Of Law and Grace
Posted by Alexei on May 3rd, 2007
A young man is brought before a judge for drunk driving. When his name is announced by the bailiff, there’s a gasp in the courtroom – the defendant is the judge’s son! [...] What is the judge to do? He’s caught in a dilemma between justice and love. Since his son is guilty, he deserves punishment. But the judge doesn’t want to punish his son because of his great love for him.
He reluctantly announces the sentence: “Son, you can either pay $5000 fine or go to jail.
“The son looks up at the judge and says, “But, Dad, I promise to be good from now on! I’ll volunteer at soup kitchens. I’ll visit the elderly. I’ll even open a home to care for abused children. And I’ll never do anything wrong again! Please let me go!”At this point, the judge asks, “Are you still drunk? You can’t do all of that. But even if you could, your future good deeds can’t change the fact that you’re already guilty of drunk driving.” Indeed, the judge realizes that good works cannot cancel bad works! Perfect justice demands that his son be punished for what he has done.
So the judge repeats, “I’m sorry Son. As much as I’d like to allow you to go, I’m bound by the law. The punishment for this crime is $5000 or you go to jail.”
The Son pleads with his father, “But, Dad, you know I don’t have $5000. There has to be another way to avoid jail!”
The judge stands up and takes off his robe. He walks down from his raised bench and gets down to his son’s level. Standing eye to eye next to his son, he reaches into his pocket … [...] (from Geisler and Turek, I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist)
… pulls out his checkbook and writes a check for $5000. He holds it out to his son. “This is your only way out of jail, Son. Take it.”
The son is faced with a choice. Take his Dad’s sacrifice for him or pay for breaking the law himself. If you were that son (or daughter), what would you choose?
It isn’t difficult to see the moral of the story. When Jesus died on the cross, he paid that ultimate sacrifice. But none of us can be forced into accepting it. Free will is a promise that God will not break even it means that his children go to jail. One might argue that our punishment is unfair. Why should we pay for sins committed by Adam and Eve? But the fact of the matter is that it’s not their sins, it is their sinful nature that lives within us. We have failed to adhere to God’s law because of this nature. Each and every one of us has committed at least one sin, and no matter how small that sin is, it is enough to be unclean in God’s perfect eye. The sacrifice, then, is our only option if we want to remain in God’s presence.
One might also say that it is unfair to ask someone to adhere to a law that one does not know or understand. But the fact of the matter is that the law has been written down and has been taught for thousands of years. Additionally, someone might argue that the Old Testament laws are no longer applicable in light of Jesus’s coming and the New Covenant that he made with the people. But Jesus himself was the biggest proponent of God’s Law. Some of the most important stories of the New Testament involve Jesus correcting the priests and even the devil in the interpretation of the scripture. What is most amazing is that not only are Jesus’s teachings in line with the law and his conduct is impecable, but also that the entire purpose of his life was to fulfill the law! His death on a cross is the only way to satisfy a demand for infinite and perfect justice.
Having understood that, I can only marvel at the beauty, simplicity and perfection of God’s grace. An infinite sacrifice has been made to satisfy an infinite God. Yet our most coveted right, that of freedom of choice, has been preserved. Incredible.
Conflict of interrest. The judge could not trial his son. Another Judge would be called for a mater such as this one. And beside drinking and driving is not just against the law it is a chance to kill someone else or ourselve.
In human terms that is true, but, of course, there is only one standard and one judge – God, and He, by his own definition, cannot be unfair. I like your point though. In our society we certainly have the option of having another judge step in and interpret the law. But what do you do when there is absolute law? You cannot interpret it any other way but the one and only way in which it is defined.
One might liken it to some of the natural laws. We aren’t interpreting the laws of physics or the laws of logic. They exist on their own and we consider ourselves lucky if we get anywhere close to understanding what those laws mean. Absolute moral laws fall under this category as well. We are getting better (one would hope) in understanding them, but contrary to some humanist beliefs, we have not created them just like we haven’t created physics or logic.