Would I Be Convicted?

I heard a question posed on the Bible Answerman yesterday, and it has caused me to seriously consider how I would answer it. I've been mulling it over and over in my mind ever since.

"If you were on trial for being a christian would there be enough evidence to convict you?"

My first reaction to the question was a resounding "yes!" and I thought immediately about the stuff hanging on the walls and refrigerator in my home, the cross hanging around my neck, and the dangling cross earrings I wear. I even considered the books; devotionals, Bibles, and Bible studies, that are strewn all over the house, (because we seriously lack bookshelves). I'm sure my choice of music would definitely prove my Christianity too! "When the prosecutor presents that evidence," I reasoned, "it would surely sway the jury beyond a reasonable doubt."

Then I thought..."but, all that 'stuff' is meaningless. I had all that when I wasn't a Christian!"

Ok, well, maybe the fact that at this moment a Bible and a Bible Commentary lie open on the table would prove I am a Christian. But, then again, it would need to be proven that those items were actually mine and being used by me. Even so, I can study all I want, and chances are good that satan himself, the EVIL one, knows the words of the Bible better than me. I thought "would showing that I study the Bible be enough evidence to convict me?"

I've decided that in court, none of this stuff would convict me of being a Christian.

So, what would? What would prove I am a Christian?

Lifestyle perhaps? I started thinking about the witnesses that a prosecutor might bring to the court to testify against me. Katie, my parents, some people at church, etc., and what would they say? They would most likely give testimony that would convict me.

Now, this is where it became difficult, because my defense team would need to present evidence that would contradict, or discredit the eyewitness accounts of the prosecution. My defense team would need to show evidence and give eyewitness accounts to prove that I am not a Christian. This little excercise has me twisting my thought process all around, and maybe that is good. This has me thinking about how people really see me and if I live a lifestyle that allows people to know without a doubt that I am a Christian. To prove I am not a Christian my defense team would possibly call the people I work with, and most definitely the customers I serve at my job. This had me thinking about what those people might say? My defense might even call in Katie's kids to say that I do not always display Christ-like behavior and attitudes. Not only does this excercise twist around my thoughts, it is really, really, beginning to help me see myself from a totally different perspective. I began this by trying to consider ways I could prove I am a Christian, and now I'm thinking about how easy it might be to prove the contrary! I started considering the possibility that a jury might actually have trouble convicting me!

If the evidence of all my Christian "knick-knacks", Bible studies, and the like, were all thrown out of court and could not be presented as evidence, and hearing both sides of eyewitness testimony about my lifestyle proved to be inconclusive because arguments on both sides are compelling, what would convict me?

So these kinds of thoughts having been going in and out of my head since yesterday. It's stirred some interesting conversation between Katie and I too. It's good food for thought.

What if I had to prove my Christianity to God? I couldn't. All my Christian "stuff" is meaningless, my good deeds are "filthy rags", and God doesn't judge me according to man's law, so people telling God how good or bad I am matters not.

God doesn't even care that I am called "Christian"!

While I do believe, as the Bible teaches, that our love for others will identify us as Christ followers (John 13;34-35), it is not the approval of man I seek. I seek the approval of my God.

Would God convict me?

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23)

If God carefully scrutinized all the evidence presented, no, God would not, could not, convict me.

However, God as my judge, chose not to see my sin, and instead, sent His son to put on human flesh. Jesus came and offered to take my sin, nail it to a cross, bury it, and then stand before God in my place. Jesus offered to take my place before God and when I accepted His merciful and loving sacrifice, He took my sin upon Himself. So, when God looks at me, He sees me filtered through the sinless blood of the Christ. Therefore, my only credible witness is God himself, He sees my heart, and He judges me guilty.

Guilty as charged! Guilty of being His child.