There is no justice. At least not yet.

Have any of you seen the Netflix series called Making a Murderer? It's a fascinating 10-part documentary that follows the life and crimes of a man named Steven Avery, a man convicted in 1985 for a brutal sexual assault which, it turns out, he never even committed. After serving 18 years in prison, DNA evidence exonerated Steven Avery and he was released in 2003. But that's just when his story really got started.

Knowing that he was wrongfully convicted, Steven Avery sought justice against the system that he believed negligently incarcerated him. As his attorneys were preparing to bring their lawsuit on behalf of Avery, another tragic event happened. Avery was accused, then tried, and then convicted of murdering a woman with the help of his nephew, who confessed and testified against Steven Avery. He is now serving life without parole for another despicable crime that again he claims he didn't do.

When crimes or committed or wrongs are done against us, we want justice and we want it now. Avery's case is classic example of injustice - a man serving 18 years for a crime he didn't commit. But then with his conviction on murder, the picture of justice gets more cloudy. Making a Murderer carries with it a slant toward Avery's innocence and many people, after watching all ten episodes, are convinced of his innocence and demanding a new trial.

So what does it take to get justice in our world? Better yet, what is justice in the first place? A layman's understanding of justice would mean that when someone is guilty of a crime, they do the time. Yet in our fast-paced, instant access culture, the ideas of innocence and guilty no longer appear to be so cut and dry.

Whether it is the Serial Season 1 podcast casting doubt on a high school senior's murder conviction or the Paradise Lost trilogy which actually resulted in the release of three men who were convicted of murdering three children in 1993, there is no consensus anymore on who is innocent or guilty or where justice truly lies. If you aren't convinced, watch a presidential debate and tell me afterward who told the whole truth!

As the great show The X Files used to proclaim, "The truth is out there!"

But where is it?

First, we have to understand that when we're dealing with human beings there will always be the potential for deception. That's because people lie. All the time. And they do so to cover their tracks, take unwarranted credit for success, or to deflect blame on someone else. This is what people do. I'm not condoning it at all, just explaining it as part of the process.

Second, people are never going to fully agree on innocent vs. guilty, true vs. false, even if the obvious evidence is right in front of their faces. We want to believe what we want to believe about certain people and nothing will change our minds. I'm sure there are many mothers of sons on death row who still believe that they are "good boys."

Finally, there is a solution. In fact, the truth IS out there and it's not far away at all. No, I'm not talking about uncovering hidden evidence that will either exonerate or implicate someone in a real-life crime. I'm talking about a much deeper truth that serves as a foundation to all of life. I'm talking about Jesus.

In John 14:6, Jesus dropped a bombshell on His disciples when He claimed, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No once comes to Father except through me." With those words Jesus wasn't claiming to deliver everything that we would need to solve future court cases. Instead, He made it very clear that if we would believe in who He said He was - the Son of God - and accept what He was about to do at that time - offer Himself for the sins of the world - then we would be embracing the truest true that man could possibly fathom.

This truth leads us to the reality that, no matter how hard we try, we can't save ourselves.

This truth leads us to the reality that, if we want to have a relationship with God, Jesus is the only way.

This truth leads us to the reality that we aren't here by some cosmic accident, but rather God has placed us here for a purpose - to know Jesus.

And this truth leads us to the reality that, while things in this world are messed up now and the good guys don't always win, there is coming a day when that will all change. Jesus is coming back, and when He does return all the evil and wickedness and injustice in the world will be abolished forever. And if you have a relationship with God that only faith in Jesus can provide, you will be forever wrapped up in that truth as well.

As time goes by, I will be interested to see follow ups on some of these now high profile crimes and how, when, and if they are resolved through our justice system. In the meantime, I anticipate that many more men and women will declare their innocence or we will declare their guilt. All of this makes for good entertainment but, unless we know all the facts - which we most certainly never do - we have to rely on what we are told to form our opinions.

