Imagine. The verdict is in, the gavel comes down hard and the judgment is sealed. BANG! The Supreme Court has ruled. There is no further appeal. All that is left is the sentence to be carried out.
Will there be rejoicing or will there be despair? It depends on the verdict – guilty or not guilty.
The penalty for your particular crime is death. Your verdict is… guilty.
Your shoulders sag and your last hope dashed by the fall of that gavel. Despair. The judge confirms the sentence.
But then the Judge does a strange and bizarre thing. He rises and walks down to where you stand. He speaks to your guards and says, “Remove the shackles from this man and place them on me. Set this man free. I will take his place and I will pay his penalty.” He turns to you and says, “If you accept my offer, Go. Sin no more.”
You can’t believe it! You accept. You scarcely believe it possible. But the reality sets in as the shackled judge is escorted from the room and the sentence is carried out.
You are free. Free! Then the thought crosses your mind, “Yes, but at what price?” and his last words haunt you, “If you accept my offer, Go. Sin no more.”
When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:20-23
We have all sinned – turned our back on God- and the sentence is death. Jesus has taken our place and has died on the Cross for our sin. All we need to do is accept His offer and we get another opportunity to start over – this is called Salvation.