Jonathan Gravil illustrates the gospel from a story in the recent news
It was courtroom drama at its very best.
The young fresh-faced student set for a career as a criminologist, accused of rape, the defence lawyer who has little to defend him with, and the lawyer for the prosecution – in a turn of events that would have made even a Hollywood writer envious of such drama – discovers that evidence has been withheld; and when the police hand it over, the case collapses. The courtroom is stunned, the legal system shaken. The judge accuses the police of incompetence, an inquiry at the highest level is demanded and an innocent man walks free.
The stuff of movies? Not this time.
This was the case at Croydon Crown Court on 18 December last year when a 22-year-old Criminology student, Liam Allen, was charged with six counts of rape and sexual assault.
The student was staring at a 12-year prison sentence and a life on the sex offenders register. As the prosecuting attorney said: ‘If convicted he would have had his life totally trashed.’ Mr Allan’s lawyers were apparently denied access to the woman’s telephone records after police insisted there was ‘nothing of interest for the defence or prosecution’!
But when the barrister and former Tory MP, Jerry Hayes, took over the prosecution case only the day before the trial, he demanded that the police hand over the telephone records, which revealed that the woman (who cannot be named) was more than complicit in their sexual relationship. Mr Allen had always maintained that their intimacy had been consensual. The telephone records proved it.
Free to leave
As soon as the defence presented the new evidence to the court, the judge found Liam Allen not guilty, saying that a very serious miscarriage of justice had been avoided and that he was ‘free to leave the courtroom an innocent man without a stain on his character’.
Imagine hearing those words said to you: ‘You are free to leave the court room without a stain on your character.’
Yes, if you were in an earthly courtroom and found not guilty. But what about when you stand in heaven’s courtroom; what verdict will be read out then?
We know the assessment Jesus has made of us in Matthew 5 when it comes to sexual sins: ‘But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.’ And it doesn’t stop there. Jesus then undoes any defence we might bring for our own moral innocence. ‘You have heard that it was said: “You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment”. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment … and anyone who says to a brother or sister ‘Raca’ [a word of contempt] is answerable to the court.’ Jesus goes on to tell us not to resist an evil person or demand our rights, but we do. He tells us to love our enemies, but we don’t, and ends by telling us to ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect’, which we aren’t.
The courtroom of heaven
So, if you were to stand in the courtroom of heaven today, what would the judge say to you?
What did King David say when he was found guilty, not of rape but of adultery? ‘Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight;’
In the courtroom in Croydon, Jerry Hayes must be applauded. Even as prosecutor, he was not happy, to see an innocent man condemned. Neither is the Lord. Proverbs 17.15 says: ‘Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent— the Lord detests them both.’
But we are not innocent. (And in the courtroom of heaven, judged by the standards of sexual purity of Matthew 5, neither is the near-victim of a miscarriage of justice in the illustration above.) Paul says in Romans: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one … all the world is guilty before God … all have sinned and fallen short’ Who can ever say: ‘Never done that’? According to Matthew 5 or Romans 3, none of us can.
So, what can we plead?
Confession is the best defence! John says: ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’
And you might ask: ‘If I do, is it possible to hear the judge of heaven and earth say to me, a guilty sinner, “you’re free to go without a stain on your character”?’ The wonderful, breath-taking answer is ‘Yes!’ God himself has promised us: ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’
Such a cleansing, the complete washing away of our sin, is only made possible by the cross. There and nowhere else can the blood of Jesus wash away every spot and blemish of our sinful nature. As the hymn says: ‘You took all my guilt and shame when you died and rose again.’
On the cross, the son of God satisfied the justice of God, and guilty men and women were forgiven and reconciled to him.
So when God the judge sees that we have been cleansed by Christ’s blood and clothed in his righteousness, then and only then will we hear him say those glorious words to us: ‘You are free to go, without a stain on your character.’ Hallelujah! Amen.
