A few days ago, something happened that I naively believed would never happen to me, even though it happens to just about everybody, whether they admit it or not. I was just hoping I’d be able to cheat the system and never go through it, not realizing that they always get you sooner or later, even if they’re mistaken. My sister even remarked that she was glad that it happened to me before it happened to her so that I could experience it first. But don’t worry – she’ll have her turn in the sun.
What am I rambling about in so vague a fashion? Well, let me start from the beginning. I was driving the roughly hour-long journey to my college for my Friday afternoon writing class. I was perhaps a quarter of the way along when I happened to glance in my rear-view mirror, only to see what I had long dreaded but hoped never to see in real life. Like I said, I was naïve.
It was a police car directly behind me with its lights on. In my shocked state of denial, I figured that SURELY the officer was attempting to get past me and onto the trail of some perpetrator of some dastardly deed. So I figured I should pull over and let him through. The only problem with this proposition is that the officer did not go through. He slowed down when I slowed down, and he pulled over to the shoulder of the road when I did so. It was, apparently, me that had done some dastardly deed.
Let me say emphatically that I do not speed. I always try to do exactly the speed limit, and never very far above it. In any event, I never go faster than the cars around me. And in this particular case, nothing could be more firm in my mind than that I had not at all been speeding.
Many things go through one’s mind in the startlingly long time between the moment you are stopped and the moment the officer walks to your car window. Do you just come out immediately with, “Officer, I didn’t shoot him! I don’t even have a gun, and you can search my car if you want, but you gotta believe I didn’t shoot anybody!” Or, conversely, do you just wait patiently for the officer to have his say first, and then respond to the charges?
I decided to do that latter. The officer looked a bit stern as he informed me that I had improperly passed an emergency vehicle (in this case, another police car) as it was parked on the side of the road with its lights on. He said I failed to slow down or move over one lane as I passed. I told him that in all honesty I was not aware of that law. Still stern but softening up a bit, he said that I definitely knew it now, and that if he let me go with a warning, I would never, EVER, do something like that again, right? To which, of course, I said yes. I would most certainly never, EVER entertain the thought again. And I assure I have not and will not.
Then the officer went back into his car to, I suppose, do the paperwork. This took a disturbingly long length of time. As I sat and watched everybody and their third cousin three times removed pass a parked emergency vehicle with its lights on at speeds of over fifty miles per hour, I began to worry about the time the officer was taking. And several thoughts swam through my head.
Was he on the radio to headquarters discussing my case? Was he secretly looking up my record (I was not aware that I even had a record)? Was the guy on the other end telling him, “Yep, Gus…you just got our man…that was the guy not one but three eyewitnesses fingered as the guy they saw with an elephant gun on the overpass across the way…”?
Or maybe he was just grabbing a donut. Whatever the case was, he took a very long time, and when he came back he just handed me the warning slip, repeated the law, and, in a reassuringly friendly manner, told me to have a nice day and drive safely. And so I was off, thankful that I had escaped a ticket. But when it hasn’t happened to you – yet – getting pulled over can be an unsettling experience. I’d like to think I’ve settled down from it, but I can assure you I will be a paranoid driver for some time to come.
But the experience, as interesting as it may have been, got me to thinking about something far, far more serious, even more serious than getting pulled over for a traffic violation. Does God let us go with a warning when we disobey Him? After all, God loves us and wants to forgive us. It may surprise you that, according to the Bible, the answer to that question is no.
Romans 3:23 tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That means sin is a universal ingredient of the human condition, and it causes everyone, regardless of who they are or what they have done or not done, to fall short of the goal that God has set. What is more, the Bible teaches that all sin, regardless of severity, leads to one outcome. Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death”, and Habakkuk 1:13 says of our Creator, “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.”
The terrible reality is that sin separates us from God. He has one standard for His creatures, and that is holiness. When we fall short of that, He cannot let us into His presence. This means that sin keeps us from a right relationship with God, and it also means that God cannot allow us to be with Him forever after we die. In God’s kingdom, sin must be dealt with. It cannot be excused or let off with a warning pending good intentions and behavior. God dearly loves His creations, but He cannot let pass the sin we have committed – it must be paid for.
The greatest news in the world is that God has given us a choice – we can pay for our sin ourselves, or we can trust in God’s provision to pay for it Himself. How can He do this? He didn’t have to do anything to help us out, and He could have started all over again with new people who would obey Him. However, God chose a way to make us new creatures, ones whose sin is erased – but not because God chose to overlook it, but because He paid the penalty for it so we would not have to.
John 3:16 – perhaps the most familiar verse in the Bible – says that “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son (Jesus), that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Jesus, Who is one with the Father, came to earth as a human, lived a sinless life, and then died on the Cross for all of our sins. He became a perfect Substitute for us, taking on our sin and paying the death penalty that we deserve. God accepted the sacrifice of His Son, raising Him from the dead on the third day after He died. Thus, when Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” our sin was forever paid for, and we could legitimately be forgiven and freed from it.
As I said, this is the most wonderful news in the world – and there is only one part remaining. God made a way for us to be forgiven of our offenses against Him, and for it to be effective, He calls on each and every one of us to come to Him and accept His provision by faith. 2 Corinthians 6:2 says, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Acts 4:12 also says, “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other Name (besides Jesus) under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
God is calling to each and every one of us to come to Him, confess that we have sinned against Him, turn away from our sin, and accept in faith Jesus’ payment for our sins. This is the way that God has made for us to be reconciled to Him. He has truly done all that He can do for us to be rightfully forgiven and made righteous in His sight. The only question now is, will we trust and believe what He has so graciously provided?
And those are the things that I thought of as I continued my drive to school after being pulled over for the first – and, I hope, only – time ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment