“Why?” My mother frowned at me. “You were speeding; you’re guilty,” she reminded me.
“I have to do it, Mom,” a fervent need to be understood overwhelmed my explanation. “I need to feel what it’s like.”
“What what’s like?” Mother questioned with annoyed incredulity.
“What it’s like to be in court… and be told I’m guilty,” I explained. The conversation ended shortly after as my mother threw her hands up in the air, likely wondering how she ended up with such a stubborn, confusing daughter.
I walk into a large wood-paneled room. Strangers sit on all sides of the audience area watching me with suspicious eyes as I approach the discerning and noble judge seated at the front of the room. The judge peers down on me with a boredom of contempt and doubtful disapproval. The Bailiff in his crisp uniform stands to the side of the judge eyeing me with stoic poise, awaiting his orders. When I am standing in front of the judge, feeling the eyes of a hundred people pulsing into the back of my head, I breathe deeply as the charges are shared, echoing through the weighted air around us. The judge looks down at my from that high perch and slams the gavel down. Once. Twice. Three times. The room freezes as the judge speaks directly to me. “You have been found guilty of these charges. How do you plead?” The voice punches across the empty space into my shaking body. I take a breath and speak, “I plead guilty, your Honor.” The room alights with gasps. I know what will happen next: I will be charged. |
| Romans 3:10 "As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one." |
| Romans 8:1 "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." |
| Ephesians 2:8 "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God." |
| 2 Corinthians 7:9-11 "As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment!" |
- Redemption is not just something for a coupon day at the grocery store.
- Redemption is not that public service announcement that explains or apologizes away some public offense.
- Redemption is a very powerful, very real, foundational, transformational, life-altering truth about why I need Jesus. Why I believe the world needs Jesus.
- Redemption is a relinquishing of burdens.
- Redemption is the abandonment of guilt.
- Redemption is freedom from shame and guilt.
"but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."