Considerations ~ Discovering the Verdict of Our Pre-trial Hearing

As I have been going through the book of the Bible we call I John, I suddenly realized that it felt very much like a pre-trial hearing. I felt an overwhelming sense of wonder, and thankfulness, that God would give us such a straightforward assessment of whether “we are of the truth” (I John 3:19).

If anyone wants to know how they will fare in the coming judgment, whether they can put their hope in their good works outweighing their bad works, or that they are a good person, or that God will understand that they have done their best, or that God will be okay with their pluralistic worldview because they gave him equal place with all their other gods and ideals, just go through the book of I John. It will leave our heart-condition so clearly exposed that we will either be able to “reassure our heart before him” (I John 3:19) that we already really “are of the truth,” or receive the good news of the gospel once and for all so that we can know that we finally have come to experience the life for which we were created.

When Jesus was dealing with men who trusted in their own good works, he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts” (Luke 16:15). We cannot reassure our hearts before God when we are justifying ourselves before men. God knows our hearts; he is greater than our hearts; he knows everything, so the only way we can reassure our hearts before him is if we pass the test of I John’s pre-trial hearing and “know that we are of the truth.”

If we come out of I John’s pre-trial hearing with the verdict that we “are of the truth” now, we can live without fear of the coming judgment, and look forward to the appearing of Jesus Christ our Lord when, “we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (I John 3:2) On the other hand, a guilty verdict now is just too scary to live with.

© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)