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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Double
Jeopardy In western-world legal
terms, the concept of double jeopardy concerns someone being tried,
convicted and sentenced twice for the same crime.
The Fifth Amendment of the American Constitution, for example,
prohibits double jeopardy in the According to Colossians
2:13, God has forgiven the Christian all, not some of his or her sins.
Every last sin, past, present, and future sins have been deleted
from the heavenly record. That
is why I maintain that my name has been written in the Lamb's Book of Life
where there is absolutely no sin associated with my name.
Knowing this Biblical fact, read 1 John 2:1 and 2. "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world." Even though our sins are
forgiven, we still sin, as John wrote in verse 1.
For that reason John also wrote that Jesus is our advocate, our
defense lawyer, defending us before a still just God when we sin.
Then in verse 2 he went on to write that right now in present time
Jesus is our atoning sacrifice, the propitiation as the KJV puts it, or
hilasmos as seen in the Greek text. These
terms mean that Jesus' very essence, His natural inclination, is to
deflect God's just wrath away from us when we sin. Yes, God is still just
and we still sin. The cross of
Christ did not change those two realities.
Sin still disturbs God, but for the Christian, all sins have been
forgiven, deleted from the heavenly records.
If God condemned us for an already forgiven sin, He would be
committing double jeopardy and that would be unjust.
The apostle Paul never
used the term "double jeopardy" but he implied it when after
admitting to his present-day wretchedness (Romans 7:24) he wrote that God
does not condemn him (Romans 8:1 - 2).
It is simple logic. If
Jesus was tried, convicted, and sentenced on our behalf, God's justice was
satisfied. If God condemns us
for sins that have already been forgiven, Jesus' atoning death would make
no sense and would have been a complete waste.
Furthermore, God would be denying who He is by acting unjustly.
He would not be God, making our Christian faith worthless.
To be clear, God does not commit double jeopardy.
Post
Script For a more detailed
explanation of 1 John 2:1 and 2 you can purchase my commentary on 1 John
entitled "An Elderly Man Speaks," found on all Amazon sites.
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