Thankfully, your life in Christ never has to rely on such shaking footings. Your faith in Jesus doesn't guarantee that you will never be falsely accused or that our courts will fail to prosecute the right person. But your faith in Jesus does guarantee that while injustice may be elusive in your lifetime, after your time on earth is through you will spend eternity with the righteous King who will make all things new. No more crying, no more pain, no more injustice, just perfect peace.

A lesson from the disco ball of life

As I child of the 1970's and an teenager in the 1980's, the fads that were so popular then seem so cheesy when viewed from the lens of 2015. I can vividly remember a time when my brothers and I were convinced that our lives would be woefully incomplete if we didn't have a strobe light that our neighbor had put up for sale. Yes, a strobe light. Think disco skating at the roller rink.

We devised a plan to make seashell jewelry and sell it in the neighborhood until we had raised enough money to buy this most coveted possession. Our entrepreneurial plan worked to perfection and it wasn't long until we joyfully presented a jar full of change to our neighbor in exchange for the amazing strobe light that would send all of our neighborhood pals into fits of jealous.

Excitedly, my brothers set the strobe light up in our garage and we took turns roller skating around on the concrete floor as the intermittent light flashed all around us. What a life-changing experience this was! Except that it really wasn't. As you can probably imagine, it took only a few days until the joy of our strobe light fizzled out and us fickle boys found another cause to pursue that we believed would make our lives better for sure.

Don't laugh, you've been there too although your story and your pursuits are different. For some of you, that prize that you strain for is that job or the success that it will bring that will most certainly give your life the meaning, purpose, and security you have been longing for. Then there are others who believe that the right relationship, the cool car, the meaningful friends, the best grades, etc. ad infinitum, will make your life so much more...better.

But better never comes with those things, does it? In fact, when you finally "arrive" the only thing there to meet you is a new set of expectations and goals that you will have to pursue to make your life even better than it is now. Solomon, perhaps the wisest and wealthiest king to ever roam the planet, sought every worldly pleasure that can be imagined just to see if these pursuits and riches would bring him more purpose and meaning to his life. His states his final conclusion as he pens these first words in the book of Ecclesiates:

"Meaningless! Meaningless!”

says the Teacher.

“Utterly meaningless!

Everything is meaningless." (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

Here's what this means for you and me. Money, possessions, success, abilities, relationships, accomplishments, and goals are not bad things. BUT, when they become the primary source of your purpose and satisfaction in life then they become evil. Truthfully, they become your idols. 

When we seek to find satisfaction and meaning in anything or anyone other than God, we too will come to the conclusion that all of our pursuits are meaningless. They simply don't deliver on the goods. Sure, we will have a good time for awhile and may be even able to enjoy some of the finer things in life, yet none of these can possibly offer us ultimate or eternal satisfaction. Only God can do that.

When the mystique of our strobe light wore off, I put it in a box on a shelf and forgot all about it. I'm sure at some point it either was given away or thrown in the garbage. For a few days it was pretty awesome, but it has had no lasting impact on my life.

God, on the other hand, has changed me in ways that no pursuit or possession could possibly hope to achieve. When my eyes were opened to my desperate need for God to be my purpose, I saw that my sin - which had kept me from knowing God - was staring me straight in the face. It was then that I realized that Jesus was the only One capable of taking my sin upon Himself and freeing me from the debt that it had placed upon me. Once Jesus saved me, I was able to see clearly for the first time that all of the idols I had lined up in my life in an effort to find ultimate satisfaction were simply lifeless objects that had no power at all. 

Whether you are a follower of Jesus or not, all of us have idols to which we attach value. Sometimes our grasp slackens and we let them go, clinging to Jesus with all that we have. But there are times where we clutch these idols so tightly that we truly believe we would die without them. But to this we ultimately realize it is all "Meaningless!" Relationships, success, money, sex, achievement - all of these are God's good gift to us but these creations can never replace the Creator or satisfy like He can.

