PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “HE’S BACK!-A CLEAR AND ETERNAL LESSON FOR US?”
When I say-“he’s back!”-what comes to your mind? In 2013,Timur Vermes, released a documentary, more of a mockumentary that tried to present how Hitler would react today, if he returned to modern Berlin Germany. But that is not what I am referring to. Or perhaps you thought I was making a reference to George W. Bush’s return to political life, when he traveled to South Carolina to campaign for his brother Jeb, who was running for president. A promo trailer for another Jaws movie; Rocky Balboa; or Michael Myers? No-none of those. But if you had said, “O.J.” you would have been correct. A recent six episode series The People v. O.J. Simpson was released to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of the American Crime Story. It is the recounting of the trial of last century when Orenthal James Simpson was tried for the June 12, 1994 death of his ex-wife Nichole, and waiter Ronald Lyle Goldman. The trial ran from January 24, 1995 to October 3, 1995 being described as “the most publicized criminal trial in American history”. Newsweek called the trial “The Trail of Blood” on its cover; Time titled it “An American Tragedy”. The current drama stars David Schwimmer, of Friends, as O.J.’s friend Robert Kardashian; John Travolta as lawyer Robert Shapiro; Cuba Gooding Jr. as O.J. For most of us who lived through it we would not call it the “trial of the century!” My appraisal of it would agree with Don Henley’s summary of it in his 1995 hit, The Garden of Allah. In the song he describes Satan laughing at the state of justice in America, and the triumph of evil. Here are the lyrics:
“Today I made an appearance downtown
I am an expert witness because I say I am…
I will testify for you, I am a gun for hire, I am a saint, I am a liar
Because there are no facts, there is no truth
Just data to be manipulated
I can get you any results you like
What’s it worth to you?
There is no wrong, there is no right
And I sleep very well at night!
No shame, no solution, no remorse, no retribution
Just people selling t-shirts
Just opportunity to participate in the pathetic little circus
And winning, winning, winning!”
Those words, combined with the proposition about the bloody gloves, “If they don’t fit you must acquit!” just remind us that the trial was a magnanimous “miscarriage of justice”. We watched as he was acquitted and said he would search for the real killer. Something he never did for a second. Then it was followed by a civil case in February 1997, that found O.J. guilty of the wrongful deaths of Nichole and Ronald Goldman, awarding the Goldman family $35.5M in damages. Then in 2007 O.J. co-authored a book entitled If I Did It: Confessions of a Killer. All of this just reminds us that in America, if you have enough fame and fortune, you can literally get away with murder! You might be asking me now why I am wasting your time recounting this “pathetic little Circus” that resulted in such a “miscarriage of justice”. Actually you can blame it on the late Chuck Colson. Chuck Colson? Yes-let me explain. Years ago I intrigued when Colson wrote in his book Loving God, that Watergate, another crime of the century, that ended in the first and only resignation of a President of the United States, actually proved for him that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is an incontrovertible historical fact! More on that next week. But after reading his thesis I discovered that real life experiences can teach us, in very real ways-spiritual truths. O.J.’s trial and acquittal does just that. Just a couple of weeks ago another O.J. intrigue surfaced. At a press conference at LAPD headquarters Capt. Andy Neiman announced that a police officer just turned over a knife that was discovered on the property of the Simpson mansion when the Brentwood estate was being razed. Apparently a construction worker found it and gave it to a police officer who had kept it in his possession all this time. How bizarre? What if the knife was the one used and contained DNA evidence against O.J.? Would we finally see justice for Nicole and Ronald Goldman? University of Southern California law professor Jody Armour answered that question for us. Even if the knife was the one used in the crime; even if it was covered with DNA proving O.J. guilty as the killer- Armour said, “The 5th Amendment ensures double jeopardy would preclude a second trial for O.J. Simpson…O.J. cannot be tried again for that double murder!” Incredible! He got away with murder and will never be brought to justice! How unfair!
Before you throw your hands up giving up on the American justice system, saying “Justice is indeed blind-in more than one way”-please learn a truth from this law that could be called “The Gospel According to O.J. Simpson”. Orenthal James Simpson is not the first, nor the only guilty person to get away with his crime. Before you throw your rock-think about the crimes that we committed against God. If you and I committed two sins a day, one of commission, and one of omission, (an underestimation of magnanimous proportions), we would be guilty of 51,100 sins, crimes, breaking of laws against a Holy God. Just one act of disobedience brings the sentence of death-spiritual death; physical death; eternal death! God’s courtroom makes no mistakes. His evidence against us is irrefutable and indefensible. We deserve eternal damnation forever in a place of torment called the Lake of Fire. But as Paul states in his Magnus Opus of Biblical writings, the Book of Romans, “where sin did abound, grace did much more abound”. (Rom. 5:20). In that chapter Paul also tells us the good news of the Gospel is that through the cross of Jesus Christ, God can be just, and the justifier of those guilty of heinous sin! When we embrace the death of Christ as our propitiation for sin, and trust Him as a Substitute and Savior, “he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”. The Guilty goes free, because the Innocent took our penalty. We are acquitted. We are justified. Read Romans 8…it begins with “No Condemnation” and ends in “No Separation”. We benefit from God’s Superior Law of Double Jeopardy. Since the guilt and penalty for all of our sins, past. present, and future were placed on Jesus on the altar of Calvary’s cross, our sin debt has been paid in full. Remember all of our sins were still future when he died on that tree! Never will we face judgment or be tried for our sins again. They are paid in full, and as Scripture reminds us are “removed from us as far as the east is from the west” (Ps. 103:12); “Cast behind God’s back” (Isa. 38:17); “cast in the depths of the sea” (Mic. 7:19); to be “remembered no more” (Isa. 43:25;Heb 8:12). We will be reviewed and rewarded for our service, but will never be retributed for our sin! O.J. will not be that fortunate. Unless he confesses and repents-God’s justice will prevail on him for all eternity! But for us, who to Jesus for refuge have turned, we are blessed as the chorus says, “Gone, Gone, Gone, yes my sins are gone! Buried in the deepest sea; yes that’s good enough for me; I shall live eternally. Praise God My sins are gone!” That should make you “sleep very well at night!”
Erwin Lutzer illustrates this truth with the story of some firefighters fighting wildfires out of control. Finally the situation got desperate and they had to flee. Realizing they could not outrun the fire, one of the men lit an area of grass on fire. He did so as his partner protested! He then exhorted his partner to help him stamp out the fire. As they kneeled in the center of the burned-off area he told his partner, “The fire cannot come where the fire has already been!” When you find yourself being reminded of the travesty that occurred in O.J.’s case, thank God for the travesty that came our way through the travesty of Calvary that became our triumph in Christ. Then rejoice that we are all living the “Gospel According to O.J.!”