"Please raise your right hand and repeat after me, 'I, _______, do solemnly swear the testimony I am about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.'"  I can't think of a more serious sentence.

A person under oath is not only before the court.  He speaks before God.  No evasion of the truth is allowed, no hedging of facts, no fiddling or fudging.  All the truth, and only the truth is permitted.

Can you imagine our world with everyone under oath all the time?  Would it make a difference?  Would truth then flow everywhere?  I thoroughly doubt it, because we are sinners, and sin will do one of two things. 

Sin makes us either liars or mutes.

Two indicators of guilt easily detected are protest and silence, both of which are easy, even for children.  Parents can see right through it because we've all done it.  We've either tried to talk our way out or pretend to be the proverbial monkey who sees no evil, hears no evil, and speaks no evil.

Get real.

It is dangerous on a witness stand for liars or mutes.  It is perilous for us without the Truth.  Talking one's way out of a jam is easier said than done.  And before God it is impossible.  The opposite tactic is to dumb down, to plead insanity, to claim, like the likeable, lumbering buffoon in the old Hogan's Heroes TV show, Sergeant Schultz, "I known nothink!"

Many a defense attorney will not put their client on the stand, because if he or she "pleads the fifth" and remains silent, it looks bad.  Worse still, if they try to buffalo, schmooze, or perjure their way out of it, there is no quicker way to a guilty verdict.

On the witness stand one has no choice but to testify.  You are not permitted to be a bump on a log.  You must answer.  You have to.  And if one will not, the judge will force answers.  Attorneys are given special latitude with the "hostile" witness.  The truth must come out.  The truth will not be suppressed.  It will surface sooner or later over cross-examination. 

Craig Parton in his superb new book, Religion on Trial, quotes J.H. Wigmore, English barrister and legal expert in rules of evident, who said, "Cross-examination is the greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of the truth."

In His Word God tells us as surely as He lives, the day is coming when "every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God."  The Truth will be manifest.  The divinity of Jesus Christ will be plain.  The Lordship of God the Father will be acknowledged by every tongue, and the reality of ourselves will be unambiguous.

This is not to say that the truth of Christ is not already in evidence or until the last day no one can be sure of God. Heavens no.  The facts are already established.  Our transgressions and Christ's atonement for them await only the confession of them by every tongue.

The body of evidence is already here.  The Truth is already the Truth.  The facts are already the facts.  The Gospel is already in the public domain, and its legitimacy is not in question.  The good news of God's Son whom He sacrificed for the sin of world has been revealed, cross-examined, and studied in depth.  It endures today and forever as exquisite and unspoiled as it has ever been. 

What then shall we say to this?

Shall we dread the witness stand because our excuses for sin or our gagging the Gospel will finally be shown for what they are?  Shall we just hope that some fast talking on our part will obscure the true account of our wrongs.  Or will we keep our trap shut, our fingers crossed, and gamble that God will overlook us - something, by the way, He's never done before? 

Or do we await with gladness the culmination of this life because on that last day there will be the cross and there will be the examination.

Our plea on that day (as it has been since our baptism) is the cross.  We fear neither prosecution or judgment because of the cross.  We may stand before the world and even before God and say Jesus Christ gave His life for me.  He lived as my substitute.  He exchanged His kingdom for my corruption.  Christ was penalized for my faults and convicted for my crimes.

That's the truth, your Honor.

I am neither ashamed nor hesitant to confess it.  Examine me, O God, and you will find Christ.  Test me, and His vindication will bear me up.  Ask whatever you wish, but the answer will always be the same: Christ.

If you ask about my sins; Christ has answered for me with His blood.  If you ask about my good works, Christ has already finished all that is required in my place.  If you ask about my faith, you have asked only for the Truth.  And the truth is Christ.  If you ask me to give an account of myself, I will not burden you with the nattering nonsense and lies of my former self nor will I remain in wordless silence.  I plead the evidence of the cross and what Jesus, my God and Savior, has done for me.

HE, Your Honor, is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God!