|
 There’s
a story about a judge whose own son was brought before her for a crime he
had committed. The judge felt a deep grief that her son would
violate the laws upon which she based her entire life. Tears welled
in her eyes and she listened painfully as the evidence against her son was presented.
The courtroom sat in silence
wondering how the judge would rule. Would she just give him a
reprimand in an act of mercy? Would she give him the minimum penalty for
the offense? Much to their surprise, she handed down the maximum
fine, upholding the law to its fullest degree. The son was in shock, for
he knew that he couldn’t pay the fine and was anguished at the thought of
imprisonment. He looked up at her in disbelief. But then something happened that nobody expected. She
stepped down from the bench, took off her judge’s robe, told her son how
much she loved him and then paid, out of her own pocket, the fine
she had just handed down. Not everyone understood what she had done. As a
judge, she showed her commitment to honor the law, but she then stepped
down from that seat of honor and to show her love for her child. Her
son never understood the depth of his mother's commitment to the law until
that moment, and, until that moment, he never knew
the depth of his mother's love for him. He felt deep sorrow for the
pain he had caused her and for those he had hurt by his act of crime.
With his head bowed, and his tears flowing freely, he asked for her forgiveness, which she
willingly gave to him.
This story is actually an allegory for God’s
relationship to us. Our crimes are our willful departure from the laws
given us by God for the way we are to live. When we break those laws, God
is grieved and pained. Inevitably there are natural consequences of
our failings that hurt others, sometimes affecting lives for generations to come.
This is why God's laws say
that the penalty for sin is death. His holy nature demands that He
not just let us off the hook or go easy on us. So what did He
do? He came down from heaven to us in Jesus Christ to help us to
understand His laws, to show us the depth of His love for
us and to pay the price of our sin with His own life. This never
made sense to me until I understood how I fell short of God's standards
for life and how deeply that had hurt those who depended on me the
most. But once I knew the love and forgiveness of God, I turned away
in disgust from my deepest sins and understood, in a way I never had
before, how to love and forgive others.
For the wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23
This is how God
showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that
we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that
he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 4:9-10
Be merciful, just as
your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not
condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Luke 6:36-37 |
