“[H]e commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.”  — Acts 10:42

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”  — Revelation 20:12

Across both testaments, God is clear and emphatic in proclaiming that He is a righteous Judge: that He alone can determine whether a human being is in right standing. Everything we do is remembered by God, and as Revelation 20:12 reminds us, He will judge us accordingly after death. Not only that, but Acts 10:42 calls Jesus the judge of the quick, or living, as well as of the dead. Regardless of any self-evaluation we may perform, He is the judge of our lives while we are living — and we are not.

That’s a heavy load to carry if we only consider the stereotypical “God is out to get me” viewpoint. God isn’t out to get us, however, so He gave instructions. He started in the Old Testament by trying to get men and women to get to know Him, but people (then as now) were stubborn. Because the Israelites were ‘stiffnecked,’ as He put it, He gave them a codified set of laws for how to live right and make use of sound principles.

Even with the knowledge that God wants us to succeed and the instructions He’s given, there’s no one who lives perfectly. Knowing that even the purest of heart and most well-intentioned person still doesn’t have a heart that measures up is, well, disheartening. But there’s a final piece to the puzzle:

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”  — I John 2:1-2

Not only is Jesus the righteous Judge, but He is also our Advocate. What’s more, because He also acted as the pure sacrifice for sins (the ‘propitiation for sin’), we can also call Him our Alibi, or our Evidence. Jesus is the only one who can pronounce us guilty of sin, because He established the laws that define sin. However, He is also the one who wants us to live and to be free. He is our great Advocate who will even become the proof of our innocence!