The scene is a courtroom. a lone criminal stands before the judge, awaiting the judge’s verdict. The judge looks down from behind his bench and makes the pronouncement. Sir, you have been found guilty of all charges. Considering the nature of your crimes, you are hereby sentenced to die by hanging, on Monday next, at high noon, in the public square. The sound of the gavel is deafening to the stunned ears of the criminal.

After the criminal is dragged screaming from the courtroom, another man rises from the gallery an approached the bench. The man speaks.

“Your honor, if it pleases the court, I volunteer to take that mans place on the gallows. I desire to take his punishment, and that he be set free. If you decide to accept my offer, he must be set free, its the law, you honor – your law. My offer applies for crimes already committed as well as for any future crimes he might commit in the future.

Complete silence engulfs the courtroom, for never before has such an extraordinary thing happened, that an innocent man would voluntarily die for a heinous criminal. Silently the judge considers the strange man’s offer. Finally the judge renders his decision.

“Although that criminal surely deserves to die, and knowing that he will most certainly commit more crimes, in order to demonstrate the mercy of this court, Sir, I accept your offer.”

“Bailiff, take this man away to consider his fate and see that the criminal is set free. The decision of this court is final!”

The guilty man was not told of the stranger’s offer, or of the judge’s decision. He remained in his prison cell until the day of execution. Just when the prison guards were to have come to his cell and dragged him to the gallows, no one appeared! “What has happened?” he asked silently.  That afternoon he was informed of all that had transpired, including the fact that his penalty had been paid and an innocent had taken his place. The requirement of the law had been met and he would to be set free.

At first he thought he was surely dreaming! An innocent man had offered himself in his place? How could it be possible? the reality finally settled into his heart when the heavy prison doors were opened and he  heard the words “Go. You are a free man . It’s the law.

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So it is in the matter of the salvation of the souls of men, except God, our judge, was not approached by a stranger offering himself as a substitution for our sin, the Father sent His own Son to bear our just punishment. He declared that his own Son’s death would satisfy the law’s requirement that all sin must be punished by death. We must then face the question “If the penalty for the sin of all men has already been paid in full (and we hear if frequently), how can it be that all men are not saved?” How can any man be called before the judgment seat of Christ and when the penalty for his sin has already been paid? Wouldn’t that be, in legal terms, double jeopardy?

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Disclaimer:

The author of the above presents the allegory (I use the term loosely) and the question merely to encourage applying the ‘Berean’ principle to what we hear from men in matters spiritual, a fuller understanding of God’s sovereignty in our salvation, and a deeper appreciation of the vastness of the love and mercy of our God.