My Attorney

               I would feel no great need of legal counsel if I were innocent, but I am very guilty, indeed.  I have violated the law on many scores and dare not undertake my own defense!  I need a merciful judge and a persuasive advocate to plead my case.
               Considering the validity of the charges against me, I would hate to be looking through the Yellow Pages or on the internet to find a suitable lawyer.  I need someone with experience and influence.  I need someone with a spotless reputation who has by association won the respect of the judge I will stand before.  I need someone who knows me and is sympathetic to my case, who knows all the ins and outs of the law--especially if there might possibly be any loopholes.
               Well, I have heard there is a loophole.  I have heard that if someone perfectly innocent in every way pays the penalty for my crimes, I can claim his innocence and he can take the blame for my sins.  This amazes me.  But who is perfectly innocent? It seems hopeless, but I have to go to court, anyway.  I don't know the date of my trail, but I know the date has been set.
               It will be really scary, I think, to stand before a judge who insists on perfect compliance with laws I have broken many times.  I know that he'd be just in condemning me. 
               I picture the scene sometimes.  My lawyer will already be there.  The judge will be behind the bench.  The prosecutor will be smug.  He knows he's got me dead to rights.  He is ready to vehemently accuse me.  But when he speaks, my lawyer intervenes.  My lawyer objects to the charges as unfounded because the debt has already been paid.  Then he will approach the bench and show the judge his irrefutable evidence.
               My lawyer will say, "Father, my client is innocent.  I am the guilty one and I have paid the penalty for every crime for which this woman is accused."  The evidence?  The nail marks in his hands and his feet.
               The judge will smile and his gavel will come down.  "I find no basis for a charge against this woman."
               My lawyer will embrace me and we will laugh and cry together.  He might even pick me up and swing me around!  Who could have more pull with this judge than the judge's own Son?

"My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.  But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.  He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins...."   (I John 2:1,2)