No Excuses

Romans · Romans 2 · July 12, 2026

What if your excuses are hiding the hurt God wants to heal?

Kids are experts at excuses: “Yeah, but they pushed me first!” And if we’re honest, we do the same thing with God: “You don’t know what they did to me.” Often our excuses come from shame, guilt or pride. But God isn’t after our excuses. He wants to heal what’s underneath them.

Romans 1 ended with a long list of sins, the kind religious people love to point at. Then Romans 2 opens with a one-two punch: “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things” (Romans 2:1).

What Paul reveals about us

1. We all think we have an excuse. Our upbringing, what was done to us, what our parents did. Jesus told of a great banquet where “they all alike began to make excuses” (Luke 14:18). But “don’t excuse yourself by saying, ‘Look, we didn’t know’… He who guards your soul knows you knew” (Proverbs 24:12).

2. We all think we should be exempt. We cheer when someone else gets pulled over for speeding, then insist it was an accident when it’s us. “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought” (Romans 12:3).

3. We all think we’re exemplary. We want people to overlook our flaws and focus on our good. But Jesus said, “Why do you worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?” (Matthew 7:3). Evaluating actions is wise; judging a person’s worth is not ours to do.

The truth is, I have no excuse, and I do the same things. “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23).

What Paul reveals about God

God is just. “God does not show favoritism” (Romans 2:11). “Everything he does is just and fair” (Deuteronomy 32:4).

God is good. “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). But good doesn’t mean nice. As C.S. Lewis wrote of Aslan, he isn’t safe, “but he’s good.”

God is kind. “Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?” (Romans 2:4).

Two questions

Will you accept His kindness? “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17).

Will you let Him change your heart? Paul says true faith is “circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit” (Romans 2:29), not outward religion but inward transformation. God promises, “I will give you a new heart… I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). It starts with David’s prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).

Scripture references

Romans 2:1–29 · Romans 1:20, 32 · Acts 1:8 · Luke 14:16–20 · Proverbs 24:12 · Romans 12:3 · Matthew 7:1–5 · Romans 3:23 · Romans 7:15–21 · Deuteronomy 32:4 · Psalm 34:8 · Titus 3:4–5 · Romans 6:23 · John 3:16–17 · Ezekiel 36:26 · Psalm 51:10 · Isaiah 53:5 · Numbers 6:24–26

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