THE COURT

 

Here, we follow the trial between Jesus, our attorney, and the Accuser, Satan. To understand why and how we are saved, I’m going to explain how the power of sin has lost its strength as a weapon in court. This ties back to the very beginning—to why God created us the way He did. The strongest weapon of the devil is sin, and righteousness is its prosecutor.

 

We are guilty of sin every day, again and again. The judgment is not in our favor, for God has to plead us guilty of sin. The righteousness of God gives Satan the opportunity to bind us to death. In order to walk out of court, we need to search for a way to turn this verdict around. We cannot win this case on our own; we need help. It might feel impossible to accomplish, and there may be times when the court clock doesn't seem to be moving. But there is hope to turn the verdict in your favor. God is indeed a righteous judge for both sides, and He will follow the law, but He is rooting for us. He could not afford to lose this trial, so He made sure He gave us the best attorney.

 

In order to understand how this trial came to be, we need to go to the very beginning...

 

In the beginning was God, the Ruler of the law and the law itself. A spirit of love and righteousness, incomprehensible by men. It is of great importance to understand that He created out of love. God loves His creation and everything in it unconditionally, including Satan. He respects everyone's own decisions and will only intervene righteously. To understand more about this topic, read love.

 

God knew His creation would eventually turn against Him or feel like they were better off alone. The creation does not know or recognize that, without Him, life is not possible. Creation is part of Him; you cannot destroy the Creator without destroying yourself. Indeed, the Creator will not allow you to destroy Him, but He is righteous—so righteous that He blessed you with free will. God will not interfere in your decisions. It didn’t stop Him from creating, because of His unconditional love.

 

He created the angels, but after some time had passed, one-third of His creation turned against Him. Satan was blinded by pride and thought he would be better off without God. He lost sight of the bigger picture and chose to turn against God. They knew God from the beginning, yet they abandoned Him.

 

So, God made a new creation. He created Adam and Eve and lived in their presence. But in order to maintain the concept of free will, He had to create the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. If God did not give Adam and Eve the choice to know the difference between good and evil, they would have lived in a perfect world. They would have lived with God simply because they didn’t know any better. God gave them free will in order to have a creation that wanted to be with Him out of love and choice.

 

When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they became aware of the difference between good and evil, as written in the law. Thus, they gained the ability to sin by choosing evil. Satan took this opportunity to deceive humanity and made them guilty of sin, binding them to death.

 

We can blame Adam and Eve for ruining our possibility to live without sin. But we are of the same flesh and blood, and we would eventually fall for the tricks of Satan ourselves. Our desire for the meaning of life and the wisdom beyond would make us sinners—as we already are. The Devil knows we search for answers and will use these desires to deceive us. Sooner or later, we would all eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, making us guilty of sin. We are now accusable of sin and are to be pleaded guilty in court.

 

Adam and Eve even lived with God, but that did not stop them from rebelling against Him. Creation had turned against Him for the second time. But God does not give up on His creation. So, He decided to remove His presence from mankind and build a kingdom instead. This was the only way for God to have a creation that would love Him. He needed a creation that wanted to live in His presence because they loved Him. He wanted a creation that would never turn against Him, because they knew that without God, there was no way to eternal life.

 

He could not make humans greater than the third dimension, for they would be blinded by pride—just like Satan. He gave human consciousness the perfect amount of awareness. This means that we are not created like Satan, a perfect cherub blessed with perfect harmony and knowledge beyond our comprehension. In Ezekiel 28:11–19, God said:

 

“You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and exquisite in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Your clothing was adorned with every precious stone—red carnelian, pale-green peridot, white moonstone, blue-green beryl, onyx, green jasper, blue lapis lazuli, turquoise, and emerald—all beautifully crafted for you and set in the finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created. I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian. You had access to the holy mountain of God and walked among the stones of fire. You were blameless in all you did from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you. Your rich commerce led you to violence, and you sinned. So I banished you in disgrace from the mountain of God. I expelled you, O mighty guardian, from your place among the stones of fire. Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty. Your wisdom was corrupted by your love of splendor. So I threw you to the ground and exposed you to the curious gaze of kings. You defiled your sanctuaries with your many sins and your dishonest trade.”

 

Instead, God backed away out of unconditional love and let us experience what it feels like when the world doesn't recognize its Savior. We humans are born sinners because of our choices. Sooner or later, we would all fall for the tricks of Satan, making us guilty of sin. We have absolutely no chance in court, for God is righteousness and must punish us with death. Satan knows this and uses sin to destroy creation. Every time someone sins, Satan rushes to court and wants God to plead them guilty.

 

In order to get a creation that wants to be with God and knows there is no other way, they must be raised in faith and choose God out of free will, without living directly in the presence of God. Humans know how life is with sin and death. Humans know there is something more that we cannot comprehend. We are not born in a perfect world like the angels; instead, we are born into a world doomed from the start. We know this isn’t how it’s supposed to be. Our hearts desire peace and love toward each other. We can choose our own decisions in this life, but when we find God through love, we find the way to eternal life.

 

But there’s a problem. We are born into sin, and even if we’re fortunate enough to find God, we still cannot join Him in eternal life—because we are sinners. The devil has played the same card time and time again. Even when we come to know God, our sinful nature remains. And because God is perfectly righteous, He cannot simply overlook sin. He must declare us guilty in the courtroom of justice.

 

Satan—the accuser—spends countless hours in that courtroom, pointing out every fault, every failure, convincing God to issue the guilty verdict. The punishment? Death. Satan knows that God’s righteousness demands justice, and that when we sin, death is the only sentence.

 

"Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, 'Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.'" — Revelation 12:10

 

So, God played a trump card in court. And that card’s name is Jesus. He sent His Son to earth to be with the people one last time before eternal life. He lived a life without sin, yet He died. This doesn’t make sense. When someone lives without sin, they have the right to eternal life, and they cannot die. But who among us can claim to have lived a life without sin? The only man who ever did was Jesus... but He died anyway. Why?

 

Satan cannot drag Him to court because He had done nothing wrong. The death of Jesus was the payment for our sins. He never had to die, but He did. It was the trump card, and He used it to convince the court that He could take on our sins and pay for them with His own death. Satan never saw it coming. The court (God) is righteous and agreed that Jesus’ life could indeed pay for the overwhelming debt we created.

 

When Jesus died, the court was in turmoil. The Devil thought he had won, for the righteousness of God seemed to be in his favor. But he forgot that Jesus paid with His death. Once He was dead, the debts were paid, and Jesus still lived because death could not hold Him. He literally rose from the dead.

 

The death of Jesus was the payment for our sins. When He died, death could not hold Him because He lived without sin. The court could not declare Him guilty, for He had done nothing to deserve death. He walked out free, with no fear of death ever again. He found the way to give us life, having paved the path for us.

 

The only thing we must do is accept Jesus into our hearts, and the devil cannot hold us. It’s all about righteousness in the court. Sin was the only weapon the devil could use against us in that court, because its punishment is death. God must plead us guilty because we sin every day, over and over. But Jesus is our trump card out of the cycle. Break the chain, be free from death, and gain eternal life. 

 

“For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.”

 

Everyone who has experienced “unconditional love” toward someone is willing to give their life for that person. That’s exactly what Jesus did for us.