'"Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit primarily as the "Spirit of Truth" who will "remind you of everything I have said to you" (John 14:17, 26).
The Holy Spirit "will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you" (John 16:14). What does this mean?
'"Make Known" translates a Greek work meaning a momentous announcement that rivets attention. The Holy Spirit's task, then, is to unfold the meaning of Jesus's person and work to believers in such a way that the glory of it - its infinite importance and beauty - is brought home to the mind and heart.
This is why earlier in the letter to the Ephesians, Paul can pray that the "eyes of your heart be enlightened (1:18), that they might have power. . . to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. . . " (3:17-18).
The Holy Spirit's ministry is to take truths about Jesus and make them clear to our minds and real to our hearts - so real that they console and empower and change us at our very center."
- Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage.
Today I had the unique experience of reading this section of this incredible book... while sitting in a courtroom waiting for the judge to appear.
This is a first for me, this whole courtroom experience.
There were about 25-30 other people sitting in the very very small courtroom. Many shady looking. Some completely ticked off to be there. Some acting a little weird. Some looking totally guilty.
Either way, I was among these people & felt very nervous/curious to see what it would be like...
My rock-star husband, being the kind soul that he is (and also feeling kinda guilty that the reason I got a ticket in the first place is kinda sorta big time his fault) decided to show up around 10:30 and wait with me.
We both assumed going into this that this was traffic court.
I guess I didn't know what to expect either way, so I just figured everyone else there was there because they also got a ticket by a lame-o SF dude.
As soon as the Judge entered, though, we quickly realized that this was a taaaad bit different.
Bill & I were sitting in the front row, only about 3 feet away from the Prosecutor, Defense & Defendant, and maybe 15 feet away from the Judge who was directly facing us.
Front row seats to this stuff, in a tiny courtroom, can get intense.
The Prosecutor's began calling the cases, and the Judge apparently recognized the first defendant who came up.
The Prosecutor introduced the case to the Judge and then the Defense was given their chance to further explain excuses in detail to calm the Judge.
However.... the Judge was not having it with this dude.
A repeat offender, this guy was in there AGAIN, because he had apparently failed a drug test, AGAIN, and the Judge was fed up. And literally uttered these words out of his mouth:
"You are a FAILURE of a human being."
"I don't have time to waste on people like you. With people like you, I throw my hands up and say 'I give up.' You've had so many opportunities and failed them all."
"You claim you've found 'religion' now, but at this point I think that's all that is going to help you."
"The question isn't IF I will send you to jail, the question is WHEN I will send you to jail, because you are definitely going."
Getting a front row seat to this, and the many other's after him who were apparently in DISTRICT COURT with me, literally overwhelmed me with emotion.
I'm sitting there, crying, because I'm seeing something so crazy.... and for maybe the first time in a while, the words that I read in Tim Keller's book just 30 minutes before the trial started, is happening to me.
"A MOMENTOUS EVENT THAT RIVETS MY ATTENTION:"
I see the Judge.
- Harsh, but overall pretty good.
- Tired, perhaps, of the endless excuses of lame lives he has to hear.
- Just. Showing mercy when he can but clearly explaining consequences of people's actions.
I see the Prosecutor.
- The guy who introduces the problem in the first place.
- The first one to speak, the one to highlight the many faults of the Defendant.
- The one who makes a suggestion to the Judge of what the earned/deserving consequences should be.
I see the Defendant.
- Each with a different story, each having to make a plea on their behalf.
- Completely submissive, only able to speak when asked a question.
- The one's that were previously vocally TICKED to be there, were now "straight laced," being submissive & very respectful of the old Judge who silently demanded it.
- In each case, the Defendant was guilty.
- In all 20 cases that I saw, (Yes, I was there for 2 hours before they called my case up), EACH DEFENDANT looked, so, so lame. (myself included.)
At least personally, I was embarrassed to be there.
AND I was embarrassed to have to discuss my case, openly, before a room full of people.
