Cops & Robbers?

Read Romans 3: 19,20

“Now we know that whatever the Law says, it says to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight for by the Law is the knowledge of sin."

Read Galatians 3:24

“Therefore the law was our tutor (a chaperon; a guardian) to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”

So yesterday, I'm riding my super duper deluxe, black beauty of a bike...my Schwinn - up Nostrand Ave. in Brooklyn, NY, USA. Now, Nostrand Ave is a one way street and I was admittedly going in the opposite direction of traffic. I know....I know. However, it wasn't during a busy time of the day AND because I live right off of Nostrand Ave - a few blocks away from where my trek began - I didn't think much of it. (Now, see how I tried to justify myself, right there? We'll come back to that. ;-)) While I'll acknowledge that it definitely ain't the safest way to go......I'M A NEW YORKER, for Pete's sake!!! :-) Myself and countless others do the same thing in this city....everyday.....most with far more reckless abandon than myself, I might add. (Again....I'm justifyin'.) I should also note for the record, that I had my iPod ear buds securely placed in my ears, listening to the ESPN draft placements. I mean...I couldn't miss that!  Anyway, as I'm sure you're guessin', I gets pulled over by two of NYC's beat cops on the corner outside a bodega. Now, I dunno if anyone's ever been pulled over or approached by police officers...but in almost every situation, when you're approached, you almost always have this incredulous look, like, "what did I do, officer?" Like, "what the problem is?" It doesn't matter what you've done or been accused of doing....the look almost ALWAYS appears. So, I'm pulled over, right. I'm heated, fam. I mean....this is ridiculous!!! You're actually gonna gimme a ticket for riding on a half empty street because I was going the wrong way and wearing my ear buds?! Really!? There's literally a crackwhore a few blocks down the street scoring a trick; dudes palming dime bags within eye shot AND a Chinese food delivery guy that is LITERALLY DRIVING HIS MOTORIZED BIKE directly in front of us (the cops and me) IN THE WRONG DIRECTION! Of course, I point this out but to no avail. The officer says, "we're concentrating on you, right now." Greeeeeat. This whole episode takes about 10-15 because I didn't have any ID on me. Also, the younger (more nervous cop) is meekly explaining to me that what I was doing was against the law. Riding without a helmet; against traffic; with headphones in my ear AND without reflective gear is against the law, folks, FYI. That was kinda news to me. I honestly didn't know all of that. Some I did...but not all of it. All the while the neighborhood is coming out to me...askin' me what the deal was and tellin' me how it ain't nuthin' and the cops are wrong. "A yo....make sure you take a badge number, bruh". "Yo man...they givin' you a ticket for THAT?! Dat's that bull, son". Although I'm appreciating the support, I'm hating the attention that this is gettin' (from both cops & community). "I WAS JUST RIDIN' MY BIKE!"

Okay, so they give me the ticket and then I'm on my way....walking down the hill for the few blocks to my house. As I'm walking...though I'm still pretty annoyed from being inconvenienced in that way....for something that was so minuscule to me...I start to reflect on what just happened. I reluctantly consider that maybe if I hadn't been riding against traffic...and maybe with just one headphone bud as opposed to both...maybe I wouldn't have gotten pulled over and given a ticket. Just maybe. If I hadn't broken the law - regardless of how "small" and insignificant the law was to me - it's possible that I wouldn't've been stopped by pō pō. But I didn't do that. I broke the law. And as a result of breaking the law, I received the due penalty according to the law I broke. Simple. I also thought about how I and others around me - as well meaning as they were - sought to justify myself by comparing what I did to the more "heinous" laws being broken around me. "I'm surely not doing things that are as bad as them." Naw!! And even if that notion were correct, perhaps, morally....the fact still remains that I broke the law which is the standard for order in this particular context. Adherence and execution of said law isn't gauged by anyone else's actions or opinions or popularity or feelings on the matter. It's the law.

