An Affirmative Defense

A Unique Kind of Defense

Under the American system of law, which is itself built upon the English system of Common Law, there is a type of defense known as the Affirmative Defense. This defense is used in civil matters to excuse or avoid liability, and more predominantly in criminal matters to excuse or avoid penalty under law.

Justification

The Affirmative Defense is constructed in such a fashion as to admit that matter under complaint did in fact occur, but that the defendant had right or justifiable cause to do what they did. The most common form of an Affirmative Defense in criminal matters is self-defense, describing an act of violence caused by the defendant’s belief that his\her own person was in physical danger.

Such a defense is built around the idea, under our system of law, that certain actions which would normally be law breaking are justifiable under certain circumstances. In the extreme, such a defense might be built in order to cause reasonable doubt on the part of a jury. An example of this would be violence against a spouse who has demonstrated a history of abusive behavior. A jury might acquit the abused spouse, believing such an act was justified under the circumstances, even the act was itself against the law.

Imperfect Justice

The reason such a defense is allowed is because of the imperfect nature of our system of law. The law cannot anticipate every possible scenario, so the court is allowed (and juries may decide) to make exception for certain situations. However, will such an Affirmative Defense work before the ultimate Judge, God? Do situations ever exist whereby law breaking in the form of sin can be justified? Do good intentions ever justify the modification of God’s command?

Perfect Justice

Before these questions can be answered, it is important to understand both the perfect nature of God’s Law (and command), and the perfect nature of God as Judge. While man can create all sorts of exceptions in his own mind that would justify sinful behavior, such justifications never hold before the truly perfect moral nature of God’s Law. While man may try to justify to himself the “positive” outcome from bending or breaking the command of God (for example, the modification of worship to better “appeal” to the world), such justifications never hold before the truly perfect nature of God’s command.

The truth is, there is never any justification, even with the best of intentions, which allows man to sin or to change what God has commanded. Unfortunately, the sad reality is that those most likely to use an “Affirmative Defense” before God are those who should know better: His own people.