My case wasn't even "the worst ever", I mean it ultimately ended up getting dismissed.
But what happened to me this morning, and the emotions I felt, & the reality that I saw, were so real and so clear. It literally overwhelmed me.
But what happened to me this morning, and the emotions I felt, & the reality that I saw, were so real and so clear. It literally overwhelmed me.
While sitting in that front row with my husband, I heard the stories of drug addicts, alcoholics, and many repeat offenders who were there due to having been issued warrants for their arrests.
Some men got re-issued back into rehab.
One woman got her license revoked for 60 days.
One woman had just failed a drug test.
One man ALMOST got his case dismissed, except the chip on his shoulder caused him to open his mouth & inform the judge that he had charged the cop for harassment. The Judge didn't take that too well.
Many people there were put on probation until their next court day in July.
One dad was there in lieu of his daughter & her friend... who were taking finals to graduate HS next week.
Many people were there for a/many DUI/DWI charges.
One man was given a fine of over $1500, three months in jail, and 2 years probation. His wife was wiping tears off her face as she watched him from the front row.
Every person there, even if they entered the court room with a good excuse or an air of entitlement, sluggishly made their way to stand in front of the Judge with their tail between their legs in embarrassment.
Myself included, regardless of the outcome.
Many people issued apologies, making promises to never do that again.
Some people stayed silent, and it was their right.
What happened in that courtroom today, something I literally got a front-row seat and witnessed, made me have to hold back what would've been sobs if I had been in my bedroom by myself.
I'm sure many people may have made this connection in some way before, but personally, the Holy Spirit MADE KNOWN to me, in a way I've honestly never seen before, who JESUS is.
And I see the Defense.
This, today, with the good guys and the bad guys & the guilty & the charges & the mistakes & the messiness & the broken lives & the addiction... all having to pay-up for what happened.... THIS is perhaps a TINY mirror of what life may be like on Judgement day.
I see the Judge.
- "God is a righteous Judge..." - Psalms 7:11
- "Compassionate & gracious... slow to anger & abounding in Love." - Psalms 103:8
I see the Prosecutor.
- Satan is called "the accuser of our brothers... who accuses night & day... - Rev. 12:10
- Wanders like "roaring lion... looking for someone to devour" - 1 Peter 5:8
- A liar & the father of lies... - John 8:44
I see the Defendant.
- "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." - Romans 3:23
- "For the wages of sin is death..." - Romans 6:23
- We are "dead in our trespasses and sins." - Ephesians 2:1
The Defense that I saw, that is, a lawyer who was very respectfully making a case on the behalf of the guilty man/woman who was standing beside them, made me cry.
One day, perhaps very soon in fact, I'm going to be in a place like this, AGAIN.
Satan, THE ACCUSER, is going to be sitting there, making his case against me... maybe like this:
"Jocelyn told a lie on this day, this day, this day..."
"She gossiped about this person, this person, this person..."
"Her pride - oh, Judge, her pride! Judge, Jocelyn's pride kept her from loving this person.... this person... her pride slapped you in the face on this day, and this day..."
"She did this, and this..."
"She made a promise to do this and failed, AGAIN..."
"She was disrespectful to her husband here, and on this day, and here..."
"You gave her a second and third chance, and she apologized but obviously had no heart change & was a repeat offender of that sin..."
"If you look closely, she professed to carry Your Name but didn't love people..."
Satan's list, is going to be there. And it's going to be long.
I'm sitting there, hearing "THE LIST" of charges against these poor, beautiful, broken people.
Some are addicts, some first-time offenders. All sad to be there. All perhaps wishing they could do something different & choose a different path.
All having to stand before a Judge and answer to their actions.
All having to stand before a Judge and answer to their actions.
And all there with a lawyer representing them, fighting for them, DEFENDING THEM against the accuser.
I don't think I've ever loved Jesus more than I do today.
