The Final Verdict — A LifeWords Devotion

Someone who has to front one of our civil courts may wait anxiously for the verdict. Will the judge be persuaded by powerful advocacy? Will the judge know and rightly apply the law? Will it be guilty or not guilty?

Followers of Jesus believe God will one day deliver the decisive and final verdict on us. And that verdict determines our eternal destiny. We can get worried when we think of all our faults and failings. If God’s pass mark is one hundred percent, we have to admit we are all failures. None of us can be sure of a not guilty verdict if it depends on our performance.

But thankfully this is not the case. Jesus has taken away the guilt of our imperfections which would otherwise keep us out of the presence of a perfect and holy God. Those who embrace what he has done are in a way already declared not guilty. They already know the verdict.

This is why Paul, writing his last words, is confident of his own verdict. All his unrighteousness has been covered by Jesus’ own righteousness. His belief in the overriding mercy of God the judge is well expressed by one of the poets: “Cleanse what I cannot cleanse, mend what I cannot mend, O Lord All-Merciful, be merciful to me.”

Blessings

David