JUSTICE!

There it is again. A call to exercise my civic duty towards ye olde city of Dallas.

Jury duty!

Thankfully, it is for a “petit” jury (as opposed to a “grand” jury). Hopefully, things won’t last a long time. Frustratingly, I have to cancel clinics that day. Happily, I get to skip a few meetings.

A “petit” jury hears evidence from the plaintiff and the defendant, receives instructions from the judge, retires to deliberate, and considers a verdict: guilty or not guilty. (A “grand” jury simply determines whether there is enough evidence to proceed with a criminal trial.)

I suppose that such institutions of guilt determination is a significant step forward from the “ordeals” of yore, when suspects were “tested” to find out if they were guilty—e.g., pouring molten metal into the hand of a suspected thief: if the would healed rapidly, it meant that God—yup, God! —had found the person guilty.

God doesn’t need molten metal to judge and declare guilt. Long ago, he said that all were. Guilty.

There is none righteous, not even one. …
There is none who seeks for God. …
For all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God
Romans 3:10–11, 23

Guilty. Of having fallen short of God’s glory and His perfect standard.

Therefore you are to be perfect,
as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48

Guilty. Of imperfection. And the sentence?

For the wages of sin is death.
Romans 6:23

Death and eternal separation from God. Now that is an utterly hopeless situation. And would have remained utterly hopeless eternally were it not for the mercy of God.

But God, being rich in mercy,
because of His great love
with which He loved us,
even when we were dead
in our transgressions,
made us alive together with Christ—
by grace you have been saved.
Ephesians 2:4–5

The judge had mercy! On me, the defendant found guilty as charged.

But not at the cost of justice. Not by a loophole. Not by some legal acrobatics performed by some top-notch defense attorney.

Not at all. Justice was served.

He made Him who knew no sin
to be sin on our behalf,
so that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21

What theologians call “substitutionary atonement.” One paid the price of my sin, dying on the cross, being resurrected on the third day.

And that payment is applied to all who believe in Jesus Christ as the only God and Savior of man from sin.

For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:16

The wages of sin, for the believer, is now no longer death …

… the free gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23

Free! Declared righteous! Redeemed!

Therefore there is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:1

One day when Heaven was filled with His praises,
One day when sin was as black as could be,
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin,
Dwelt among men, my Example is He!

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever;
One day He’s coming—O glorious day!

One day they led Him up Calvary’s mountain,
One day they nailed Him to die on the tree;
Suffering anguish, despised and rejected:
Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He!

J. Wilbur Chapman, 1908

Justice met. Sinners freed. Love victorious.