Satan, the one who loves to STEAL, KILL AND DESTROY lives, who brings temptations into people's lives and lies about their worth and gets them entangled in messes like addiction, pride, gossip and failure.... hIM, hE has the audacity to be the prosecutor on that day. he will accuse us day & night for all our sins, many of which hE had a huge part to play in.
So he's there. Building a case. A freakin' good case.
Bringing up points & accusations that we have no choice but to plead "guilty" for.
And he'll close his argument for our lives by saying,
"Judge, here are the charges brought against Jocelyn.
"Judge, here are the charges brought against Jocelyn.
And, as you well know, the cost of these terrible, unfathomable, betraying sins, is ETERNAL DEATH."
And God, a good Judge, a righteous Judge, knows that.
He is perfect, He is love, and He "is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5a).
And there we stand, completely and disgustingly guilty, with our heads hanging down and our tails between our legs.
Ashamed. Embarrassed. Broken. Humiliated. Pathetic. Angry. Guilty. Ugly.
Waiting to hear what the verdict of our eternity will be.
KNOWING the verdict we deserve, based on the sins that Satan just proclaimed to the masses.
The Judge is about to speak, giving a just sentence, and suddenly.... Jesus chimes in.
"Your honor, I actually already paid this sentence.
The one of eternal death and separation from You.
I did it on the Cross; My blood covers their sin.
I took their punishment so that they can now stand before You, blameless and without sin.
Everything Satan just accused them of, is already forgiven, because of my death.
They called on me, I saved them, so You can dismiss this case."
JESUS IS OUR ONLY DEFENSE.
Mercy -that is, JESUS - DOES triumph over judgment.
I don't think I've ever truly realized the weight of this future-day more than I do right now.
Maybe it was because I got a front-row view of the heavy burden that can fall on people who make poor decisions & have their lives in the hands of a judge. (Like all of us.)
Maybe it's because I was expecting a little, unimportant traffic court instead of district court.
Maybe it's because I've never had to witness in person, a person plea for an easier consequence than the one they deserve.
Maybe it's because I heard the Judge call a young man, a "FAILURE of a human."
Maybe it's because I never fully calculated the WEIGHT of a TRIAL day... I was in there for a traffic ticket, I didn't even need a lawyer & thankfully, my case was dismissed in the first few minutes of me standing up there. Easy.
But for others... their loads were heavier. Their prices were steeper. Their spouses were crying & their lives were literally about to be changed.
And I'm NO DIFFERENT than them.
And neither are you.
And maybe we won't realize this truth until we are standing before a perfect, good, JUST Judge, having all our dirty laundry & serious sin-issues aired out by the one person in the world who has tried EVERY SINGLE DAY to destroy our lives.
Suddenly, on that day, I don't think it will matter much if I've told a "white lie" or killed somebody.
"The wages of sin is death."
Murder or pride... the consequences, on that day, are the same.
Death.
But thankfully, I don't have to be standing up there alone.
I don't have to be pleading not-guilty.
I get to be up there with the Prince of Peace.
The Judge's SON.
Who already knows my list of sins.
Many of which are PERSONAL sins, AGAINST HIM & HIS SPIRIT.
And because I believe He is my Lord & Savior.... no amount of sin can separate me from eternity with Him.
And He speaks.
And Satan's arguments & accusations against me are silenced forever.
And Jesus wins.
And truly, all authority, EVERY victory, is His.
"The Holy Spirit's task, then, is to unfold the meaning of Jesus's person and work to believers in such a way that the glory of it - its infinite importance and beauty - is brought home to the mind and heart.
This is why earlier in the letter to the Ephesians, Paul can pray that the "eyes of your heart be enlightened (1:18), that they might have power. . . to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. . . " (3:17-18).
The Holy Spirit's ministry is to take truths about Jesus and make them clear to our minds and real to our hearts - so real that they console and empower and change us at our very center."
^^^
He did that for me today.