Don't be afraid to say the "S" word

As a kid, I never had my mouth washed out with soap due to foul language. Now this isn't because I never said a bad word, but rather because my parents probably never heard me. In truth, the real reason I was cautious to never utter a profane word in front of my parents is because of some wisely crafted medicine that my mom administered to me early on. During a stirring conversation about the consequences of bad language, she introduced me to the flavor of baking soda delivered in a tea spoon that would be punishment for verbal indiscretions. After tasting that awful powder, I vowed never to allow that stuff to pass my lips again.

There are many words that are taboo in our culture and just simply should not be spoken. Or if we do say them, they are delivered in hushed tones so that no one else can hear. Some words are so foul to the ears that, when uttered, cause us to recoil in disgust and leave the conversation if not the room altogether. We reference these abominable sayings with abbreviations or code words so that our hearers will know what we are talking about without us actually having to say the dreaded word itself (i.e., "Johnny got in trouble at school for saying the "D" word").

Today, many words and phrases that were considered scandalous to utter just a few decades ago are now commonplace in our media and entertainment fronts. There do not seem to be many limits placed on what is now acceptable for the human ear to hear. But there is one word that is still banned in many circles and has been declared irrelevant if not ridiculous by a plethora of social, political, and even religious groups. The word in question is the dreaded "S" word:

Sin

Sin is no longer discussed - it's not even allowed to be mentioned in some settings - because it is considered an archaic concept that our world has rejected because of its lack of relevance to the overall human experience. After all, with relativism reigning supreme in our world, sin only serves to deconstruct many of the ivory palaces that we have built for ourselves. Therefore sin is no longer considered a valid option for everyday vernacular. Sure, you can mention that word in your closed religious meetings, just don't try to force your dogma on the rest of the populace. 

A casual perusing of the news will reveal that there is much in our world that is seemingly out of balance. Just recently, there has been much civil unrest in America over what many believe to be police brutality caused by racial profiling. Just the other day a young woman was doused with lighter fluid and set ablaze inside of her car, left to suffer a horrific death. We can't forget the multitude of school and work place shootings that we have witnessed over the past decade and that occur with shocking regularity. The list of terrible and brutal crimes and tragedies seems to be never ending, as do our explanations for why such events continue to plague our society: Intolerance is the problem, racism is the problem, drugs are the problem, guns are the problem, elitism is the problem, etc.

But those explanations are only the symptoms of what lies deeper beneath the surface of the ills that our world suffers. You see, the root problem of the evil and carnage and suffering that is experienced worldwide is found in that dirty little "S" word, sin. That word that no one wants to acknowledge because certainly we can discover a more acceptable way to define the errors rampant in the human condition. We will work ourselves into oblivion trying to explain society's behavior - everything from blaming politics, poverty, racism, classism, and even culture itself - but in doing so we miss the very reason why all of these issues have come into being. Sin. 

For the wages of sin is death... (Romans 6:23)

Many, while reading this, will choose to cast another label at me to explain away the reality of sin - superstitious Bible thumper. But here is the truth that so many want to ignore: The reason that racism, hate, violence, rape, murder, and injustice exists is not because of a system suddenly gone wrong, but rather because of the inherent sin that resides within man. Sinful men make sinful decisions that affect everyone.

Sin is nothing short of acting contrary to the character and holiness of God. Sin gives birth to the selfishness, hate, and greed that fuels all of our world's problems. We need to look no further than inside the heart of man to diagnose the problems that, when left untreated, grow to epidemic proportions. And if all that we know is the root of the problem without a solution for it, then we can expect that our world will never be anything more than a cesspool for the wicked.

But there is good news out there. Instead of trying to politicize or protest or loot our social ills away - which will never, ever succeed on any level - let us go to the solution that has already been laid out before us, the one found in the second portion of Romans 6:23:

...but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Many won't find that a suitable solution and will continue to pursue change and growth through a flawed human system that has proven itself time and again woefully inadequate to bring hope, peace, and reconciliation. But the truth is, we cannot simply legislate or debate away the reality of sin. It must be tackled head on and the good news is that the war has already been waged - and won - on our behalf by Jesus. His death on the cross conquered sin and there will come a day when sin is vanquished forever. This means that, if you are in Christ, sin no longer has control over you. Though you still feel its ravaging effects, sin no longer owns you. And when Jesus is your center, then sin no longer is the determining factor in your life and decisions. 

