Meet Cliff Aldredge

Have you ever done anything really, really wrong?

Let’s pretend you got caught and know you are guilty of a very serious crime.

You can represent yourself, but your only strategies are to claim you didn’t know any better or admit guilt and accept the consequences.

An attorney is willing to take your case. He is the favorite son of the judge you’re up against, and he has a perfect record.

Those are our options. We can perish apart from the law (claim ignorance), be judged by the law (accept the consequences), or place our faith in the Son with the perfect record who can justify us with the Judge. Being justified means that we are not liable for the consequences of our sin under the law.

To be justified, we must admit we need His help, believe in the work He performed and confess that we are guilty.  

The story doesn’t begin, however, when I know I need help.

When I’ve just blown it, I choose to represent myself with doomed strategies:

• Self-justification: minimizing my offense or making my own law;
• Performance: trying to offset my offense and earn my way to righteousness;
• Rationalization: blaming circumstance or others;
• Self-righteousness: finding people who are worse to make myself feel better.

I also wrongly hope that I don’t get caught. When I get away with it, my heart rots even further. Getting caught is God’s grace. Secrets make you sick. Life is found in the light, and confession leads to forgiveness and healing.

We can be out of the law’s control by being ignorant or rejecting it, which leads to chaos and disorder. Or we can be under the law’s control but subject to its consequences, and there is no hope.

The good news is that there is life available under the law in God’s order and design but out of the control of the law's consequences by admitting guilt and taking refuge in a relationship with the Judge’s Son.

We can move perfectly out of control and into true freedom by admitting defeat and pursuing relationship.