Earlier this year three teenagers, John and his two friends, Dick and Tom, were caught red-handed at shop-lifting by the store detective. They had thought they were too slick to get caught, but they didn’t feel so cocky now. They were booked at the police station for shop-lifting and released only on bail.
The boys were ordered to get a lawyer to defend themselves in court. John’s father took the three to a Christian lawyer who lived in the area. When the lawyer realized that the boys were truly guilty, he told them that the right thing to do was to plead “guilty” and throw themselves on the mercy of the judge. All three pondered the attorney’s counsel, but only John decided to accept his advice and do the right thing.
That same afternoon the lawyer obtained a hearing for John in court. John pleaded “guilty.” He told the judge the whole story without trying to hide anything. The judge himself was moved by the boy’s frank, open testimony.
But John had done wrong and deserved to be sentenced. The judge sentenced him, for he was guilty. Then he immediately pardoned him, for that was his prerogative as judge. But more than that, the judge expunged the evidence against John from the record; he completely erased it. This was mercy.
How happy John was! The merciful judge had forgiven and pardoned him, and cleared his record of all guilt. And not only that; after the court session was over, the judge stepped down from his chair, and sitting down beside John he spent twenty minutes trying to encourage him to “go straight” and to live an honest and upright life.
As sinners we were all guilty, too, before God, for His Word declares, “All have sinned!” Romans 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23). But “God who is rich in mercy” sent Jesus, His beloved Son, to die in our stead. Now He will grant a pardon full and free to anyone who casts himself upon His mercy and trusts in Jesus as Saviour. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:99If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)) and He clears the record of all our guilt. “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:2424Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Romans 3:24)); “justied"—just as if I had never sinned.
Furthermore God gives us His Spirit—the power to overcome temptations and to walk the straight and narrow way through this world to the heavenly mansions above.
But what happened to the other two boys? Poor Dick and Tom felt that the evidence against them was not sufficient to convict them, so they got a different lawyer to defend them in court. However, the judge righteously found them guilty and both were given stiff sentences.
ML-11/25/1979