The Christians who can claim innocence

“Three days after arriving in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, where the chief priests and Jewish leaders appeared before him and presented the charges against Paul.  They urgently requested Festus, as a favor to them, to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way.  Festus answered, ‘Paul is being held at Caesarea, and I myself am going there soon.  Let some of your leaders come with me and press charges against the man there, if he has done anything wrong.’  After spending eight or ten days with them, he went down to Caesarea, and the next day he convened the court and ordered that Paul be brought before him.  When Paul appeared, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many serious charges against him, which they could not prove.  Then Paul made his defense: ‘I have done nothing wrong against the law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar.’  Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, ‘Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges?’  Paul answered: ‘I am now standing before Caesar's court, where I ought to be tried. I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well.  If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!’  After Festus had conferred with his council, he declared: ‘You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go!’  A few days later King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to pay their respects to Festus.  Since they were spending many days there, Festus discussed Paul's case with the king.  He said: ‘There is a man here whom Felix left as a prisoner.  When I went to Jerusalem, the chief priests and elders of the Jews brought charges against him and asked that he be condemned.  I told them that it is not the Roman custom to hand over any man before he has faced his accusers and has had an opportunity to defend himself against their charges.  When they came here with me, I did not delay the case, but convened the court the next day and ordered the man to be brought in.  When his accusers got up to speak, they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected.  Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive.  I was at a loss how to investigate such matters; so I asked if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem and stand trial there on these charges.  When Paul made his appeal to be held over for the Emperor's decision, I ordered him held until I could send him to Caesar.’  Then Agrippa said to Festus, ‘I would like to hear this man myself.’  He replied, ‘Tomorrow you will hear him.’”  (Acts 25:1-22)

                There is a proverb that says, ‘When we dust off, there is no one without dust.’  This proverbs means, if you want to catch a flaw, there is no person without the flaw.  There is no one who will be flawless to those who are heartless and harsh in their attempts to find others' flaw.  But how precious is it if there is nothing for them to catch your flaw?  Those who live such a life are called innocent people.  And the innocent people are those who are clear and clean and without greed (Internet).

                In Acts 25:1-22 we see a man named Paul who is truly innocent, who is clear, clean and without greed.  As Acts 24 tells us, the high priest Ananias with some of the elders and a lawyer named Tertullus, who were against the gospel and Paul, brought their charges against Paul before the governor (v. 1).  They claimed that Paul was a real pest, a fellow who stirred up dissension among the Jews throughout the world, a ringleader of the Nazarene sect, and even tried to desecrate the temple (vv. 5-6).  But Paul was innocent.  He was not guilty of the charges of the Jewish religious leaders who had sought.  Eventually, the Jewish religious leaders falsely claimed to remove Paul without any witnesses or evidence, so the trial was delayed, and the corrupt governor Felix was trying to get Paul to gain the hearts of the Jews rather than free Paul.  So Paul was detained in a prison for about two years (v. 27).  Paul, who exhorted corrupt governor Felix to the gospel and the moral life worthy of the gospel, was an innocent man without sins.  Nevertheless, he was imprisoned in Caesarea for two years (v. 27).  Then two years later in Acts 25, when Festus, the successor of governor Felix, went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea (v. 1), Paul was charged again by the chief priests and the leading men of the Jews (v. 2).  The Jewish religious leaders accused Paul to the new governor, Festus, to find fault with Paul again with the intention of removing him.  They tried endlessly to find fault with Paul and accused him in order to kill him.  How scary were these people?  They asked the new governor Festus to move Paul from Caesarea to Jerusalem because they set an ambush to kill Paul on the way to Jerusalem (v. 3).

Two years ago, in Acts 23:12-13, more than 40 people formed a conspiracy and the plot of killing Paul.  But even after two years, in Acts 25:3, it was surprising and sad that they were Jews who wanted to ambush to kill Paul on the way to Jerusalem.  Indeed, the persistent efforts of the Jewish religious leaders and Jews to kill Paul are incredible.  These were people who would not give up until they killed Paul.  However, the new governor Festus didn’t listen to the demands of the chief priests and the leading men of the Jews.  Instead, he answered, “let the influential men among you go there with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them prosecute him” (v. 5).  Eventually, the Jewish religious leaders who tried to kill Paul went down from Jerusalem to Caesarea where Paul was and tried to bring many and serious charges against Paul which they couldn’t prove (v. 7).  In other words, the Jewish religious leaders accused Paul of many serous charges, but the accusations were unprovable (Yoo Sang-sup).  Then Paul said in his own defense: “I have committed no offense either against the Law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar.  …  I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you also very well know” (vv. 8, 10).  Paul insisted on his innocence before governor Festus and before the Jewish religious leaders, telling them he had committed no sin, religiously or politically.  And Paul confidently said that even the governor Festus knew that he had done nothing wrong to the Jews and had not done any injustice to them.  In fact, governor Festus knew Paul's innocence too.  Several days later, when King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea and paid their respect to Festus (v. 13), this was what Festus said to King Agrippa, revealing that he knew Paul was innocent: “When the accusers stood up, they began bringing charges against him not of such crimes as I was expecting, but they simply had some points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a dead man, Jesus, whom Paul asserted to be alive” (vv. 18-19).  The governor Festus knew that Paul had not committed any wrongdoing.  He knew that the Jewish religious leaders brought accusation against Paul because of Paul’s message of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the gospel of Paul.  So Apostle Paul boldly said that if he was wrongdoer and had committed anything worthy of death, he didn’t refuse to die (v. 11).  He boldly claimed his innocence over his life.

Like Apostle Paul, we must be Christians who can risk our lives and boldly claim our innocence.  We should not have anything to blame for those who are watching us and seeking our faults.  Even if they want to dust off of us and try to find any dust from us, we should try our best to live an innocent life so that they cannot see any single dust in our lives.  Is this possible?  Doesn't it really sound impossible in our ears?  As I asked this question, I thought about vacuum cleaners.  As I thought the vacuum cleaner that absorbs and removes dust, I tried to apply it to my life of faith.  I thought about how I can be like Paul who boldly asserted his innocence since I have unaccountable dusts in my life even if some people try to dust me off.  Then the Spirit, I believe, reminded me of a spiritual vacuum cleaner that God already gave to me.  That spiritual vacuum is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Just as the better the filter in the vacuum cleaner, the better it absorbs all the dust, the best filter of the spiritual vacuum cleaner that God already gave me is the blood that Jesus that was shed on the cross.  Therefore, when I violate the Word of God and sin, and when the indwelling Spirit enables me to confess and repent my sins, I experience the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the precious blood that He shed on the cross that removes (forgives) the sinful dusts in me and renews me.  In that power of the gospel and of the precious blood of Jesus Christ, we must continue to be transformed and established as unblemished, pure, honest, innocent Christians.  May such powerful work of the Lord and His gospel be full in us and in our church.