Not Guilty

NOT GUILTY!!

BCMBC 2015-03-028

Romans 5:8-9

8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”

How Does the Kingdom of heaven Handle My Guilt?

All of us have done some wrong things. We may not want to admit it, we may not want it to be known, we try our best to hide what we have done; but if we are honest with our selves, we would have to admit that what the Bible says about us is absolutely true. When Scripture says “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”, I am included in that “all”. What it boils done to, what it distills down to, the concentrated truth of the matter is simply this; wether we like it or not, wether we admit it or not, we are all “guilty”!

What is “Guilt?”

“Guilt” as an act means “

1. Delinquency or failure in respect to one’s duty

2. Offense or trespass

3. Responsibility for an offense

4. State of deserving punishment

5. Breach of conduct or violating a law and involving punishment

6. Being liable to penalty for offense against the law

Guilt as an emotion means:

1. Moral self-reproach as a consequence of one’s behavior

To be “guilty” means:

1. Justly charged with responsibility for a crime or sin

2. Justly liable to or deserving of a penalty

3. Justly adjudged guilty of a trespass

Under the above definitions, every person on this planet would have to admit that somewhere along the line, no matter how perfect I think I am, some where in time, no matter how good a person I think I am, some way some how, I have done that which brought guilt down on myself and I am guilty as charged and deserving the punishment that is worthy of my guilt.

There are two fundamentally different ways that guilt is viewed and dealt with:

A. There is the worlds view of guilt and guiltiness

B. There is heavens view of guilt and guiltiness

The World:

The worlds view of “guilt”:

The world sees guilt as an exclusive and personal attribute of each individual and it handles guilt in the manner. I have personal, first hand knowledge of the World’s view of guilt and guiltiness. At age 19, as a dumb, no-nothing kid who had never been away from home I did some things, I committed some crimes. Since there was no doubt that I did the crime, I was found “guilty”, I was fully chargeable, I was responsible, I committed the trespass, I committed the offense. There is no question that I deserved the penalty imposed upon me by the court; and, in accordance with the laws of the land, the court was right to impose penalties upon me. I paid the full penalty, I satisfied the demands of the worlds “justice”; I accepted the punishment, as they say “ having done the crime I also did the time.” Having accepted the responsibility and submitted to the punishment, one would think that the matter would end and that would be the last of it. Nothing could be further from the truth, for I find that now, 50 years later, 52 years after the fact, after all these years of no more trouble, no more police, nothing more than a bunch of parking tickets, after all this time, the world’s opinion of me has not changed one bit, the world still sees me as “guilty”. Because of what happened over a half-century ago, there are still places I cannot go, still jobs I cannot seek, still benefits that I will never be able to tap into. It does not matter the good I have tried to accomplish, it does not matter how many people I have tried to help, it does not matter the service I have tried to render, as far as the world is concerned, once you are guilty you will always be guilty. The world continues to label me because they want me to know:

1. That they will never forgive. The world is very unforgiving; they will always hold your crime against you. Most folk have a “throw away the key” attitude.

2. That they will never forget. They keep volumes of records; and once your name is entered into the wrong kind of record book it will never be erased, it will be there until the day you die. Every time they check the record and see your name, they still want you to be guilty; and, based upon what you did a life-time ago, they will deny you entrance or an opportunity.

3. They want me to keep on paying. Even after you do the time, even after you complete the parole time or the probation period, they still want you to keep on paying. When you try to move back out into society you find doors forever locked in your face; you find what opportunities that may be available snatched away from you. At every hand, there are constant reminders that you are no longer a full citizen; you are not even a second class citizen. If you manage to live an exemplary life you are always still “under suspicion”; in these, and many other ways the world makes sure you never stop paying.