A Gift From the Judge
As I write this, we are in the Christmas season. During this time, we are focused a great deal on the purchasing, giving, and receiving of gifts. This has of course been going on for centuries, and has increased a great deal since the advent of the industrial revolution. This giving and receiving of gifts was originally intended to serve in the commemoration of the gift of eternal life that Christ came to earth to give to fallen humanity. I would say that most folks who are at least minimally familiar with Christendom are familiar with this idea. However, I think it serves all to take some time to reflect on just what this gift is, what it means, and just how profoundly important it is.
I will use a metaphor. Just for fun, let us say that I am taking a vacation in some hypothetical nation. While there, I choose to indulge in some rather “wild” living. For a few nights I manage to go on a rampage and do indeed live quite wildly, doing foolish things that results in causing a great deal of damage that amounts to a great sum of money; around the equivalent of $2M in USD. In my intoxicated, carefree and reckless state of mind, I manage to get caught. I get arrested, taken in, booked, charged, tried, and rightly get found guilty of all of the assorted crimes associated with my foolish actions. In the hypothetical nation that we are using here in our example, the penalty under the law for my crimes is to remain incarcerated until paying full restitution plus court costs, even if it means remaining incarcerated for the rest of my life. I am in no position to ever make this
kind of financial restitution, especially from a prison cell.
The judge who I am standing in front of is a very good and just man. He is honest; he is rightly devoted to his pledge to uphold the law and to rule accordingly to it. He is a man of considerable wealth. He is also a merciful man. At my sentencing, he hands down the sentence that is prescribed under the law that he is sworn to uphold; the sentence that he must hand down as a just judge. As stated, this means incarceration until full restitution, plus court costs are paid, even if it is for life. The gavel falls. The bailiff escorts me out of the courtroom. As this happens, the judge takes off his robe that only he is entitled to wear as the judge. Also, instead of going back to his chambers; his rightful place of prestige, honor and privilege, he humbly comes down the aisle behind me and the bailiff. Be mindful that despite his genuine display of humility here, his position as being judge never changes.
As I am escorted past the clerk’s desk, I hear the judge’s voice. He instructs the bailiff to stop. The bailiff obeys the judge. The judge looks at me and informs me that he is going to pay my fine. He is not going to suspend the sentence or anything of the sort. The sentence will stand and he will fulfill the requirements of it out of his own resources; at his own cost. Why he would do this I do not understand, but he is fully able to do what he says that he is going to do and completely willing to do so.
There are essentially two ways that I can respond to this unthinkably generous offer. Out of foolish pride and resentment, I can refuse the judge’s gift, making it clear that I want nothing from him and that I will take care of whatever I have to take care of on my own. This is obviously going to result in my spending the rest of my life incarcerated. Or, out of wisdom, humility, and gratitude, I can accept his exceedingly gracious offer and go free.
This metaphor closely mirrors humanity’s standing with Jesus in many ways. First, Jesus did indeed leave His heavenly dwelling in a place of majesty and exaltation to humble Himself to be born of a virgin as an infant, grow up in humble human habitation and become a man; fully so, with every attribute of man, except for sin. Nonetheless, not for one split second did He ever stop being God, just as the judge in our metaphor never stopped being the judge. Jesus is a just judge and He must judge sin according to the law. He cannot justly simply sweep it under the rug, so to speak. This is because He is perfect and denying justice is dishonest; imperfect. Being perfect, He has NO CHOICE but to do everything perfectly, thus He is simply not capable of doing such a thing. In Romans 6:23, the apostle Paul clearly says that the wages of sin is death. Again, wages are something that are earned and must be paid; not doing so would be dishonest; God is not capable of being dishonest. The death that the verse refers to is not simply that of the physical body, as the bodies of believers currently still die [the death of the body is however a result of sin (1 Cor 15:21)]. The death that he is referring to is the present state death that the person outside of the grace of God is in due to sin (Ephesians 2:1), who presently stands condemned (John 3:18).
Our metaphor is lacking in at least one respect: Jesus, humanity’s ultimate judge, not only offers to fully pay the fine out of His own resources as our hypothetical judge did, HE HAS ALREADY PAID IT; He did so on a hill called Golgotha around 2000 years ago. He, being sinless, was then rightly able to take our sin upon Himself and pay the penalty for it; receive the wage for it, in our place.
All He wants you or I to do is to accept this wonderful gift; again, it has already been paid for in full. There are TRULY no strings attached, no asterisks, no fine print; it is truly a gift. One does nothing to receive something that is truly a gift, and if anyone can give a true gift, that would be God (Jesus). He simply wants us to believe Him; to take Him at His word that He died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried and rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures (Ephesians 1:13, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4). This is the Gospel; the good news; the best news ever. He has given us the most wonderful gift possible. Unlike the very finite and limited gifts we give one another that often wind up in a closet, being re-gifted, or in a landfill, or even the ones that are very nice and precious for a time, this gift is limitless and infinite/eternal. It is truly the gift that will keep on giving for all eternity (Ephesians 2:6-7).
When we believe on Him, He rescues us from what we deserved and forever restores us to the original position intended for us at creation before the events of Genesis 3.
The best gifts are also given out of love. This gift most certainly meets that criterion, to put it mildly. Jesus, our creator (John chapter 1), who is all knowing, knew before He made us that we were going to rebel against Him and fall into sin. Knowing this, He also knew He would have to do to redeem us to make us fit to live with Him for eternity. He made us anyway and did indeed do what He knew He would have to do in order to redeem us 2000 years ago on Golgotha.
Nonetheless, just as with any gift, it isn’t mine until I believe it is mine and I accept and receive it. We read in Acts 16:31 “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” We read in John 6:47 “Verily, verily I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” We read in Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” There are a good many more. Also, God does not repent of (change His mind about) His gifts and callings (Romans 11:29). He wants you to believe Him when He says that His gift is yours and accept it. Once you do so, He will never; He can never take it away. If He took it away, he would be a liar and no longer perfect, and no longer God; He cannot do that (2 Timothy 2:13).
We are made in the image of God. We desire for others to love us because they choose to do so, not because they are forced to or simply programmed to do so. I believe that God is the same as us in that respect. I believe that this is why God gave us free will. In their weakness and free will our great great…. grandfather and grandmother rejected Him in Eden. He has however gifted us with another chance to get it right, not by our weakness but by His power. We as the human race did indeed lose our righteousness in Eden, however we now are offered the gift of His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Eternity is forever. This gift lasts forever and it is completely void of any return policy 😊. Accept it and keep it forever; it will be unending and unspeakably wonderful (1 Corinthians 13:12, 1 John 3:2, Revelation 21-22, etc.). It will be completely without evil; there will be nothing wrong with anything. One's life here on earth ending without accepting it means doing without it forever in a place that is without good.
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Merry Christmas and God bless.
JJR
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