD are typed in your Bible is very important. Lord means Adoni, Master, and the Sovereign One. GOD with all capital letters signifies the personal and covenant name of God, Yahweh, and The Great I Am. Yahweh is a form of the Hebrew verb “to be”. In Exodus 3:14, God declared that He is Yahweh, “I am who I am”. The only true God, the Sovereign Creator, the Triune God, fully revealed in Jesus who referred to Himself as “I Am”, will hold each one accountable for his actions.
This fact of man’s responsibility was written by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church in Rome. “There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek [Gentile], but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek [Gentile]. For God shows no partiality” (Romans 2:9-11).
God’s holiness requires that He act with perfect justice. God, as the apostle declared, does not favor any nationality, position, or individual person. All are judged based upon His perfect standard. His judgment is final. God never “winks” at sin.
The end of the Bible has these terrifying words of judgment. “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done” (Revelation 20:12).
Every human being deserves punishment for sin. The only way to be spared from the wrath of God is through Jesus’ perfect life and sacrifice. He is the only appeasement of God’s wrath. Man’s hope is Jesus. He alone paid the price for sins. We all deserve hell. But God is rich in mercy. Jesus took the blame for His people. “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
