FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART
OP-ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
The plea of “not guilty” has been in vogue since the beginning (of time). It is an everyday reality that some of the most exemplary personalities who go to the traffic courts are often tempted to plead “not guilty.”
Many who are charged with domestic violence plead, “Not guilty.” Most who are charged with DUI plead “not guilty.” Those arrested on drug charges generally plead “not guilty.” The phrase “innocent until proven guilty” has become the go-to for most criminal defendants.
Here in the United States court system, it is up to the prosecutors to prove defendants guilty by proof beyond a reasonable doubt. If a criminal prosecutor cannot meet the burden, the defendant is found not guilty.
Many people continue in their cursed lives because they keep pleading “not guilty,” and they keep getting away without being charged. And I am not just speaking of persons taken to the criminal court, but I speak of the court of conscience, where some persons feel no burden or guilt. So let me offer that to get rid of the burden of the curse, we need to confess our guilt, faults, sins, weaknesses, or however we want to name the evil destroying us.
One of the finest examples of confessing sins I know in the Bible is in Daniel 9. Israel sinned and was under the curse of the Babylonian captivity, and Daniel prayed (I only quote parts of the prayer beginning with verse 5. The bolding is mine for emphasis:
“We have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts, and Your judgments. 6 Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day – to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You…
“9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. 10 We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us because we have sinned against Him… 13 As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. 14 Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the Lord, our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice…
“15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day–we have sinned, we have done wickedly! 16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us…18O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies.
“19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
What a prayer of confession! What a vulnerability! What transparency! What a sense of responsibility!
Pleading “not guilty” for the things for which we are guilty has been the go-to ever since the fall of humanity. If you know the story, Adam and Eve knew they were so guilty that they ran away from God and tried to find a place to hide. Then when God called to them and questioned them concerning their egregious act, Adam tried to blame Eve and Eve, the serpent, and together blamed God for making the serpent. So it was God’s fault, they claim (Genesis 3). But blaming does not help.
If we want to get rid of our curses, we must confess. As the apostle John reminds us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 NKJV).
