I was called for jury duty last week.
I went to the courthouse in downtown Dayton,
found the right building, the right floor,
and the right courtroom.
I went in and sat down.

I had been called before--when I lived in Greene County.
The procedure there was to be taken to a room down the hall
from the courtroom--and wait with other folk.
We waited all morning, and then were dismissed.
Same thing the next day.

So, this time, in Montgomery County, I wised up and
took a book to read.
I took The Future of Justification by John Piper.
And here is the odd thing: I sat down in the courtroom to
await instructions from the clerk, and I opened my book up
to the page where I had left off reading...And here is what my
eyes landed on:

"The charge against us in God's law-court is that we do not have this righteousness. 'None is righteous, no, not one...no one seeks for God' (Rom. 3.10-11). We are all guilty of 'ungodliness and unrighteousness...and have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images' (Rom. 1.18, 23; cf. 3.23). Nevertheless, God 'justifies the ungodly' (Rom. 4.5)--the omniscient Judge does not merely show clemency or forgiveness and assign us a status of 'righteous'; he finds in our favor precisely because he counts us as having the moral righteousness that we in fact do not have in ourselves. When the charge against us is read ('You do not have moral righteousness') and the verdict of the Judge is rendered ('I declare that you are not guilty as charged but do indeed have moral righteousness'), the righteousness in view in this declaration is real moral righteousness."

There I was--sitting in an actual courtroom--reading about the gospel wherein we sinners are declared righteous by God because of the death of Jesus in our place! As Luther put the paradox: "We are justified sinners."

Romans 4.5 is a stinger: "God justifies the ungodly."
That's grace.
It's not fairness--it's grace!
In our relationship with God, we don't want fairness, we want grace.
Otherwise, we're doomed.

But last Monday I received grace upon grace... the clerk told us that
the matter had been settled out of court that morning--we were free
to go home.
So I went to the church office and worked.

I am a sinner.
But God the Judge has acquitted me.

"There is now (already) no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Rom 8.1)

Alleluia!