Guilty and yet by grace still found innocent.
For the past two years, I’ve picked up my middle school kids in the saw place and at the same time. I arrive at their school around 3:30 pm and park on the side of the street next to the sidewalk. Many other parents do the same, and shortly after, our kids come out, jump in, and we take off.
Unfortunately, some new parents don’t know the “unwritten” rules. You can tell who they are because they park on the sidewalks, in other people’s driveways, and usually against oncoming traffic. This mayhem is because they arrive late and try to “squeeze in” to find a place.
You can understand my delightful surprise the other day when I arrived nobody was around. All of the usual mayhem was gone. At first, I thought I was extremely early, but as time passed, no one showed up. Somewhat perplexed, I kept looking around, but other than no traffic, everything seemed normal.
That all changed when a police officer pulled behind me with flashing patrol car lights. As he approached my truck, I smiled and wondered what was happening. “May I see your license?” he asked as standard procedure dictates. “Sure. officer.” I replied. “What’s this about?” I asked. “Well, you’re illegally parked here, and I’ll have to issue you a citation.”
“What!” I exclaimed in a confused and surprised tone. “What’s happened is that many homeowners have filed complaints and sent pictures of cars parked in their driveways, on the curbs and sidewalks. So, unfortunately, things have gotten out of hand.” “I totally understand, officer, but I’ve been parking here for the past two years almost every day. Can you just issue me a warning?”
“I can’t do that, we gave warnings all day yesterday, and today we’re issuing tickets. So we’re enforcing the law now. Standby, I’ll be back.” Shortly after, he returned with a crisply printout of my $129 ticket. Needless to say that I was agitated by the incident. After a couple of days, I understood what I had to learn in my situation.
Getting this ticket made me realize that ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Legally, this is referred to as “ignorantia juris non excusat” or “ignorance of the law excuses not”. In other words, if you break the law, you’re still liable even if you didn’t know you were breaking the law.
Scripture teaches us that God is just the same. Before coming to Christ, we were enemies of God without even knowing it. We broke every one of his commandments and more. However, unlike in my situation, God loved us so much that he showed grace and mercy by forgiving us of our offenses. Also, in the process, He saved us from the judgment we deserved. As a result, while we were guilty, God still found us innocent because of what Christ did for us.
Daily Directive:
Answer and Journal the Following
Read:
Romans 5:6-9
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
Pray:
Pray to receive Christ and his forgiveness if you have not done. If you have, ask him to search your heart for any offensive thing you’re unaware of.
Meditate / Make It Real:
Contemplate and meditate on or memorize the passage. What is God saying to you? Then, determine what you will do with what you’ve learned.
Share / Show:
Share and show what you’ve learned with someone else.