On This Day: The Case Where Everyone Was on Trial

 

    He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
    Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
    Let him come near to me.
Behold, the Lord GOD helps me;
    who will declare me guilty?
Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;
    the moth will eat them up. (Isaiah 50:8-9)

 

   This prophecy helps me picture Jesus in his trial leading to his crucifixion. And it added a new dimension I hadn’t thought of before, that everyone in attendance as an accuser was on trial with him.

   It is fascinating to picture Jesus thinking these thoughts as he was silent before his accusers. And what a gift to have the Scriptures telling us the whole story, that his silence was a declaration of his challenge to them. He did not need to defend himself. He needed to fulfill he divine plan and let them bear their own guilt for what they did to him.

   When I consider how this is an example to me, I picture the Savior discipling me in how to trust in God while being falsely accused or unfairly treated.

   First, I am to trust in the Triune God who will vindicate me as their child, and who will help me through everything I face. I have been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, and there is no one who can declare me guilty before God, not even the devil himself (although he tries every day!).

   Second, I can call any accuser to stand with me before God because God is perfect in his judgment. Anyone who accuses me of anything is just as much on trial with God as me. This is why I love to keep short accounts with God about my sins. Whenever I confess my sins to God, he is faithful and just to forgive me, and to purify me from the unrighteousness of my sin, so I can always come before his throne of grace with confidence knowing that my God will always help me in my time of need (I John 1:9; Hebrews 4:16).

   The two New Testament Scriptures that come to mind with this prophecy are these, and I will let them speak for themselves:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39)

And,

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:8-11)

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)