"I didn't do it!" "Not my fault!" "S/he did it". My personal favorite: "An alien came and did it". My now grown children, and now (the last quote) grandchildren were/are incredible inventive when it came to deflecting blame. Blaming aliens, I must admit, really takes a straight face - on my part!
Sadly, I have found myself doing the same thing with God when I am wrong as heck, particularly in attitude or something I said. I've come close to blaming those big-eyed creatures more than once.
Why, when I know I've been forgiven, is my first instinct to run and hide and blame? Why, when I know how cleansing it is to ask forgiveness for the umpteenth time, and "go and sin no more"? How does the cross of Jesus Christ figure in? I asked the Lord this question.
As children we duck blame and even accuse our siblings wrongly because we want to avoid punishment: the consequence of our sin. Some parents were so brutal in their discipline it was a matter of self-preservation to blame someone else. It's hard-wired within us to escape "harm".
The thing about the cross is this: Jesus' brutally administered stripes and bone crushing nails on that hard, splintery cross, separation from God the Father, Himself, were harm enough, taken by Him on my behalf. Every time I come back to the remembrance of that sacrifice of atonement and bring my heart back into right alignment with His, I remind the enemy and remind myself that it's okay.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us.. - 1 John 1:9
Yes, I did wrong. Yes, I repent and am forgiven and this is between me and my Father. No sibling, no judge, no demon from hell has anything to say about it. No accusations can ever be launched at me and stick. No harm will come to me for confessing. Jesus truly paid it all.
Colossians 1:22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation
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