While being down and out in terms of being able to move around, I have watched several documentaries on gangs in prison and the historical background on the risings of street gangs. One thing that has struck me with some degree of power is that men will justify their behavior for murder and anything else by blaming others or by comparing themselves to others. Men will work hard to come up with some standard that will allow them to think of themselves as righteous.
One man, though he had killed and murdered between twenty and thirty men, was horrified that some would consider killing women and children. Others thought it was a terrible thing that men would kill just to make money, but had no problem with it as long as it was for power in the prison system. Still others wanted to blame their selling of drugs and multiple shootings on those of another race that they blamed their poverty on. Another man wanted to blame his many murders, his practice of sodomy, and his many other crimes on the fact that had been treated badly in school and then beaten in prison. Without arguing that those are not secondary causes in his life of crime and sin, he seemed to refuse to accept the fact that he was a sinner.
The Bible is so clear on the subject of murder that it seems so obvious, but the power of the depraved heart to come up with reasons and excuses for killing others appears to be almost unlimited. This strange aptitude or even power in the heart seems to have been a result of the fall. Adam blamed Eve and God and Eve blamed the devil. The human heart is given over to drink iniquity like water, but it is also given over to blame others and come up with excuses for its sin. Scripture is quite clear that on that day no man will have an excuse. On that day all will see their sin and the judicial hardening for sin that blinds people now will then be used to give light to the eyes.
John Calvin taught that the human heart is nothing more (so to speak) than an idol factory, but we can also see that part of being a factory of idols the human heart excuses its idols with even more idols. The human heart is full of self and so self is used to excuse self for all the behaviors of self. We see this in children from an early age when their anger is pointed out, they will reply that my brother or sister made me angry. Instead of seeing their own hearts as wicked and sinful and how that anger itself demonstrates sinful hearts, they try to blame others for their anger rather than accepting the fact of their own sinful hearts.
Part of true confession of sin is to confess what we are and that without any excuses. Part of repentance is to repent of all known sin and that without any excuses. Christians are saved from all their sin and not just their sins they have committed not counting excuses. The Gospel of Jesus Christ comes to real sinners and to those who have sinful hearts, but for those who prefer to continue making excuses and looking for reasons other than their own sinful hearts for what they have done, there is no real repentance and no real confession. Those are the people who continue to look for ways to excuse themselves and to find a firm stand upon which to base their own righteousness. But for those who truly confess their sins and leave no hope for themselves other than Christ, those are the ones that Christ saves.
The movement and teachings of psychology in our day seems focused on finding reasons to excuse sin (or bad behavior). Freud seemed particularly adept at finding reasons to blame parents for the faults of children and today some blame society and others blame something else. But it is so hard for people to bow before the sovereign Lord of this universe and admit that they are sinners by nature and that all of their bad behavior, bad thoughts, bad intents and so on come from their own wicked hearts. Other people make it easier for our hearts to break out in sin, but they do not cause it. People provide us with opportunities to sin, but they don’t cause it.
It may make us feel better or feel more comfortable with ourselves being able to blame others, but that is a way of destruction. The heart must come face to face with itself and confess its sin or it will remain in darkness and in that sin. Part of repentance would be turning from trying to blame others and taking the blame for my sinful heart and what comes from it. Trying to find others to blame for my actions is an effort to hide my sinful heart from me. How we should all cry out to God to open our eyes and show us our sin and the sin of trying to excuse our sin. In trying to excuse our sin, we demonstrate a heart that does not want to repent of sin and a heart that does not see just how sinful it really is.
God Loves... Himself 
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