But I Didn’t Know!
“Imagine you have a beach ball and try to hold it under the water at a pool, but it just keeps popping back up. You’re trying to push it down, but it keeps coming to the surface. That is what humanity has done with God and His righteous commands. We keep suppressing the truth. We know, but we act like we don’t know.” – Tony Walliser
Read Romans 1:18-20
But I Didn’t Know!
Enroute to the fitness center for his usual workout, Jim saw the SUV approaching on the road that intersected the street he was driving. There was a stop sign at that road, so he didn’t give the other vehicle a second thought. Surely it would stop as he passed by.
Unfortunately, it didn’t. Jim swerved, trying to avoid the SUV as it failed to stop, but too late. The vehicle struck the right front of his car. No one was injured, but a quick look revealed the damage to his 14-year-old sedan was extensive.
When he got out of his car, the driver of the SUV apologized, explaining, “I’m new to this area and didn’t know there was a stop sign.” Small consolation for Jim and his terminally wrecked sedan.
The driver didn’t know – but then again, she did know. People drive in unfamiliar areas all the time and traffic rules apply everywhere, along with stop signs, yield signs, and speed limit signs to remind us. “I didn’t know” isn’t an acceptable excuse.
Today’s passage from Romans declares the “I didn’t know” explanation is equally unacceptable for those who reject God – but in a far more profound way with eternal consequences.
It tells about “the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth…since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
To non-believers that sounds harsh, but evidence of God is all around us: the wonderful order of nature, its complexity, beauty, and many other aspects of what the Lord has created. We have consciousness and conscience, our inherent sense of what’s right and wrong.
It doesn’t require the IQ of Einstein to recognize that the order and harmony that make not only our world but also the universe could never have resulted from a so-called “big bang.” As the song from “The Sound of Music” wisely observes, “Nothing comes from nothing; nothing ever could….”
One day those who have chosen to suppress the truth – not unlike someone who tries to hold a beachball underwater – will have to stand before a God who is love, but is also holy, righteous, and just. When they shrug their shoulders and claim “I didn’t know,” our all-wise, all-powerful, all-knowing Lord will respond that yes, they did know. How could they not?
As believers, our calling is first to grow closer to Him, recognizing the incomparable sacrifice Jesus Christ made on our behalf, and then become, as “new creations in Christ,” bold, yet caring ambassadors to those around us who don’t yet know Him as Savior and Lord.