February 8, 2013

  • Law and Order and the Throne of God

    Acts 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men everywhere to repent: 31 Because he hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

    In the early days of television, legal dramas were among the most popular types of shows to be produced. Perry Mason was a defense lawyer who not only successfully defended his clients, but he also found a way to get the guilty party to confess to the crime while on the witness stand. The lawyer was never as romanticized as the police officer or the private investigator. The cops were out there getting their hands dirty, dealing with drug dealers and gang bangers and other assorted lowlifes. While there might be some respect for the prosecuting attorney who was out to convict every accused person who stepped into the courtroom, there was little respect for the shyster lawyer who planned to use the criminal justice system against itself if it kept his client out of prison. Every trick imaginable is used by defense attorneys to keep people out of jail, even if the attorney knows his client is guilty.

    Contemporary legal dramas give us some idea of what happens when lawyers are preparing for a trial. We see the investigators on Law and Order searching for evidence and witnesses to a crime. We watch suspects being questioned about their activities when the crime was committed. We can watch them getting arraigned for trial, entering their pleas of guilty or not guilty, and learn how much bail they need to come up with so they don’t have to stay in jail. The lawyers do their research, asking paralegals to help find legal briefings and court rulings and decisions that can influence the outcome of the case. Hundreds and thousands of man-hours of investigation go into preparing for a trial.

    Even the press is in on the action, making sure every detail possible, no matter how trivial it may be, is shouted from the proverbial rooftop. The victim and the accused have no privacy during this time. Some will pay a very steep price to keep secrets covered up. The truth scares some people, for they are afraid of how they will look if ever those secrets came out.

    I want to read something I found on biblegateway.com. It is a translation of Daniel 7:9-10 that comes from the Knox Bible. Here is how it describes the scene in heaven as they prepare for judgment.

    Daniel 7:9 While I still watched, there were judgment-thrones a-setting; and one took his seat there crowned with age. White as snow his garments were, his hair could match unsullied wool for whiteness; his throne all of flame, the wheels under it glancing fire; 10 and ever from his presence a stream of fire came rushing onward. A thousand thousands they were that waited on his bidding and for every one of these, a thousand others were standing there before him. Assize should be held now, and the records lay open.

    You may not be familiar with the term, assize. In England and Wales, the Courts of Assize were periodic criminal courts that met to hear the most serious cases recommended to it by the Quarter Sessions. There was the basic level court that heard petty cases four times a year, and local law enforcement was enough to deal with the situation. If the case was big enough, or heinous enough, then it could be sent to a higher court, the court of assize, for prosecution. The judges of assize were part of the King’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice. The American counterpart would be the circuit-riding judges of the old American west.  

    The setting in Daniel 7:9-10 is that of a courtroom. You can hear the bailiff issuing the command to those in attendance to “All rise. The honorable Judge of the world presiding.” And then the Ancient of Days comes and takes His seat where He is to hear the matter. Before Him are the lawyers. First are the ego-driven prosecuting attorney and his assistants who are out to get another conviction. Across the aisle are the shyster defense attorney and his assistants who will use every trick in the book to get the client off the hook, to beat the heat and the bad rap that comes with conviction. Perhaps in this case it is unfair to call the defense attorney a shyster, but that is how the prosecutor views Him. Not a lower case “him,” but an upper case “Him.” You see, we are looking into the heavenly court of law and justice. We are the accused. And we don’t have the money it would require to bribe the judge or the attorney or anyone else for that matter. To use the proper terminology to describe our situation, we don’t have squat in our favor. In the US, if one is accused of a crime, and cannot afford a lawyer, then the court appoints us a public defender. In some cases, the public defender works for the system, and just to make things go easily, will have innocent people plead to a lesser charge because the innocent can’t prove their innocence. To beat that rap, you need your own attorney, and that can get expensive. Thankfully, in the heavenly court, we have a defense attorney who is working pro bono publico, or pro bono as it is best known in the US. Our defense attorney is working for the public good. And He paid our legal fees on the cross of Calvary.  The Geneva Bible of 1599 puts it this way:

    John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not: and if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Just. 2 And He is the reconciliation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And hereby we are sure that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.

    So we are the accused. In light of the evidence against us, we are all guilty. There is none righteous, no not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Anyone who says that he has not sinned is a liar, lying is a sin, and the soul that sins… well, it shall die. The wages of sin is death. In matters of capital cases where the death penalty is involved, the highest court, the court of assize, is called in to decide the matter. The best Judge available is ready to hear our plea. The Public Defender is ready to take our side. This is our part in the investigative judgment. All we have to do is confess our sin, renounce our sin…. From our lips all of our secrets are shouted from the rooftops. The universe is all ears to hear our confession that Jesus Christ is Lord. Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.