Have you ever faced or imagined this scenario where you stand before a judge in court, and they read out all the charges to you and you stand in trepidation wondering what sort of punishment will be meted out against you?
I have.
Now I have never been to court to answer a charge prior to a few months’ back, but I was served summons to appear in court for non-payment of some fees I owe to the Town Council during the time when I was desperately unemployed for more than 6 months.
Needless to say I was worried sick on what the punishment would be and what would happen if I couldn’t pay the entire debt in full. By the first hearing, I was able to secure a job with God’s grace but I was afraid it will all go to naught should the punishment involve some time in remand.
Thankfully, I was able to arrange a monthly payment scheme that I have been faithfully honoring every month. And it was only during this afternoon’s monthly hearing that the judge reviewed my case and I was given a discharge amounting to an acquittal.
Praise God!
Just before it was my turn, several other cases involving non-payment of fees were also heard. Some of the people answering the charges were even in custody because they have been unable to make up for the arrears even after several months.
How blessed I was, I thought, that God had seen to it that I did not face the same penalties, for I would have been one of them if I had not been able to land the job in time!
My heart went out to them, for I saw that many of them were quite old, uneducated and poor, and a good proportion of them had been unable to find jobs according to their testimonies. I really wished I could help them!
While walking out of the Subordinate Court after my acquittal, I thought about how it would be similar when we are judged by God.
We would all stand before God the Father, and one by one each of our sins will be read out to us. In my case, I am sure the list will definitely be very long and take a lot of time to finish reading. And when all is done, God will mete out his punishment unto all of us sinners.
But a voice cried out, and it was the Lord Jesus Christ, and He would claim me and those who love Him telling God the Father that He had already acquitted us of our sins by His death on the cross. For His blood had washed all our sins away.
And so it is, that the scroll upon which all our sins were written became a blank piece of parchment, and we came away acquitted of all our sins and iniquities because of the sacrifice made by our Lord Jesus Christ!
Sometimes I think it is small mercies like what I just went through that really teaches me to realize just how great the mercy of our God is. For without Christ Jesus we are truly lost and condemned, yet through His grace and mercy God offers us His Son Jesus Christ to atone for our sins so that we might be acquitted and pardoned, and moreover have everlasting life!
It might be the most quoted verse of the Bible, but I think that it is only today that I truly realized the significance of John 3:16-17.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
John 3:16-17
Amen!
Photo by YeoWatzUp.
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Tags: Acquittal, Grace, John 3:16, Judgment, Mercy, Praise, Singapore, Sins, Subordinate Courts, Town Council
8 Comments
Actually some of these old folks chose not to pay. Some years back I was also called in to court for a parking fine which I completely forgotten about, my fault of course. So as I was waiting for my turn, I was just having a casual chat with a really old driver. His answer? “Why pay the government? I’m so old, does it even matter if I go to remand for 2 weeks? Better still, I get free food.
LOL, that’s the Singaporean in us talking, but our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.
However, that aside, some of them are really quite miserable, and more should be done to address the poor and those left behind by society.
All I see is pressure upon pressure from the powers that be to force these people into further misery.
As Christians we can do more for them individually or as a church, for we are to help the poor and the down-trodden.
HalleluYah for the grace He has bestowed upon you! He is GOOD, isn’t He?
I had a similar experience some years ago. Sitting in the courtroom, every case similar to mine heard before mine was sent to jail. This was my second offense and I just KNEW that I was going to jail too. There was no reason for me to believe otherwise. However, when I stood before the judge and he read that I’d volunteered as an advocate on behalf of abused children in another court, the judge let me walk completely free. I couldn’t believe it!!! Even when I was dead wrong (regardless of underlying circumstances, I was 100% wrong), but YHWH saw to it that I didn’t get what I righteously deserved, but rather His grace instead. That kind of relief is truly overwhelming. This was over 10 years ago and I can still feel it. lol
I also feel for those who are unable to pay. Here in the U.S. folk who are unable to pay are allowed to do community service to work off their fines. Is there anything similar to this offered in Singapore?
~Free
Thought provoking.
Dear Free:
Indeed our God is, amen!
Wow, thank you for sharing your experience! It’s amazing and I don’t think many people would have believed you actually walked out of them scot-free.
Over here in Singapore there’s no such thing as paying your fines off with community work. On top of the amount owed, the judge will impose fines because of the person’s inability to pay up so much so that the person owes more and more as time passes.
From what I learned during the hearing, S$400 (US$271.20) equates to 2 days imprisonment if the accused is unable to pay up. Some folks had up to 16 days imprisonment in total because of several fines.
God bless!
Hello Lance,
Thank you for visiting! It’s good to see you again, brother.
God bless!
Oh, that’s horrible, Isaiah. I can only imagine how even a few days in jail can impact some people’s finances even further, too. That’s just not right!
~Free
That’s unfortunately how things work here. You can get piled on with so much debt that there’s no way of normalizing things for a long long time. And that is why it is such a rat race here in Singapore — people need to ensure that they do not fall into the abyss.
However, it also creates a money culture where everything and anything is about money. I am just quite sick of this society.