Scripture teaches that ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) What that means is that none of us meet the perfect and righteous standard that a perfect and holy God require. He requires that standard because He IS love. Love is perfect. Forgiving. Merciful. Holy. Righteous. Just. His love requires that He be just. And not justice in the sense, model and practice of how we see it demonstrated around us, sometimes. Naw....His justice is PERFECT %100 of the time. Never sullied. Never untrue. Because God is holy, He is the only One qualified to demand that we be holy. He says for us to be holy. (1 Peter 1:13-16) BUT.....holiness is perfection. Anybody know any perfect people??? :-\ I sure don't. The fact is, ALL of humanity has fallen short of God's holy standard. Ain't none of us holy or are able to be. In the words of Lauryn Hill:

"Every man want to act like he's exemptWhen him need to get down on his knees and repentCan't slick talk on the day of judgement"  ~ Lost Ones

I feel sorta funny quoting L.Boogie....but she was right on the money on that one, Jack. We steal when God says don't. We lie when He says don't. We cheat and covet and lust and don't love our neighbor and on and on and on. We are ALL in violation of His law, perpetually. What tends to happen, though...is just like how I sought to justify my actions by comparing my infraction to what other folk were doing around me...the crimes that others were committing around me....humanity inherently does that, too. We're so like children. Our pride says, "Oh, I'm not that bad." "Sure I'm not perfect but I'm not as bad as him/her." We seek to justify our sin by measuring it against other sinners! Wow! Not smart. Yeah...most of us aren't that bad when pit against Osama Bin Laden, Adolf Hitler or what have you. But try that again, against JESUS, fam and lemme know how you do. :-) When judged against the ONLY yard stick that truly counts, not only do we fail....but we fail miserably. WE ALL FAIL. And we're all deserving of the eternal consequences that come with violating a holy, eternal and perfect law.

To go a step further, law breaking was/is never even the real issue. Immorality is not the problem, per se. It was never the problem. Immorality is a SYMPTOM of the problem. What separates us from God is NOT simply ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’. To put it simply: we're not "bad" because we do bad things. On the contrary, we do bad things because we're bad. What separates us from God is spiritual “deadness”. Humanity is spiritually dead...separated from Him. Jesus tells us that our problem is by no means something that can be attained or solved within ourselves or by "self-help" techniques. The REAL issue/problem is within our very souls. SIN IS THE PROBLEM. Christ didn’t come to make bad people good but to make dead people live. Look, the truth is that there are many atheists who live very ‘good’ lives.....who may do many ‘good’ things. It’s true. But the issue then becomes is that ‘goodness’ then the badge of honor to merit some kind of accolade? Christ says, “NOPE”.  We are ALL lost. Our morality will not change us. Jesus gives us the most accurate description of the condition of our hearts: that they are desperately wicked and naturally antithetical to God.

Now...if it ended there....that would be such a bummer...a literal, downer. I mean, really! But because God is as much love & mercy as He is truth & justice, He took on Himself all the punishment and separation that we deserve. In the body of Christ lay our sin and shame. God Himself, was the ONLY suitable sacrifice able to take on and forgive ALL of humanity's sin - past, present and future - AND defeat the curse of spiritual death. We just need to agree with; take on and trust in His suitable sacrifice as our own. If we'd only humble ourselves and recognize our sin - our propensity for "law breaking" - and accept His redemptive gift...we would then be acquitted of the crime that we were/are ALL guilty of. The result of that acquittal is salvation which for the believer manifests itself in love, appreciation and a desire to reflect His love, forgiveness and truth to others.

"Diary of a Mad Christian: A Cross Reference" is available on BarnesandNoble.com & Amazon.com and ALL E-Reader devices (iPad, Kindle & Nook)

Follow Us! twitter.com/MadChrstnDiary
Like Us! facebook.com/DiaryofaMadChristian


"For if we are beside ourselves [mad, as some say], it is for God and concerns Him; if we are in our right mind, it is for your benefit." ~ 2 Corinthians 5:13 (Amplified Bible)