I have to tell you that Christ can do many things; but it seems to me that His specialty is to take the bad case of the sinner, and plead it before God until He gets eternal acquittal. But what plea can He make?
Sometimes an attorney in court will plead the innocence of the prisoner. That would be inappropriate for us; we are all guilty.
Sometimes, he tries to prove an alibi. Such a plea will not do in our case either.
The Lord found us in all our sins, and in the very place of our iniquity. Sometimes, an attorney will plead the insanity of the prisoner, and say he is irresponsible on that account. That plea will never do in our case.
We sinned against light, knowledge and the dictates of our own consciences. What then, shall the plea be?
Christ will say, "Look at all these wounds. By all these sufferings, I demand the rescue of this man from sin and death and hell. Constable, knock off the shackles...let the prisoner go free."
"Who is he that condemneth?"
written by T. De Witt Talmage, page 31 in One Thousand Evangelistic Illustrations, edited by Webb, A. (1924). New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers