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.
Having been found “guilty” in the world you live facing the reality that no matter what you try to do you will never really be “free”. This constant reminder of guilt becomes a hidden burden that is carried for life; it robs you of real joy; when it crops its head up and confronts you it takes away chances you may have to live abetter life. The world has a way of handling guilt, it never forgets, it never forgives and it keeps exacting payment. The world has no provisions for real forgiveness, it has no provisions for mercy; and, it has no intention of ever forgetting what you have done; it makes every effort to keep the knowledge always available. The world has no mechanism nor desire to remove guilt once it has been attached.
The Kingdom of Heaven:
Heavens View of Guilt:
I find the exact opposite to be true in the Kingdom of Heaven. From heaven’s point of view, the whole world is just as guilty as any one individual. From the newborn baby to the oldest person alive, from Genesis to Revelation all of Scripture has declared that
“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”;
This statement, written by the Apostle Paul, sums up Heavens attitude toward every one when it comes down to who is guilty or who is innocent. That there be no misunderstanding of heavens point of view, the inspired Apostle again tells us that
“There is none righteous, no not one.”
This echoes what the holy psalmist wrote in Psalms 14:3:
They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy; there is none that does good, no, not one.”
In speaking of the Messiah and Savior to come, Isaiah tells us:
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
So in both Old Testament and New Testaments, we find therefore, that all of us are sinking in the same boat; we all have the same problem; we are all in the same situation; we all come here under the same circumstances, we come here “guilty”. With the exception of the Lord Jesus Christ, not one person born of man has ever come into this world who was not guilty. Because of what we inherited from our federal father, Adam, every person born on this planet came here as an offender, we come here as trespassers and transgressors, we came here as violators, we came here as law-breakers, we came here as rebels. Some where along the line the shoe of sin fits all of us:
‒ We are all liars, and hypocrites
‒ We are all blasphemers and haters of God
‒ we are all cheaters and we are all adulterers,
‒ we are all, backbiters and murderers
‒ we are all truce-breakers and covenant breakers,
‒ we are all unthankful, we are all unholy,
‒ we are all gossips and tale bearers
‒ we are all unloving and unmerciful
‒ we are all implacable and unforgiving
‒ We are all selfish and arrogant
‒ We are all about the “me” and not the “we”
‒ we are all frauds, we are all schemers,
‒ We are all lovers of evil and haters of good.
‒ We are all lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God
This is how Scripture sees each and every person born into this world. As it is written in Romans 1:32 - we all
“knowing the judgement of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them!!!”
If we take Scripture at face value as the inspired word of the Lord then we must also conclude with Scripture that sin is a universal problem and all the world is guilty before a just, a righteous, and a holy God.
Heavens Means of Handling My Guilt
The major difference between the world and the Kingdom of Heaven is in how they approach the problem of my guilt. The world may be aware of some sins and trespasses, they may know about some but they never really know what is hidden in my heart. Heaven, on the other hand, knows each and every sin we have committed, none of it is hidden, what we thought when no one else was around is still known in the justice halls of heaven and must be accounted for. When a trespass or crime has been committed and the worlds justice rises up to take action against the party they believe to be guilty; the world gets it wrong a lot of times and they end up punishing the wrong person. No such thing with the Kingdom of heaven, God always gets it right, and when there is judgement rendered by heaven, each one will be judged for their own sins, never the sins of another.
Another difference between the world and the Kingdom of God is the goal they each seek. Where the world seeks vengeance, punishment and exclusion, the kingdom of heaven seeks forgiveness, mercy and restoration. The world does not love the criminal, the convict or the ex-convict; the worlds way is to put people to death; God’s way is to try to give every person life, and that more abundantly. Romans 5:8, the Bible tells us:
“But God demonstrated His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
This Scripture sets the dividing line between the world and the kingdom of heaven; the world treats the guilty with hatred, the kingdom of Heaven treats the guilty with love. The Kingdom of heaven is like God, it’s King, “God is Love”. We are the objects of His love and His Love always finds a way to benefit us. Love looked for and found a way to deal with my sins, love looked for and found a way to deal with my condemnation, love totally set-aside my conviction, love figured out a way to “stay” my execution, love suspended my sentence, love payed my fine for me, then loved even went so far as to dismiss the charges against me, then love finally purged all my guilt and sin from the books and records in heaven; no “rap” sheet in heaven, no FBI or CIA files in heaven; when God forgives He wipes the books clean:
Though our sins be as scarlet, God will make them white as snow
Well, you say, brother preacher, how does all this happen; all this mess I did had to go somewhere, it just did not disappear? What happened, how did I start out so dirty and guilty and end up walking around in this clean white robe? If justice demands have been met, who did it? In the Kingdom of Heaven, in God’s plan there is a thing called “a substitution.”Someone else acted as my substitute, some one else took my place, someone else stood in for me.
1. We were guilty because “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”.
2. We were born under condemnation, under the sentence of death.
3. Christ stood trial for us and accepted our condemnation, He was pronounced “guilty” in our place. He endured the sentence that should have been pronounced on us: He suffered our “death” and He “served our time” in the grave.
4. Our conviction has been set aside: There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus
5. I have now been forgiven: God is as good as His word: He told Isaiah: Though your sins be as scarlet I will make them as white as snow; “I will remove your sin from you as far as the east is from the west”.
6. In the kingdom of heaven my sins have been forgotten:“I will remember your sins no more”
7. Because He died for me I am no longer a “convict”; As far as God is concerned I have never been condemned. I have never been convicted, the charges have been dismissed “with prejudice”; that means charges can never be brought against me ever again.
8. Heaven does not want it’s citizens walking around carrying the burden of guilt.
9. Because Jesus rose from the dead I have been pronounced “NOT GUILTY”
When the Accuser of the Brethren stands before God to lay a charge against me, before I can even answer the Defender of the Faithful immediately shouts “NOT GUILTY”
‒ But what about - NOT GUILTY
‒ but did you hear what he said - NOT GUILTY
‒ but did you see what he did - NOT GUILTY
‒ what about - NOT GUILTY
‒ he lied - NOT GUILTY
‒ he stole - NOT GUILTY
‒ He cheated - NOT GUILTY
‒ He broke promises - NOT GUILTY
‒ He committed adultery - NOT GUILTY
‒ He is a robber - NOT GUILTY
‒ He is a murderer - NOT GUILTY
‒ He is just plain mean, low-down and disagreeable - NOT GUILTY
‒ He was born a sinner - NOT GUILTY
On the judgment panel sits three who are judge and jury; there is Justice who demands satisfaction, Holiness who has been violated, and Righteousness that has been trampled on; I see my Defense Counsel stand up to address the court, His name is Jesus, He does not even discuss the charges, He points to a table and asks the court to look in the books, check the books and see what is recorded under the defendant’s name. There is only one book to check and that is The Book of Life. I see the heavenly scribe open the book of Life and he runs his finger down one of the blessed pages; suddenly he stops; he peers over the desk and asks me my name; I tell him my name is Lafayette Louis Funches, Jr. The scribe then tells the court; this man’s name is written in this Book of Life and it is written in the blood of the Lamb! There are no charges pending against him; there is a clean record under his name. This man is NOT GUILTY OF ANYTHING”!!
‒ The heavenly court then directs it’s anger at Accuser, and asks, Why are you wasting the courts time with these false charges? Don’t you know this man has been found NOT GUILTY”?
Court is adjourned and we have to go get dressed up, we have a wedding supper to go to! Give this man the keys to that mansion that has been prepared for him
Tell him to go and put on that clean white robe that is hanging in the closet
Help him to put on the crown of righteousness that’s on the top shelf
Help him to find his seat at the marriage supper of The Lamb
Fill his plate with the Bread of Heaven
Fill his cup with water from the Rivers of life
Let him eat some of the leaves from the tree of life
because he is NOT GUILTY OF ANYTHING
