Attorney And Judge

Attorney and Judge

A little while back I attended court on one of the cases that I investigated, and much to my surprise, sitting on the bench was this judge that I knew. I did not know him as a judge, I knew him when he was just an attorney. This man now sitting on the bench had represented me on a couple of occasions in civil court, but now he was the judge in this criminal case. Although I knew him and he knew me, this man gave me no preferential treatment. As a matter of fact, I would say that he was perhaps a little harder on me when it came to the technicalities of the case than any other judge. I think that the reason for this was that he knew that I was a good investigator and he was not going to allow me to get away with any sloppy or poor work. Does anyone here know where we are heading with this? Today we are going to explore this issue. Today we are going to talk about an attorney who becomes a judge. Let’s now turn to the word of God.

1 Timothy 2:5-6 - For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

Contrary to what many men think, there is but one God and one Savior. Paul tells us this fact and he is very clear on it. I want us to stop here for a second and let’s look at this word "mediator" closely. This word comes from the Greek word "mesites" which means: one who intervenes between two, either in order to make or restore peace and friendship, or form a compact, or for ratifying a covenant. I think this definition describes the role of an attorney very accurately. I do not know how many here have had to hire an attorney to represent them, but I can tell you that a good attorney is not cheap. However, by God’s infinite grace we have received not a good attorney, but the best attorney in the universe and his name is Christ Jesus. Although we did not deserve it, He gave His precious life for us on the cross, He died for our sins, and He is acting as our mediator with God. He is serving as our attorney right now between God and man.

This is actually where the problem begins for a great deal of people. This is the case for all those that live in the world, but it can also be applied to many people within the church as well. Please do not misunderstand me, I am not speaking about any one person in this church when I speak about the church I am referring to the entire church, not just this congregation. The problem like I said before is that many people fail to realize that now is the time to have the attorney. Let’s think about this for a second or two to see if it makes sense. As a person in need of an attorney we would not be very smart to hire him or her on the date that we are supposed to be in court. To do so would be silly, as we would jeopardize the entire case. In other words we would not be providing the attorney with the time that is necessary to prepare a defense or properly argue our case. Therefore, a prudent person will retain an attorney as soon as possible.

The same applies to all of us, now is the time to have our attorney argue our case. When we accepted Jesus, when He came into our lives, He took over our case. He took upon himself all of our sins and He went before the Father and we received eternal life. However, the case is not yet entirely closed. The reason why our case is not yet entirely closed is because we are still alive; we are still living in this world.

Like I said, this causes a problem for a great deal of people. First let’s address all of those that still live in the world. All we have to do is look around to see that we are not living in a very pleasant place. We all have seen or heard the atrocities that have been or are being committed and in many instances in the name of God. We are all aware of the things of this world, and I am sure most of us have experienced unpleasant or distasteful instances in our lives. But there is a great difference between the world and us.

The big difference is the one small word that packs the greatest punch; I am talking about the word repentance. This is the essential difference between the world and us. This is how we have been able to pay for our attorney. It is through our repentance and God’s infinite Grace and Glory that we have been absolved of all of our sins. The problem that the church is having is that there just isn’t enough repentance.