Double Jeopardy

We’ve been studying Romans 8 for the past few weeks at Capstone as part of our “Identity” mini-series of messages. The common theme throughout the series (and it seems for many months) has been the issue of forgiveness. I guess God keeps taking us back to it because we need to truly understand it.

The Apostle Paul asks an interesting question in Romans 8:33: “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?” In other words, does anyone have the right to bring charges against those who belong to God? Now I’m sure that all of us can think of charges that could be brought against us because of our pasts. But Paul says the answer to his question is “no one” because: “It is God who justifies.”

In other words, no charge can be made against anyone who has been justified by God. Who has been justified by God? Every Christ-follower. To be justified means to be declared righteous because of faith in Christ. Once you are justified by God, your past is gone, the slate has been wiped clean, and the charges for all your past sins can never be brought against you again.

You will never face double jeopardy.

Double jeopardy refers to a legal defense in the American justice system that says once a person has been acquitted of a crime, that person cannot be charged again with the same crime. Doesn't that sound a lot like the grace of God? Once every sin in your past has been forgiven because of Christ, you will not be charged again with those sins. They are gone – nailed to the cross and covered by the blood of Jesus – and those charges can and will never be brought against you again.

That's amazing! There’s incredible freedom in knowing that forgiven means forgotten in God’s book. Even if you are accused all day long by the enemy in your mind or by someone in your life, in Christ those charges do not stick because of the grace of God. You are forgiven and free --- that's your identity --- all because of Jesus Christ.

“What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31 (NIV)