The Original Sin of Blaming our Sins on the Sins of Others

Ben Reaoch from Genesis 3.11-12:

We are so desperate to justify ourselves that we become irrational. Here are 12 examples. 

1) Anger

I wouldn’t lose my temper if my co-workers were easier to get along with, or if my kids behaved better, or if my spouse were more considerate. 

2) Impatience

I would be a very patient person if it weren’t for traffic jams and long lines in the grocery store. If I didn’t have so many things to do, and if the people around me weren’t so slow, I would never become impatient! 

3) Lust

I would have a pure mind if there weren’t so many sensual images in our culture. 

4) Anxiety

I wouldn’t worry about the future if my life were just a little more secure—if I had more money, and no health problems.

5) Spiritual Apathy 

My spiritual life would be so much more vibrant and I would struggle with sin less if my small group were more encouraging, or if Sunday school were more engaging, or if the music in the worship service were more lively, or if the sermons were better.

6) Insubordination

If my parents/bosses/elders were godly leaders, then I would joyfully follow them.
  


7) A Critical Spirit

It’s not my fault that the people around me are ignorant and inexperienced. 

8) Bitterness

If you knew what that person did to me, you would understand my bitterness. How could I forgive something like that?

9) Gluttony

My wife/husband/roommate/friend is a wonderful cook! The things they make are impossible to resist.

10) Gossip

It’s the people around me who start the conversations. There’s no way to avoid hearing what others happen to say. And when others ask me questions, I can’t avoid sharing what I know. 

11) Self-Pity

I’ll never be happy, because my marriage/family/job/ministry is so difficult.

12) Selfishness

I would be more generous if we had more money.

Making excuses like this is arrogant and foolish.  It’s a proud way of trying to justify our actions and pacify our guilty consciences.  And it keeps us from humbling ourselves before God to repent of our sins and seek his forgiveness.

The Relevance of Indwelling Sin

The "Editor's Note" opening John Owen's Sin and Temptation; The Challenge to Personal Godliness has this:

Our times have been called the "me generation" because of the psychological cult of self-fulfillment and its accompanying narcisism. We live in a society that is deaf to a well-known psychologist's question, "Whatever happened to sin?" O Herbert Mowrer has written candidly about this:

"For several decades we psychologists looked upon the whole matter of sin adn moral accountability as a great incubus, and acclaimed our liberation from it as epoch making. But at length we have discovered that to be 'free' in this sense, that is to have the excuse of being 'sick' rather than sinful, is to court the danger of also being lost."

We are beginning to see once more that there can be no recovery of self-realization...without the recovery of moral responsibility.

It feels loving to pronounce the downtrodden victims. But with the effort at compassion we may have stolen the great hope of recovery: repentance and responsibility.