Inexcusable but not Unforgivable

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. -Rom. 6:23

As I’m sure many of you know, the scandal of Josh Duggar’s past has recently become a obsession of the media. Now, I am not here to argue about the issue or to defend him or the media. But as I was reading an article this morning, a statement on the issue by Mike Huckabee jumped out at me. He stated that Josh’s actions were, in fact, inexcusable, but they were not unforgivable.

Inexcusable, but not unforgivable.

I have wrestled with this thought all day. That word, inexcusable, suggests that it cannot be simply ignored or not dealt with. Justice must be served. It cannot be excused. But we are after all the kings and queens of excuses. Or we attempt to be. We attempt to explain away our mistakes, to try to push them aside without facing repercussions.

But when it comes down to it, there are things in my life that are simply inexcusable.

Sometimes, I take a walk down memory lane and begin to look at my past failures. Failures of years gone by. Failures of yesterday. Failures of today. It is not a pretty sight. I see pride mixed with contempt. I see complacency. I see anger that grew into bitterness. I see lies. I see the inexcusable. It’s there, failure after failure after failure. The “big” sin. The “little” sin. The sins that I kept hidden in the recesses of my heart. It’s there.

And it is absolutely inexcusable.

And I stand before a holy God, a pure God, a just God. And I know, He cannot excuse it. It is against His very nature to excuse it. He cannot dismiss it as unimportant or turn His head as if He never saw it. To do so would be to destroy who He is. To allow an unholy, impure wretch such as myself to enter into His presence and experience fellowship with Him would never be compatible with His absolute holiness and righteous judgment.

But the fact that my past is inexcusable does not mean that it is unforgivable. My inexcusable sins have burdened me with a debt, a debt that is far beyond my reach and means.

But for them to be unforgivable would imply that there is no way for that debt to be paid. And up to this point, that would seem to be true. And it is, at least in and of myself.

But something happens when a sinner filled with the inexcusable meets the cleansing blood of a holy, righteous, Savior.

In this moment, the inexcusable is washed away. Not because it is dismissed, not because it is excused, not because it is unimportant, but because it is forgiven by the One who paid the price for the grace He so freely offers.

So yes, my past, my failures, my sins are absolutely inexcusable, but they are not unforgivable, because the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse us from any sin and wash away every stain.