Is There A Problem Officer?

  All men should be treated fairly under the law. Or is there room for leeway for the right person under certain circumstances?

  Consider the following:

  It’s a summer evening.  A police officer patrolling at the corner of a busy street in a major metropolitan area. Then a vehicle goes zooming by way to fast to be safe. The officer pulls him over. The case is easy, right? Speeding while endangering others. Definitely a ticket, and good stern warning from the officer.

  But what if I told you the driver was a military veteran? But so was the policeman? What if the diver was a high ranking military officer and the officer was just a rookie?  What if the cop was a black man and the driver white? What if I told you it was the early 70’s?  The early 1870’s? What if the policeman didn’t at first recognize the driver but a soon as he came face to face he sees he was a man of great importance? Like the president of the United States?

  What should he do?

  This isn’t a hypothetical case, it was a very true story

  It all happened in Washington DC in 1872. William West a former slave that had fought for the Union had recently been added as one of the capital’s new black police officers.  When he saw a horse and carriage speed by him he ordered him to stop. I wasn’t till he had already started writing the ticket did he see the man face driving, former general and current President Ulysses S. Grant.

  West thought about backing off but told him, “I am very sorry. Mr. President, to have to do it, for you are the chief of the nation and I am nothing but a policeman, but duty is duty, sir”, And Grant agreed saying it was the right thing to do.  Grant went immediately to the station and paid the $20 fine but nevertheless earning the caveat of being the only sitting president in history to be arrested a speeding ticket.

  Romans 3:23 tells us that, ”all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. That means we all stand guilty of a crime against God. Should we expect God to “let us off” because of we of our service or our status? Should we be able to do something that we would think others should be punished for?

  Make no mistake, God doesn’t let the guilty escape judgment. But he does provide forgiveness. It is Christ that pays our fine!

being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;  for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:24-26 

  

Faith in Christ Jesus isn’t a get out of jail free card. It is, however, the only way we can be freed from sin. God justice and his mercy are both exemplified in Jesus Christ.