Recently I was selected to serve on a jury for a criminal trial for a murder that happened in my home town. The case was pretty cut and dry. The defendant was guilty of the crime, even his defense attorney admitted so. Her job, then, was to convince us to convict him of a lesser charge, one that would indicate he was less responsible, less reprehensible, less to blame. She tried her best and was faithful to her task, but at the end of the day, she was trying to defend someone who was indefensible. She proved inadequate because she had an impossible goal. Facts were facts.
As I reflected on this trial, I thought about the places in the Bible where Satan is shown to be our accuser. “Look at Job, sitting over there in his rich house with all his kids and cows. He doesn’t really love God. Why wouldn’t someone be ‘righteous’ who’d never suffered a day in his life.” “David’s over here getting one of his best friends’ wife pregnant and then having him killed to cover it up.” “Do you see Saul—literally holding Stephen’s clothes while his cronies stone him to death? Pathetic.” “Peter wouldn’t even stay awake with you at Gethsemane, and now he’s telling that little servant girl he doesn’t even know you. Some rock.” And he’s right. They are indefensible. Every one of them. Everyone one of us. Facts are facts. The prosecution rests.
And yet somehow Job knew that his redeemer lives, and that he will one day see God. David boldly asked to be delivered from bloodguilt. Paul preached of the mercy he had received, and Peter rejoiced in the salvation of his soul.
So how did they and how do we get out of it? Who’s going to stand up to defend the indefensible? Our guilt is obvious. The evidence of what we’ve done is right here on our swollen and bloody fists. The law has been given, our guilt is proven, and the wages of sin is death.
To even ask how to get out of it seems like a bad question. Is that what we really want? For people to do bad things with no repercussions? What if someone stepped in and said “I’ll take the penalty.” Would that solve the problem? Is the end goal of justice simply for “someone to pay”? From the defendants position, the answer to those questions could be yes, perhaps. Maybe even from the victim’s position if the crime were robbery. But murder? Abuse? Lying? Neglect? Somehow, someone else paying for those crimes doesn’t satisfy. Why is that? Maybe because something is still wrong even after any penalty has been paid, regardless of who pays it. Some crimes can’t be undone. It seems like something more is needed.
As I thought about the trial I’d just experienced, it was the inadequacy of the defense attorney that arrested my attention and caused me to reflect on Jesus as our advocate.
What happened through Jesus’ life, death, and ascension and continues today through his intercession with the Father and advocacy through the Holy Spirit is more than cosmic ticket fixing or bail posting. Because neither of those things actually remove guilt and neither of them get perpetrators off the streets.
So what is actually going on with Christ as our advocate? Why does he succeed where she failed, since we are all guilty as charged?
When Jesus died on the cross, he indeed paid the penalty for our sin. Isaiah foretells that Jesus
was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
But it is his next thought that I think holds the key—
and with his wounds we are healed.
Not simply set free, let off the hook, but healed. What was wrong with us — that we were by nature liars, cheats, immoral, abusive, self-absorbed, murderers—isn’t just paid for, but healed.
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away.
I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live. The life I live in the body I live through faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
You must be born again.
So when Jesus stands before the Father, as my advocate, he isn’t simply saying “I paid her debt” even though that fact is wonderfully and irrevocably true. He’s also saying, “She died with me, and the person standing here at my side before You is no longer what she was. In addition to her debt being paid, she has been healed.”
How do we know we’ve been healed? We are abiding in Christ. We keep his word and we walk as he walked.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
For our sake he made him who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
All I Have is Christ
Lyrics (c) Keith and Kristyn Getty
I once was lost in darkest night
Yet thought I knew the way
The sin that promised joy and life
Had led me to the grave
I had no hope that you would own
A rebel to your will
And if you had not loved me first
I would refuse you still
But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost
You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross
And I beheld God's love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace
Now, Lord, I would be yours alone
And live so all might see
The strength to follow your commands
Could never come from me
Oh Father, use my ransomed life
In any way you choose
And let my song forever be
My only boast is you
Hallelujah, All I have is Christ
Hallelujah, Jesus is my life
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