A Word about the Law from Romans 3:19-20

Today I would like to share a word about the law as I comment on Romans 3:19-20.

I recently had an unpleasant encounter with a police officer. Not because I was unjustly accused but for the opposite. I actually was guilty . . .  guilty as sin. Let me explain:

I was in an unfamiliar neighborhood of a town in a nearby county on my way to a meeting with some colleagues in ministry. I was actually early, so I wasn’t in a hurry, but I was searching the house numbers along the road for the church where the meeting was being held. I topped a hill and on the other side was a crossroads with a stop sign - facing me!

I quickly stepped on my brakes, but it was clear that I was not going to stop on time, even though I was not driving very fast. I looked both ways and while I did see a car to my right, it was probably a quarter mile away, so I went on through the intersection. No one was in any danger, so everything was fine, right? Well, not so much.

I can recognize a police car a mile away, so it was not hard for me to note that the one car in sight as I blew through the stop sign was a police car. And I knew he saw me.

Once on the other side of the intersection I idled along until the police officer turned right to follow me and hit his blue lights. License, insurance card, and an admission of guilt on my part followed, and ten minutes later I drove off with a traffic citation in hand. Sadly, the church I was looking for was just a couple of blocks up the road.

I had broken the law, but there were some mitigating circumstances, right?

No one got hurt.

I wasn’t speeding or talking on my cell phone (really, I wasn’t).

I didn’t mean to run the stop sign.

I didn’t make the officer chase me,

I even admitted my guilt.

Here’s the thing, however: the law does not care about my excuses. It is very digital, either you comply with it or you don’t. Either you obey it, or you don’t. Either you are blameless or you are guilty. 

In Romans 3:19-20, Paul told us that, 

“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.”

The police officer who wrote me the ticket had every right to do so, and he also had the responsibility to do so. Although the law is righteous, the law is also harsh, and that is just the way it is.

The Good News, as in the Gospel, is that God is gracious, and He has provided us salvation from our sins through Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul went on to write in Romans 4:7-8 that,

“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

Although I was chagrined about receiving a traffic ticket (Corbitt men are notoriously proud of our driving skills), my encounter with the law reminded me of a great spiritual lesson. It also reminded me to be ever the more grateful to our God who has saved me from my sin!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt