By Pastor Stephen Hess –
In recent days I have seen a multitude of news articles and videos covering the trial of Darrell Brooks. Brooks is the man who drove his car through the Waukesha Christmas Parade in 2021, killing six people and injuring dozens more. The trial has received national attention not only because of the magnitude of the tragedy but also because Brooks chose to represent himself in court, resulting in quite a sad spectacle. At this point no one questions whether Brooks is guilty since the evidence against him is overwhelming. Yet rather than confessing his guilt, Brooks has continued defending himself in court, which has only made him look more foolish.
As I reflected on this trial it reminded me of an important Biblical reality about humanity. Scripture says that all human beings have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). As sinners, we must stand before a judge to receive a verdict and that judge is God himself. Like Darrell Brooks, we may try to deny our sin and defend ourselves, but there is no question that we are guilty. There is only one question that remains: Is there any way for a sinner to be acquitted of his or her guilt before God? The Bible answers this question with an emphatic YES!
The doctrine of justification explains how we can be acquitted of our guilt before God. The word “justify” means “to declare righteous.” It is a legal term that could be used to describe a judge declaring a defendant to be innocent in a courtroom. Our problem is that we stand guilty before the divine judge, having no righteousness with which to commend ourselves because we have not followed God’s law. But the good news is that with the coming of Jesus, a new righteousness has appeared that is apart from the law (Rom. 3:21). This righteousness is given as a gift to all those who place their faith in Christ (Rom. 3:22).
How did Christ bring about this new righteousness? The answer is that he succeeded where we failed. Jesus lived a perfect life and as such he had a perfect record of righteousness before God the Father. After living a perfect life, he went to the cross and died as a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the world. Since he had no sins of his own, he could die for the sins of others. Now everyone who places their faith in Jesus is the recipient of a double blessing: Jesus takes away our sin and gives us his righteousness in exchange. In Christ, we can be “justified” or declared righteous by the judge because he has removed our guilt and credited his righteousness to us.
This is why the Apostle Paul describes God as “both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). God justifies all those who have faith in Jesus, but he does this without compromising his justice. How? By pouring out the judgment we deserved upon his one and only Son. This was the only way that sin could be punished and sinners could be justified simultaneously, and it is the heart of the good news of the gospel. Jesus lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died. As a result, we can be acquitted of our guilt and declared righteous in God’s sight.
Darrell Brooks committed heinous acts against his fellow human beings and as a result he must stand before a human judge and bear the consequences of his actions. But there is another judge before whom Darrell Brooks will one day stand, and this is the same judge before whom we will all have to stand and give an account. This judge is God himself, and his verdict is far more serious than any human judge, for his verdict determines our place in eternity. My prayer for Darrell Brooks and for the rest of us is that we would come to grips with our guilt and place our faith in the one who died so that we could be acquitted of our guilt and declared righteous in God’s sight.