by Tad Lindley
I was discussing Guilty in the Courts Part I with my friends, and they sowed the seeds of this thought: we were guilty long before law enforcement officers ever caught up with us. We were guilty as far back as we can remember, in fact, if the King David has any credibility as a witness, we were guilty in the womb. Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 51:5)
Not guilty, but guilty
I was out at Hageland’s once for work and I ran into one of the men I had met at service in the Tundra Center. He had gotten released and was on his way back home. He told me, “You know, I didn’t do the crime I was in there for.”
“How’s that,” I asked.
“They filed a false report, but I’m not angry about it. I have committed so many crimes that they never caught me for, that I am alright with it.”
What a tremendous attitude!
Bro. Lindley’s criminal record
When I was a child, I did many things I never got caught for. I was charged with a couple of juvenile crimes. My memory is hazy on it, but one was a domestic assault charge, and the other a runaway charge, perhaps there was a minor consuming alcohol as well. I was even assigned a probation officer, although I skipped my first meeting with him and never heard anything further.
Expunged
Perhaps my mom thought that someday I would run for a political office or be in some other position in which a juvenile criminal record would wreck me. She filed paperwork with the county in Ohio and had my records expunged. That means that they were wiped away. If you were to search juvenile court records for my name, you should find nothing, just as if I had never broken the law.
I talked about my guilt, let’s talk about your guilt
Let me get into your business for a moment. You too are guilty. The Bible declares it. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We don’t like to talk about our shortcomings in public, but they are there all the same. The only sinless person to ever live was Jesus, but then he was God manifest in the flesh.
He came to expunge our sins
When Jesus himself was arrested, arraigned, charged, and executed, he was violently assaulted and brutally tortured on the cross. The Bible explains this contradiction as follows: But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection was his way of nailing sin to the cross so that we could experience salvation from sin.
People of Corinth were guilty as sin
In I Corinthians 6:9-10, the Bible tells us about a long list of sins that would keep people from being saved. Read it: Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. Have you ever done any of these things? If so, it would make it seem hopeless if it wasn’t for the next verse, because that verse tells us that the people of Corinth had their sin expunged.
Expunged
And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God (I Corinthians 6:11). True, they used to be all of those things, but something happened that expunged all of that sin: they were washed in baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38 teaches us that we are baptized in Jesus’ name for the remission of sin. That means that the sin is taken away, if God does a records search for pre-baptismal sin, he comes up empty handed, it has been expunged.
We were all born guilty, and have all lived guilty, but we do not have to finish guilty. Have you been baptized in Jesus name? Have you received the Holy Spirit like they did in Acts 2, 8, and 19? If not, in the words of Ananias, Arise and wash away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord (Acts 22:16).
Reverend Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.
