The flashing lights caught my eye in my rear-view mirror this week. Yep, the police kind. I had just dropped off my middle one to school and my oldest and I were in en route to the High School. There’s a small school zone on this street that I always forget about and my heavy foot was noticed. I remained calm and told Catherine to get my license and insurance card ready as I made my way to the side of the road. I have never in my history of driving been given a warning, so my mind was already set on getting the ticket. I WAS GUILTY! As the police officer approached my window, I rolled it down with a small smile on my face. She asked me if I knew why she had pulled me over and I said, “I was going too fast wasn’t I?” She said,”Yes ma’am, where are you headed?” I continued to answer her questions and she took my information back to her patrol car while we waited.

My mind was busy thinking of a million things…why was I going so fast, I wasn’t in a hurry, how much is this going to cost, how do I tell Ryan, now I am going to be late and as each thought continued I grew upset at myself. The officer made her way back to my car just in time to rescue me from my thoughts. She handed me back my license and asked for a good telephone number where I could be reached. She typed it in her hand held device and printed out the slip of paper where I had to sign. She then uttered these words, “I am going to issue you a warning today, but I want you to slow down from now on.” I was so grateful! She had just pardoned me and showed me grace. WOW!

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, my sinful nature.” Romans 7:15-17
Paul understood very well what it meant to live with sinful nature and reveals to us some astounding truths in chapter 7. The footnote of my bible says this, “No one in the world is innocent; no one deserves to be saved – not the pagan who doesn’t know God’s laws, not the Christian or Jew who knows them and tries to keep them. All of us must depend totally on the work of Christ for our salvation. We can not earn it by our good behavior.” 

This is hard for us to swallow isn’t it? We are not good enough to earn our own salvation. It came in the form of a gift from God. He sent His son who came in OUR LIKENESS but had NO SIN to die for OUR SIN. God CONDEMNED SIN in sinful man through the work of Christ Jesus! PRAISE THE LORD! (These are notes that I took from Pastor John Free’s message just this past Sunday…God’s timing is so good.) Then we read the BEST NEWS in chapter 8! Are you ready for it…this one sentence overwhelms me. “Therefore, there is now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me FREE from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1-2

Friends, this is GOOD NEWS! We as believers are pardoned everyday by an ALL LOVING FAITHFUL God. We don’t have to be good enough. JESUS IS BETTER! We sang these words on Sunday. My eyes closed and my palms open as I repeated them in AWE of HIM! Try it, I shared the song with you below. I want you to rest in this peace today knowing that our Jesus is BETTER than ALL! This truth stirs in me to do better, to follow the law as much as I can, with His help, so that others can see Him in me. I hope this truth does the same for you! There is nothing sweeter to me than to think someone is watching us and seeing our HOLY and LOVING God through us and they find Him and are no longer condemned in their own sin but are saved! We get to be a part of His Kingdom building in the here and now. How exciting!!!  #gloryup