All Charges Dismissed

A few weeks ago, I was in a pretty mild, yet widespread accident. 7 cars total were involved, two bumping in the left lane, two bumping in the right lane, and three in the center lane. I was merging into the center lane from the left lane, and I saw the truck in front of me basically just stop instantly. I slammed on my brakes, but it was too late...

I had to go to court as a result of this accident since I rear-ended the truck in front of me, and I would be guilty of the fault for hitting the truck in front of me. I was not looking forward to this visit. Since justice is often corrupt, I expected them to maybe even pin more blame on me than I really had.

So I went to court and stood in line to be judged. I printed out a handout for the judge to look over, but the guy at the door simply asked me for the Insurance letter (proof I had it), and then simply said, "All Charges Dismissed."

POWERFUL WORDS, THOSE WERE! After I left the courthouse, I thought about how that is just like what the Lord Jesus Christ will do at His Judgment Seat to those who have accepted Him as Savior.

Although the basis of the words "All Charges Dismissed" in the court on earth was simply the laziness of the courtroom to take action, and even a bit of corruption, the basis in Heaven for similar words will be Perfect Love and Mercy, given to those who have their name in the Lamb’s Book of Life - those who have accepted Christ as Personal Savior.

Some say that justice is blind, but the justice of Jesus Christ is Infinitely Righteous. With Jesus as our Savior, He is Faithful & Just to forgive us of all our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness!

In this lesson tonight, we will study how Jesus issues acquittal to our sins and how powerful this acquittal actually is.

One quick example of the power of this acquittal is where Jesus heals the man sick of the palsy (shorter term for paralyzed, that is, his nervous system stopped functioning in some parts), accounted in Matthew 9 and Mark 2.

Jesus was preaching to a great crowd in Capernaum, and so many people were interested that they overcrowded the house where Jesus was. Imagine this: Nobody could even enter through the door!

A paralyzed man lying on a bed was brought to Jesus, but he couldn’t get into the door, so they opened up the roof, and four friends lowered him into the room.

First thing Jesus does is say "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee" (Mark 2:5), and many of the scribes thought that Jesus was being blasphemous.

Mark 2:8-11: "8 And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? 9 Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? 10 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) 11 I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house."

Think of this...people today can be used of God to heal people through His Power, but Jesus alone can forgive sin.

I. What we did

We all have sinned. Romans 3:23 - "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"

If you have ever told a lie, taken something (borrowed forever without them knowing = stealing), thought unwholesome thoughts toward another person, or even put yourself in focus above God, CONGRATULATIONS! You are human! We all are guilty of sinning.

Take for example this conversation:

Rhonda: "Have you ever sinned, Pete?"

Pete: "Nope"

Rhonda: "Hey, Pete...I John 1:8 - ’If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’"

Pete: "DRAT! FOILED AGAIN!"

Yep, so everyone has sinned, even the most mature Christians (I’m not talking about Pete!).

The penalty of this sinning is death. Romans 6:23 - "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

We all deserve eternal separation from God, meaning hell, but God is patient with us, and is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)

This brings us to what God did to bridge the gap between imperfect man and Perfect God...

II. What He Did

Imagine that you have only one son (if you have one, more power to ya). What if you had to give up your only son because everyone else did something awful? You would be DEVASTATED!