Did you know that you are on trial in the Court of Heaven right now?
That’s right, there is a trial going on right now in the spirit realm and every one of us is a defendant in that trial! The Bible says “Blessed is the man what endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him” (James 1:12).
In the original Greek of this verse, the word that is translated as “temptation” is pereismos. It means, a “trial” or “proving.”The Bible says that Satan is “the accuser of the brethren” who sought to accuse us “before our God day and night.”
In this trial of life, Satan is the prosecuting attorney, seeking to hold us guilty before the throne of God. The evidence that we have violated the law is “beyond a reasonable doubt”! And, we are facing the death penalty if convicted! Romans 3:10 and 23 say, “There is none righteous, no not one”, and “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death..”
Satan – the prosecuting attorney – is not only accusing us of being guilty of sin. He’s also accusing us of being less than what God calls us to be. He accuses people of being sick, poor, weak, foolish, failures, rejected, and many other terrible things. But, I have really good news for you: The Judge in your trial is on your side!
Though the evidence against us is clear, the Judge in the trial of life loves you and does not want to convict you. He asked his own Son to step into your place and take the penalty and consequences of sin (your “crimes”) on himself for you!
Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Romans 8:3-4 “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
The Judge’s Son (Jesus of Nazareth) came to your house and lived an innocent (sinless) life for you. Because he never broke the law, there is no charge that Satan can bring against Him. Therefore, when He suffered, died, was buried, and rose from the dead, He paid a debt He didn’t owe. Now, that payment is available for your account.
2 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Here’s some more good news: The Judge who loves you has assigned the best defense lawyer in the universe to represent you! This lawyer is so good, He’s the One who wrote the law! Your lawyer is The Judge’s own Spirit. In the Bible, the Holy Spirit is called our “comforter.”
John 14:16-17, 26 The Greek word translated as “comforter” is paraclete. It means “advocate, counselor, helper.” Lawyers are advocates in court for their clients. Many lawyers refer to themselves as “attorneys and counselors at law.” The Holy Spirit is your defense attorney!
In every trial, there are witnesses who give testimony. The exculpatory (innocence-proving) evidence presented by the Holy Spirit to the Judge in your trial is the Testimony of The Judge’s Son, Jesus Christ. The blood of the Judge’s Son is, in a sense, “Exhibit A” in your defense! Jesus’ testimony, ratified in Heaven’s court by His blood, is enough evidence to wipe out not just your guilt, but the guilt of the whole world! Jesus Christ is the Chief Witness in your trial!
1 John 2:1-2 “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Heb. 9:12 “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
Here’s the thing, though: Since every one of us is on trial, we are also witnesses in our trial. But there is only one testimony you can give that will help you! if you try to testify about the good things, you have done or accomplished, it won’t get you anywhere with the Judge. That’s because it only takes one violation of the law to convict, and, as I said above, there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that you have committed many violations of the law.
So, when you testify, your Lawyer will not ask you to justify yourself, but rather, He will ask you to testify about what the Judge’s Son did for you. The Bible says that everyone who has by faith accepted Jesus Christ has received His testimony. You can rely on Jesus’ testimony just as if it were your very own! In this trial of life, Jesus is the Chief Witness in your defense, but you are the corroborating witnesses.
Acts 1:8 “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
Acts 5:32 “And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.”
Rev 12:17 “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
The testimony of Jesus is the only evidence the Judge will accept to acquit you. No other evidence can deliver you from the capital punishment you deserve:
1 John 5:9-11 “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. 10He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. 11And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”
But praise God, the testimony of the Judge’s Son is perfect! He is the faithful and true witness:
Rev 1:5 “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood;”
Rev 3:14 “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;”
John 8:14 “Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.”
Psalm 93:5 “Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O LORD, forever.”
When He suffered, died, was buried, and raised from the dead, The Judge’s Son overcame the world (John 16:33). He took the criminal charges that were against you and nailed them to his cross, blotting them out!
Col. 2:14 “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross”
But for the victory of the Judge’s Son to be applied to our account, your testimony must agree with His! As a corroborating witness, you need to agree with the Chief Witness!
Matt 10:32-33 “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.”
Rom. 10:9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
Joshua 1:8 “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night”
2 Tim. 1:7-8 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God”
1 Chron 16:8-9 “Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works.”
But our divine Lawyer helps our testimony agree with the Judge’s Son’s testimony!
John 14:26 “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
Matt. 10:18-20 “And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. 19But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. 20For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh”
When our testimony aligns with the Judge’s Son’s testimony, we overcome and experience His victory!
Rev 12:10-11 “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
Rev 3:14, 21 “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God… To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”
But keep in mind, Satan, the prosecuting attorney in this trial of life, will cross-examine you! In Mark 4:16 Jesus said that “affliction and persecution ariseth for the word’s sake.” Jesus Himself was “tempted of the devil”. See Matt. 4:1. Again, the Greek word translated as “tempted” is peirazo, which means “to try, test or prove.”
As a lawyer myself, I represented clients in several jury trials. When a lawyer calls a witness to ask questions on the stand, that is called “direct examination.” After the direct examination, the other side’s lawyer gets to conduct a “cross-examination.” I can tell you that the cross-examination of witnesses is the part of the trial that tests and proves whether the witnesses’ testimony is authentic, true, and reliable. It’s the hardest, most tense, and suspenseful part of the trial.
Indeed, it’s the reason that the proceeding is called a “trial.”
When Satan sends persecution, tribulation, and affliction against you, he is trying to get you to contradict your testimony and the testimony of Jesus. A lawyer conducting cross-examination tries to bring out the statements or actions of a witness that are inconsistent with his testimony on direct examination.
In the same way, Satan sends difficult conditions to tempt you to speak and act in ways that are inconsistent with the Testimony of Jesus. In the English translation, the Bible calls those circumstances, “temptation.” But in the original language, the Bible calls these conditions “peirazo”, which means, “trial.”
Jesus is the Faithful and True Witness! His Testimony is the Word of God. At its core, His Testimony is that he overcame the world by living a sinless life, dying in our place, and rising from the dead! You can be a faithful and true witness too by believing His testimony and aligning your testimony with His!