I accept full responsibility

I accept full responsibility

How often do we hear that?  
But what are the consequences?
What does it even mean?
What does it mean to us?
And what does it mean to others?

There's so much in the news lately about politicians and government workers taking "full responsibility" for one thing or another.  And why not?  Absolutely nothing happens to them.  Well - that's not really true.  Some get put on paid "administrative leave" - which means they get paid to do nothing at all.  Others get "transferred" - which means they end up in another department, with a promotion and raise in pay.

The phrase has almost no meaning these days.  So - to show what it was supposed to mean, here's a couple of definitions from dictionary.com for the word responsible -

1. answerable or accountable, as for something within one's power, control, or management (often followed by to or for):
He is responsible to the president for his decisions.

2. involving accountability or responsibility, as in having the power to control or manage:
promoted to a responsible position in the firm.

Seems like maybe people have forgotten that the "promoted" in definition #2 pre-supposed that the promotion was warranted, based on having successfully controlled or managed.  In this day of everyone gets "participation trophies" just for showing up - success or failure don't mean anything either.  Given that, it's no surprise that "taking full responsibility" is equally meaningless and carries no concept of actually being accountable for anything.

And so - more and more we become a people who assume we can get away with anything at all by merely saying "I accept full responsibility" - and fully expecting that whatever actions were taken (or not) that led to whatever outcome (no matter how bad) occurred, the matter is over.  And we're outraged when someone won't accept our statement that we have accepted responsibility!

What about God? Will He accept our statement accepting full responsibility?

The short answer is - yes, He will.  We can certainly say that to Him.  And He will listen to us.

And if we say it often enough - He will eventually accept it.  Unfortunately.  Be careful what you say and ask for!

In the first five books of the Old Testament, there are 28 instances of the word responsible.  Some indicate when people were responsible for what they did.  The rest said that, given the circumstances, the people were not responsible.  These books made up what is called "The Law".

Here's what Jesus said about relation to "The Law" and the "experts in The Law"

Lk 11:45 One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.”
Lk 11:46 Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
Lk 11:47 “Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefathers who killed them. 48 So you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. 49 Because of this, God in his wisdom said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.’ 50 Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.
Lk 11:52 “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”

And then there this, from Paul, in Romans 3:23 -

Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God ...

Yes - this one is a segment of a verse - out of context.  That's intentional.  The remainder will be brought in shortly.  However - I can't include the whole thing here without giving away too much for those that don't know the full context.  And - unfortunately, all too often, this segment is taken completely out of context.

In the same way - here's another segment out of context, a few chapters later in Romans 6:23 -

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death ...

So we see - when we accept full responsibility for our actions on this earth - we are accepting whatever judgement comes with them - and that judgement is death.  Not the "death" that we all experience when our heart stops / we stop breathing.  No - it's the death that means the trip to Hell.