I was given responsibilities at an early age.
My parents held me accountable and insisted I do my best. I became known as a young man who could be given responsibilities and be trusted to fulfill them in a timely and professional way.
Yet humans are the most irresponsible creatures God made. All other creatures fulfill their responsibilities. Although they are amoral and have no free will and therefore no choice in the matter of their responsibilities, they carry out their responsibilities by creature instinct and intuition.
God created humans in a way that if we fulfill our responsibilities, we can reach our full potential and glorify Him as well. God created the universe and is the Moral Governor. His law is the moral law, and we are the moral agents who dwell under His law.
Since we have received responsibilities from God, we are answerable or accountable to God. But if we are not accountable to God and there is no final judgment—as some believe—then we have no God-given responsibilities.
King Solomon summed up our responsibility from and to God by saying we are obligated to obey God’s commands (His Word) and that God will judge us to see if we have.
Since we have a fallen nature, we cannot fulfill our responsibility to God and consistently keep all His commandments without help. Jesus Christ, in love, took responsibility for our sins and was held accountable for them by God at Calvary.
When we accept Christ’s sacrifice, we will not be held accountable for our sins when we stand before God. Christ’s sacrifice for us satisfied a holy God and His holy law. But those outside Christ will be responsible for their sins and held accountable for them by God on judgment day.
Being saved and free from God’s judgment should make us more responsible to the One who set us free. Are you acting responsibly?
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James H. Cagle has been preaching and getting the Word out since 1982. He has pastored for twelve years. He now writes for twelve newspapers weekly. He has published three books and is working on several others. James spent four years in the Marine Corps and was honorably discharged in 1980 as a sergeant. He grew up in Bemiss, Georgia, and graduated from Lowndes High in 1975. He currently resides in Nashville, Georgia.