Your Court Case

Today is Easter, or as we like to say, Resurrection day! I couldn't let today pass without posting something about the Good News of Jesus Christ on the most important day in history!

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So, you're probably thinking, what's up with the title? Court case? Shouldn't this be something more joyful like, "He is risen!" Yes, it very well could have been, but I would argue that this title is joyful when you dig into the meaning.. Let's get into it!

Today at church, our pastor Cody did a wonderful job of giving us the Good News of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, and what it means for us. (Linked at the bottom of this website will be a button that will bring you to my church's website where you will find all the Sunday sermons recorded. Soon this Sunday's sermon will be posted, and you will have the opportunity to listen to a powerful message!)

Anyways, the whole message Cody preached was powerful and very well spoken, but there was one part of it that I would like to highlight in this post.

...Whenever I post about Christ, I get a bit nervous that what I am saying to others won't completely compute in their hearts and heads, and that since I'm so used to this faith, I may not be able to communicate it well to people who are not of the faith. So, when I say, "Jesus loves you, lived and died for you, and rose again from the grave and defeated death so you have a way to the Father," does that actually make sense to everyone? Does everyone actually understand what that means for us? I'm hoping that this quick example that Cody presented today will be the one thing many of us needed to blow away any uncertainty about what Christ's sacrifice really did for us.

Banking on the hope that a majority of us have watched shows like Law & Order, or any other cop/law show, it's safe to say we have a general sense of how the justice system works, and what it looks like in the courtroom during a trial. So, keep your background knowledge of what a court case would go like and let's begin.

It's Thursday, and you and I are arrested. We are brought into court, being justly charged with crimes. Our crimes include but are not limited to, lying, cheating, hatred, lust, deceitful hearts, envy, greed, and so on. We stand facing God, the Judge. We have broken His laws, and are brought to Him to face our punishment. God looks at us and at the charges against us, and says to us, "Before you are sentenced to death for your crimes, would either of you want to have a pardon, and be released, with prejudice, instead of face the charges you are guilty of?" Both of us look at each other in disbelief... we have the opportunity to not be sentenced to death, and to be released, never to be tried again for these crimes we committed?! What!? We say yes Judge, of course! So, God calls in His only Son, Jesus, who has never committed a crime, not even one, and sentences Him instead of us. Jesus is brought away to take our punishment that we so rightly deserved.

How could it be that the Holy Judge would give up His son for people who went against Him? Not only that, but punishment was death! After taking beatings, being crucified, being buried, and all throughout taking the wrath of God WE deserved, Christ did not lay in the grave and waste away. He rose from the dead! Satan.. death.. could NOT keep Him. Because He rose from the dead that means death has been defeated. It no longer has rule over us. Because He died in our place, we have been forgiven. And if we put our faith in Him, that He is the one and only way to be forgiven and accepted by God our Father, then we are seen as born again; our old self has died, and we have new life in Christ Jesus.

The court case began with me and you facing charges we could never make right, so we deserved to die. Christ stepped in as our pardon, He took our punishment. But the Good News doesn't stop there. He not only took our place, but He did what we could never do, He defeated the grave and gave us a way to be with Him and God the Father for eternity once our earthly lives are over.

What a wonderful, hopeful, unmatched love.

All it takes is to cry out to Him to come into your life, and trust Him with everything you have. It doesn't take x-amount of good deeds or prayers. It takes repentance (which means to confess your sins, and to turn away from them and live for Christ instead), and faith.

Can you even imagine a judge looking at guilty defendants, and having so much love and compassion for them that he'd give up his only son so they guilty could go free? No way! But that's what God did for us. It's unthinkable to us. But God is love, and it was His plan all along to give us a way to turn (repent) from our sins and live for Him. It's because of what He has done for us that we want to live for Him.

Christ is risen, He is risen indeed!