Sin is the ultimate problem. Jesus is the only answer. Anything less results in hopeless rhetoric, divisiveness, and endless frustration. It's time to take the censors off of the "S" word. 

Things in our world are as bad as they've ever been, right?

Like most of you, I was shocked, saddened, and ticked off when I heard the news of the bombing that occurred near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The first thoughts that came to my mind were, "What in the world is going on here? What are people thinking?"

I have the same kind of reactions when I read and hear about high school girls who get raped at parties after they have passed out from drinking too much alcohol. It makes me even more sick to learn that guys are taking their pictures and passing them around social networks as if these girls are the punchline in a funny joke. Then when I hear that some of these girls have taken their own lives after learning that what has been reserved as intimate has been splashed all over teenagers phones, I immediately want to hold my three daughters a little closer.

When I saw the news story about the abortion doctor who performed numerous illegal abortions and even went to the extreme of killing some of these babies outside of the mother's womb, I wanted to see justice served. Yes, I know that abortion is legal in our country, but this was cold-blooded murder, not a government-sanctioned medical procedure. This man must pay.

On and on the list goes of atrocities that we see committed all around us. It's not uncommon that, when tragedies seem to be stacked one upon another, I hear the comment, "It's the signs of the times." This refers to the belief that surely Jesus is going to return soon because things just can't get much worse. Right? I mean, our world is as bad as it's ever been.

Right?

Let me say that things today are bad. Let me say emphatically that that things are bad because sin is bad. And as long as there is sin, there will be horrific acts committed by sinful people. How long has sin been around? Since the first man and woman decided that their way was better than God's way, that's how long. And since that first sin was committed, there has been a snowball affect that has covered every corner of the globe.

So have things gotten worse? Consider some of these examples from ages past:

• Child sacrifice was not uncommon in ancient cultures. Whether the children were offered to a false deity or to appease the "anger" of a volcano, child sacrifice was not only an accepted practice in some cultures but was also perfectly legal. (see Leviticus 18:21)
• In societies such as ancient Egypt, unwanted newborn babies were left on the front porch to die. That's right, if you didn't want your child you simply set it out with the trash. Ironically, Christians are credited as the first group of people to rescue children is such situations, plucking them from doorsteps and raising them as their own, thus setting the precedent for adoption.
• In the New Testament, King Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee, divorced his first wife in order to marry his brother's ex-wife Herodias. Herodias had a daughter who was able to seduce Herod into giving her whatever she asked. And what was her request? She wanted Herod to decapitate John the Baptist (a man whom Herodias hated) and bring it to her on a silver platter so that she in turn could hand over the bloody head to her mother.(Mark 6:14-29)
• Then there was the whole idea in Rome about feeding people to lions and other wild animals and watching gladiators fight to the death in front of cheering crowds.

I could go on but you get the idea. These events were going on hundreds and hundreds of years ago and they involved activities that even the most corrupt governments of today would declare illegal. Because we didn't have all of the cable news networks and internet capabilities, these events were recorded in writing and not splashed across the world at microsecond intervals. Yet it still goes to show that things have always been pretty bad and that's because people have always been sinful.

In the midst of all of tragedies, catastrophic events, and human failings, there is one other thing that has never changed: God. Many wonder when God will stop all the evil in the world, and we simply have no answer as to what His timetable will be. But we do know how God has planned to stop evil and it's a plan that has already begun since the beginning of time - Jesus. God has chosen to redeem this fallen and broken world through Jesus and His desire to redeem sinful man has not changed.

Jesus has always been the solution to mans' sin problems No, things probably aren't going to change much for the better in our world, but Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He didn't come to merely fix us - He came to redeem us. As bad as the world can be, there is no comparison to just how good our God is through Jesus Christ.