A fellow named Len Hart, who calls himself the Existential Cowboy, has a web site where he attacked President Bush for things to do with the war on Iraq. He believed the President should have been tried for capital crimes, and he quipped, You’d better get yourself a good lawyer! I’m sure it’s not the only time such advice has been given, no, not by a long shot – it’s been a line in many a movie and also in real life.
Many of us will go through life without ever going to court. That’s the way it should be – Let none of you suffer as an evildoer (1 Pet. 4:15). Some of us will experience the court system doing jury service. Only a small minority if any, hopefully, will actually stand in the dock to hear sentence proclaimed against us.
Be all that as it may, we will all experience court for we will all stand before the judgement seat of Christ (Rom. 14:12; 2 Cor. 5:10). This is the day that the world doesn’t care to think about; the day that has been reduced to folklore and mythology. But Judgement Day makes a lot of sense when you contemplate that God is just. If there is no Judgement Day then injustice will have the final say, for life is filled with gross injustice like as with Ahab, Jezebel and Naboth (1 Kings 21). Whilst there will be no escaping that day, there are several options that are available to us. Interestingly enough, they are the same basic options that our own law courts afford us.
First, we can choose to defend ourselves (I would be tempted to go this route in our local court system because of the exorbitant costs involved, though most people don’t). Interestingly, while most people choose the get the best lawyer they can afford for temporal matters, they plan to defend themselves before the judgement seat of Christ. Either that, or they plan to enter no plea and throw themselves at the mercy of the court. Why do I say this? Because few have put their trust in Christ. I have asked quite a few people, If you were to die today and stand before God and he was to ask you, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” what would you say? Most people are prepared to stand on their record – they’ve been good parents, good workers, good citizens who have paid their taxes and have no criminal record. It’s personal pride. In other words, they compare themselves with others and feel a cut above the average and believe they’re deserving of Heaven. But Gal. 2:21 is still true! (If we can save ourselves then Christ died in vain – Coker’s paraphrase).
The problem is that many do not understand the gravity of the situation. In our legal system we have levels of misdemeanours and corresponding tiers of justice. We can have ‘on the spot’ fines for certain things that attract no criminal record and no court appearances. We have small claims tribunals, lower courts and High Courts, State courts, Federal courts, and we used to even have access to the Privy Council. I think it is the case that many see themselves as perhaps worthy of a celestial on-the-spot fine, but with no criminal record ever recorded. Perhaps a limited purgatorial sentence may be involved, but nothing eternal.
The purpose of the Mosaic law was to show that all have sinned (Rom. 3:20,23,28); that ignorance is no excuse (Matt.7:7); its wages (Rom. 6:23); and the enormity of sin (Rom. 5:20; 7:7,13. I can understand how a man can read the morning newspaper and think he’s doing okay because it contains more bad news than good and his name is not there, but I cannot understand how a man can read the Bible and see himself clean as a whistle (cf. Jas. 2:10).
The bottom line is we all will be found guilty (Rom. 3:9,10; 19). Defending ourselves will not put us in a better light. We can make the point that no smart Alec lawyer will do any better that we could do defending ourselves: this is God’s courtroom; He makes no mistakes; there will be no miscarriage of justice as happens in our courts from time to time. There will be no technical loopholes that will see guilty men go free. Justice will be done! Every lawyer himself will need a good lawyer!
We need representation, but whom? Who can effectively plead my case? Who has any sway in this court? Jesus is our barrister (1 John 2:1ff). What makes Him qualified to do the job? First, He exposes our sinfulness (this is scary but He wants us to trust Him). Many lawyers are frustrated in their work because their clients do not tell them the truth. A good lawyer will ask his client to tell him the truth because the truth will come out and the lawyer’s best efforts will be undone if he is working with lies. If you are guilty, the barrister will probably suggest to enter a guilty plea and work to get the most lenient sentence. It is also true that Christ cannot work with those who deny their sin.
He will also expose sin by His “life’s scars”. Somebody wrote of an imagined judgement scene where the multitudes of earth were present awaiting the arrival of the Judge. They were restless and protesting among themselves because they were going to be judged by Someone who had not known the problems in life as they had faced them. Yeah, what right does God have to judge us! Said a black man as he pulled aside his collar to show an ugly rope burn on his neck caused by a K.K.K. group. What does he know of justice?! Yeah, chimed in a woman behind him as she rolled up her sleeve to show the tatooed number on her arm from Auswich, What does He know about real pain and suffering?! That’s what I was wondering, muttered a pale and thin woman with a dead baby in her arms and four more little ones around her knees, what does He know about grinding poverty and life in the Ghetto?! What about me?, asked a quiet 17-year-old, I’ve lived under the stigma of illegitimacy all my life. And so it went on. They actually signed a petition claiming that the Judge had no right to judge them until He Himself knew what it was like to endure such things. Very soon the Judge approached the throne and as he sat down the people noticed the ugly wounds in His hands and His feet; they saw the scars on His brow and noted the wound in His side; they observed the worn down hands and they remembered His peasant upbringing. They all fell silent, for they realised that the Judge had already served their “sentence”. In this sense it is His judgement seat, even though He is also seen as the Defence Attorney.
He understand both sides of the system. Many lawyers become prosecutors, and many Q.C’s. Become judges. They know the judicial system from both sides. Job longed for a ‘daysman’ to mediate between God and himself (Job 9:33). He wanted someone who could lay his hand on God and himself. Only Jesus can do this (1 Tim. 2:5). He is both God and man. He knows God and He knows man. The Judge is His Father. We are flesh and blood, born of a woman, even as He. He knows the sinlessness of God but He can also identify with life in the flesh: though He never sinned, He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3), and tempted in all points even as we (Heb. 2:18; 4:15). If he had sinned He would have been looking for a good lawyer! You can’t work as a lawyer if you have a criminal record.
But there’s something unique about Jesus. He is confident He can handle any case. Some earthly lawyers won’t take some cases, but Jesus will take every case. But there’s something even more remarkable about Jesus: though He insists upon justice being done, He says he can satisfy every client! How is this so? He says, in effect, whatsoever the court hands out as just sentence for your sin, He will pay it! I have never heard of an earthly lawyer doing that. I have heard of earthly lawyers waiving their bill to certain clients; I have seen lawyers advertising “no win, no fee”: but I have never heard of a lawyer being executed for his guilty client! That is what makes Jesus so special ((Isa. 53:4-6).
And so, in conclusion, are you going to defend yourself on that day, or are you going to get a good lawyer? This is the choice we must make in life. You can’t afford Jesus but He has been appointed by the Court to represent those who so desire Him to do so. I said at the beginning that few have put their faith in Christ. I must clarify that by saying that many believe they have trusted in Christ and that He will defend them on that day but they have never ‘hired’ Him as their Defender. This is what we effectively do when we obey the gospel – we enter into union with Him (Rom. 6:3-6; Gal. 3:27) as proof we have placed our trust in Him to defend the indefensible. If not Jesus, then who? Who has His credentials? Who has His power and who has His compassion?