Not guilty!

"Not guilty!" Those words are music to a defendant's ears. And they are the theme of a number of songs by famous artists, including one by George Harrison. My wife Janie told me that in the worship service she attended last Sunday morning, she heard a different song by that title. The lyrics and melody moved her. Rhonda, the pastor's wife, sang the solo, which I later learned was written and recorded by the American Idol personality Mandisa. The main idea of the song is that though we have "sins a mile long," Jesus Christ has made it possible for us to hear the verdict, "not guilty!" That is divine grace, undeserved, and available only through the redemptive self-offering of Jesus for our sakes.

People don't like to think of themselves as sinful, or as being subject to divine judgment. But even if you don't credit the biblical analysis of the human condition, common sense will tell you that folks do things that are wrong, just plain wrong. Yes, they also do good things, and people can be kind-hearted as well as cold-hearted, open-handed as well as closed-fisted, and so on. The other thing that we know for sure is that people often do carry around a whole bag of guilt, some of warranted, some of it foisted off on them by sketchy upbringing, some of it self-imposed. And this guilt gets in the way of a fulfilling life. It undermines one's self-concept. It breeds suspicion, jealousy, envy, which in turn produce more guilt.

The atonement Christ made on the Cross deals directly with our guilt. In Christ, we find forgiveness, which is then the pathway to new and more abundant living. Here is the refrain from Mandisa's song, as she has heard the voice of Christ speaking to her.

"I know you, I love you
I gave My life to save you
Love paid the price for mercy
My verdict not guilty."