Richard Davenport
October 27, 2024 – Reformation Sunday
Romans 3:19-28
A little while back I was reading a news article that talked about how many friends and family members of New York City policemen were issued a “courtesy card.” If you were pulled over for a routine traffic stop, you could show your courtesy card and the officer would let you go with a warning. That sounds pretty great. It would be nice to have that kind of assurance. You’re running late and going just a little faster than you probably should, your tags have expired and you haven’t had the chance to renew them yet, you make a simple mistake and turn right at a red light when you weren’t supposed to, all minor things, simple things deserving of a little leniency.
I’m sure that sort of thing is pretty handy, right up until you run into the police officer who sees your card and writes you a ticket anyway. That was the crux of the news article. An officer gave a ticket to someone who flashed a courtesy card and now he was guilty of breaking the unwritten rule of the New York City Police Department. They couldn’t fire him, but they could make his life miserable and relegate him to all of the scut work no one else wants to do.
It would be a rude surprise, thinking you were going to get to avoid a bunch of fuss over some minor thing only to get slapped with a big ticket. I’m sure that kind of thing really brings the day down. What’s the point of having the card if it isn’t going to do any good? Not only am I missing out on a benefit I’m supposed to have, but I’m getting stuck with the penalty on top of it.
Now, if you’re like me, you’re probably hearing this and thinking to yourself, “Yeah, you deserved to get a ticket. No ‘courtesy card’ exempts you from the law. That police officer did his job and you should have known better.” It’s a pretty common place assumption in our society that the rich and famous are judged by a different standard when it comes to the laws of the country. At least as the news presents it, they get away with all sorts of terrible things. Were any of us guilty of fraud, drug possession, or any of the other legal issues they typically have, we’d be in court in short order. When you see someone try to wiggle out of it and get nailed anyway, it feels rather satisfying. That guy might think the law doesn’t apply to him because he’s famous, but it does.
Still, it would be nice. It would be nice to not have to worry about minor infractions. It would be nice to know that when there are those times you slide over the line just a bit, that no one is going to come down on you. No sirens. No flashing lights. No stern looks from a policeman. No slip of paper saying you now owe a bunch of money. None of that.
It would be nice. But, anyone who spends some time really thinking about it realizes how big a problem that would be. If you consider the speed limit on a highway, you can see this in action. On a highway where the speed limit is 60mph, the actual speed most people travel is more like 65-70mph. If the speed limit is increased to 65mph, it’s not as if everyone is suddenly satisfied and now drives the speed limit. No, if I could get away with driving 5-10 over before, then I can probably still get away with driving 5-10 over now. Now, instead of driving 65-70, everyone drives 70-75.
The law just doesn’t apply to me. If I go fast enough, well, then the law will probably apply then, but I’m not there yet. There are all sorts of instances where it’s not so much, “what should I do?” but more “what can I get away with?” I know what the law says, but where is the line that determines when it actually applies to me.
Except that the law always applies. The fact that it isn’t always enforced does not mean it is invalid. A police officer may not pull you over for doing 5 or 10 over, but he could. He could pull you over for doing 1 over. Why he does or doesn’t may have more to do with limited time and resources than it does with your breaking of the law.
We tend to make similar assumptions about God and his law as well. We break it all the time, so why isn’t it more strictly enforced? Is it because God has limited resources? Is it because he’s just being lazy? Is it because the law really does only apply to certain people and I’m just not one of them?
No, none of those are true. His laws apply to everything in all of creation. Everyone and everything is held accountable to that law at all times, without exception, and he keeps a running tally of even the most minor infraction. As the all-powerful creator of all things, he is more than capable of enforcing the law everywhere. So why doesn’t he?
As children, we tend to operate under the assumption that if there are no immediate consequences, then whatever I did must not be bad. This is, of course, a foolish idea, but as children who have very little experience with the world and with life, it’s all they have to go on. Obviously, even if you don’t immediately see the consequences of stuffing your face with cookies every day, eventually you will.
If there truly were no consequences, you would never have to worry about death. But death is a consequence all of us face. We are all under the law. We are all subject to it. We are all deserving of the consequences that come from breaking it because we are all guilty.
It was this knowledge that haunted Luther night and day while he was in the monastery. He knew he was under the law, painfully aware. Not only was he under the law, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to stop himself from breaking the law. He could mentally see the penalties piling up higher and higher. He could try and save up the funds necessary to pay off the debt, in the form of work done as a monk, but he knew it wasn’t going to be enough. He hadn’t been pulled over yet. He hadn’t been handed a ticket yet, but it was just a matter of time.
You would think we would outgrow this childish notion that we can get away with things just because there is no immediate repercussion. Where the police might let you slide by without a ticket for all sorts of mundane reasons, none of that applies with God. If you aren’t getting slapped with the penalty for your transgressions, it isn’t because he forgot or got lazy, and it certainly isn’t because you were somehow exempt from the law. It’s because God is withholding judgment for a time. He’s giving you a chance to realize the true extent of the trouble you’re in and seek mercy.
As the creator, God alone holds the authority to be judge, jury, and executioner. He can carry out divine justice at any moment and be within his rights to do so. The fact that any of us are still alive and haven’t yet been cast into the outer darkness is already a sign of God’s mercy.
This too, is what Luther eventually discovered. Yes, he was a sinner. Yes, he deserved everything that would be coming to him. Yes, he was completely incapable of paying the penalty without suffering the ultimate consequence. But God loved him anyway. God loved him so much that he was willing to pay the price. He was willing to do what was necessary to earn Luther’s righteousness for him, righteous, just, and innocent in the eyes of the law. No penalty to be given because now none is owed. God paid it all.
This is the essence of the Gospel. It isn’t that the law no longer applies. It isn’t that we’re somehow exempt. It isn’t that we’re good enough to not be guilty. The law very much applies and we also accumulate more and more transgressions each day. We are guilty. The law says there is a penalty. God says he will pay it for us.
We don’t escape the penalty by making the law less strict. We escape by recognizing the enormity of the gift God has given us. The plain wooden cross became the means by which our Savior took every act of rage, every jealous glance, every treacherous or callous word, every greedy theft, every smug insult, every selfish pursuit of pleasure, every injury of body or soul we have inflicted on another human being, intentional or not, all gathered up and paid for.
Because Jesus pays the penalty, there is nothing left for us to boast about. We don’t get to claim credit for avoiding the police or being immune to the law, because neither of those are true. Instead, our lives are defined by the love of the God who took all of that on himself. It is his loving sacrifice that saves us and his mercy that forgives us. We are made just in the eyes of God and his law, simply because God promises that the price has been paid and we trust that he is not lying to us.
Christ salvation works, not by avoiding the law, but by taking all of its consequences on to himself. This is what Luther fought for. The penalty of the law can indeed be paid for, just not by us. No matter how dedicated you are to paying your debt, no matter how many hours in a day you put into working at it, it will never happen. Only God is capable of paying it and he loves you enough to do just that, a Father who pays the debt incurred by all of his wayward children.
We rejoice on this day not because Luther did anything special. Luther was just the messenger, reminding people of what God has done for us. The law is there and it will crush all who break it, but Jesus, out of his great compassion, chose to take our place and let the law crush him instead. We have been saved by his grace and mercy, set free to live as new people, people who know they have been saved by God’s great love.