If I did it – OJ Simpson, his side of the story

Oj Simpson was an athlete who was hailed as one of the greatest in his time. He received stardom and accolades at both the collegiate and professional levels. Simpson was the first player to rush for more than 2,000 yards during the course of his professional career. Furthermore, Simpson went on to become an actor, spokesperson and broadcaster.

However, Simpson is best known for being tried in the highly publicized trial and double murder of his wife Nicole Simpson and her boyfriend Ron Goldman. Simpson was acquitted of the murders and later found liable of the deaths in a civil suit. More recently, Simpson wrote a tell-all controversial new book titled If I did It: Confessions of a killer. In the book Simpson talks in depth about the death of his ex-wife and her lover Ron Goldman. Simpson references details that only a killer would know and goes on to talk about he would have masterminded the plan if he were the one responsible for the killings. With the court of law carrying the double jeopardy statue, Simpson, who was exonerated of all wrong-doings in reference to the murders will never be tried again in a court of law. In other words even if he has now confessed to the killings in the pages of his book, he will never be punished for the crimes.

As I begin to think on the OJ Simpson tell-all book, I began to ask myself why Simpson would feel the need to write such a compelling story. It has been over 10 years since the trial which was seemingly stressful and burdensome, why recall the past and not allow bygones to be bygones. I thought about the correlation between Simpson and his continual denial turned confession and our wrongdoings before God. There are times we all fall short of the glory of God. Instead of owning up to our sin, we act as if we are not liable. We present a “not guilty” plea before the jury in an attempt to convince ourselves our sin is not punishable by law. In the absence of a witness, we assume that no one knows what really happened and can testify to our crime. We rally together with an audience that acts as an attorney in our defense, tallying all of our excuses and making rebuffs for our lies. Even when we are extended grace or placed on probation, we sometimes find ourselves back in the same cycle of sin all over again. We continually make excuses and create opportunities to commit the crime with little to no guilt or condemnation.

What I find is that, those of us who love God and are in relationship with him are required to take responsibility for our actions. We have to stand before the judge and jury, repent of our sins, and seek guidance on deliverance. We have already been acquitted of our wrongdoing, God our father continues to extend his mercy towards us daily. Our admittance of guilt is simply a GET OUT OF JAIL FREE card. The great thing about our judge is that no matter what the sin, we don’t have to face lengthy sentences. Once we repent our sin is thrown into a sea of forgetfulness. No spending time on death row or a lengthy prison term waiting for an appeal. We can turn this thing around today and write our own book, it would be titled, Yes I did it, I am sorry: Confessions of a liberated believer.