A word from Festo via Ted and Betty

Accused in Court
Festo Kivengere

You and I have stood like bankrupts in a court of law. We know what it is to be moral insolvents – to owe millions morally and have not a cent in our moral bank accounts to pay. You turn to one side and there is someone with an “IOU” of love. Instead of loving, you hated, and now you must pay. You turn another way and there is a broken relationship staring in your face. You know you are guilty. You try another direction and you find a paper signed by your conscience saying, “you were not honest here.” Life is full of these accusing documents and your conscience has signed them all. Even the things in your life you are proud of don’t help out now. You may pretend that you have forgotten, but you haven’t.

We owe these debts to Him from whom we came. Most of them we also owe to humanity – to the men and women, boys and girls who stand around us remembering our deeds. They were hurt by the words we spoke, the attitudes we took, the actions we did, the lies we have told. Life seems to one huge courtroom and we stand there bankrupt, trembling, with nowhere to look. We are not able to lift these eyes and look at the eternal, perfect God. Nor can we look at each other. We have become men and women running away from reality with crushing burdens of guilt and fear.

Then, behold! Another One comes. God steps into the court. The Judge Himself has decided to become the “friend of the accused.” Jesus, because God so loved us, took it upon Himself to stand where the guilty one stood, to take on Himself the responsibility of what we owe! Jesus! Bless Him! He is the only one who could have done it, the only one not bankrupt: perfect in His humanity, perfect in love, unlimited in grace. What a Savior!

When the Spirit of God opens your eyes, you look and find you are no longer alone. The Friend who has come to your side is no one else but the Son of God! Love stepped into the courtroom and took up every accusing document. St. Paul wrote it beautifully in Colossians 2:13, 14. He did not cancel the record as with a pen, leaving the figures readable behind. No! He actually wiped the papers clean. He paid the whole debt and wiped your conscience clean. Then He took the charges and nailed them to His cross. As they crucified Him, they crucified all your accusing guilt, and mine. That is the Gospel. That is the excitement, the miracle of New Testament love. This is the kind of forgiveness which can send you out singing from the bottom of your heart: “It is done! I am no longer guilty. The accusation is gone!” This is the kind of forgiveness which can send you straight to those people around you who hold things against you. I had to go to one after another saying, “God has forgiven me, won’t you forgive me too?” Then freedom came! And great joy in reconciliations.