Changed: CCV StudentsSample

LEGAL STATUS

True story: In high school, I was once chased down by a police helicopter while driving my truck until three insanely fast-moving squad cars could catch up and pull me over. My crime? “Driving off-road in a city park.” Now before you assume that I was some delinquent, it was a simple misunderstanding. It was late at night – nobody else was in the park – and some friends and I were trying to play basketball by the light of our headlights. Evidently, from the air, it looked like we were just joyriding and spinning donuts. However, the police officers were not so easy to persuade, so I now had a criminal traffic violation on my record and had to go to juvenile court to determine my punishment. I was imagining all sorts of terrible situations where I was sentenced to community service, had my license suspended…I had no idea what they would do, but I was sure they were going to find me guilty of being a terrible person. I sat down with a parole officer, and I told my story while he looked through my file. I sat there in the silence, palms sweating, heart racing, and then he started to speak: “Well, this seems like a simple misunderstanding. Pay a small fine, we’ll wipe this from your record, and we’ll be all done here.” I have never been happier to pay a fine in my life! I wrote them a check, and walked out of there an innocent man.

On a much, MUCH bigger scale, that is what has happened to you now that you have become a Christ follower. Before God, you were guilty of sin...your file was full of past mistakes. Throughout your life, you’ve lived for yourself, made selfish choices, hurt other people with your actions…you’ve sinned. It’s okay, so have I…so has everybody. But that guilt means that you were deserving of punishment, and according to the Bible, that punishment is way bigger than $100 fine. The punishment for our sin is death. Yes, mankind physically dies because sin entered the world, but we also die spiritually. The price of being a sinner is living for all of eternity separated from God and any love, joy, peace or happiness. That’s a pretty steep price!

But, that’s what makes the good news of Jesus so good. Jesus stepped in and said, “I will pay that fine…I will take that punishment.” When Jesus died on the cross, it wiped out your criminal record before God. That file has been destroyed. There is no fine to pay, no prison sentence, no community service required to make up for your mistakes…you simply walk out an innocent man or woman! It won’t always FEEL like that’s true...you’ll still make mistakes and you will feel guilty about it. But in the very legal sense of the word, you no longer have ANY guilt before God, because the price for every mistake you have ever or will ever make has been paid in full. 

Read the following verses and remind yourself that when it feels like God must be disappointed or mad at you, He keeps no record of any of your mistakes.