The Holy Spirit took the truth of who JESUS IS, and made it clear to my mind & real to my heart.
I'm not even kidding.
I left that courtroom & got into my car & cried. Bill can attest to that.
I could not believe the perfect, CLEAR picture that had just been revealed to me sitting in that courtroom.
I wish I could write in such a way that would accurately depict the PROFOUND ENLIGHTENING REVELATION I had today in a way that could turn your world upside down like it has mine.
I know this concept of Judgement day & Jesus defending us against Satan the accuser isn't "news" to any born&raised Christians like me.
But Y'all.... the LOVE. OF. CHRIST. IS. SO. VERY. WIDE. AND. LONG. AND. DEEP.
He is not just our Savior.
He is our DEFENSE.
When Jesus says in Matthew 28:20... "be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age..."
He maybe meant on THAT DAY!
THAT JUDGEMENT DAY - THE END OF THE AGE!
And arguably the worst day of our life.
On THAT DAY...
We can be SURE OF THIS:
He is ALWAYS WITH US!
To the end of the age!
When the accuser makes his case against us!
When the reality of our SIN becomes something we can finally truly see!
When we realize how incredibly filthy, desperate, undeserving we really are!
TO THE END OF THE AGE!
Jesus is with us.
Our Savior.
Our Peace.
Our Light.
Our Truth.
Our Way.
Our Deliverer.
Our Life.
Our Rock.
Our Guide.
Our Protector.
Our Healer.
Our ONLY Hope.
Our Redeemer.
Our DEFENSE!
To the end of the age.
Be sure of this.
He is with us.
I'm processing this out-loud with Bill, and in true Holy Spirit fashion, a song comes on the radio that now has a deeper meaning for me. It kind of "sealed the deal" for me & the revelations I had today in many ways.
So incredibly grateful that this song is TRUE; every word.
Grace, what have You done?
Murdered for me on that cross.
Accused, in absence of wrong.
My sin washed away in Your blood!
Too much to make sense of it all...
I know that Your love breaks my fall
The scandal of grace, You died in my place
so my soul will live!
Oh, to be like You!
Give all I have just to know You!
Jesus, there's no one besides You!
Forever the hope in my heart
Death, where is your sting?
Your power is as dead as my sin!
The cross has taught me to live,
and mercy, my heart now to sing...
The day and its trouble shall come.
I know that Your strength is enough.
The scandal of grace, You died in my place...
So my soul will live!
And it's ALL because of YOU, JESUS!
It's ALL because of You,
that my soul will live!
It's truth.
It's life & death.
And as a side note.... if you don't know Jesus, you really should.
Because when THAT DAY comes, you are NOT going to want to be standing alone with NO DEFENSE in the face of the accuser.
I know that sounds so "close-minded & intolerant & bigot-ish & foolish".... but I'm serious.
And beyond that, beyond Jesus just being "a Defense..."
He is LIFE.
And LIFE IN HIM is BETTER than any LIFE you could be living now.
I know this to be completely true.
I'm not lying.
And I hope you believe me.
Because the Scandal of Grace, this AMAZING GRACE - happened FOR YOU!
And, at the end of the age, the ONLY PERSON you're going to want standing beside you, is Jesus.
Sweet Jesus. :)
It's life & death.
And as a side note.... if you don't know Jesus, you really should.
Because when THAT DAY comes, you are NOT going to want to be standing alone with NO DEFENSE in the face of the accuser.
I know that sounds so "close-minded & intolerant & bigot-ish & foolish".... but I'm serious.
And beyond that, beyond Jesus just being "a Defense..."
He is LIFE.
And LIFE IN HIM is BETTER than any LIFE you could be living now.
I know this to be completely true.
I'm not lying.
And I hope you believe me.
Because the Scandal of Grace, this AMAZING GRACE - happened FOR YOU!
And, at the end of the age, the ONLY PERSON you're going to want standing beside you, is Jesus.
Sweet Jesus. :)
