Guilty Before the Law

GUILTY BEFORE THE LAW

In one of his sermons, the preacher, AC Dixon, told of an incident that took place in Brooklyn, N.Y. USA.

A detective who had been looking for a local citizen finally tracked him down in a drugstore. As the man began to make his purchase, the officer laid his hand on the citizen’s shoulder and said, ‘You’re under arrest come with me!” Stunned, the man demanded, “What did I do?”

The detective calmly replied, “You know what you did. You escaped from the Albany penitentiary several years ago. ‘You went west, got married, and then came back here to live. We’ve been watching for you since you returned.” Quietly the man admitted, “That’s true, but I was sure you’d never find me. Before you take me in, could we stop by my house so I can talk to my family?” The officer agreed. When they got to his home, the man looked at his wife and asked, “Haven’t I been a kind husband and a good father? Haven’t I worked hard to make a living?”

His wife answered, “Of course you have, but why are you asking me these questions?”

Her husband then proceeded to explain what had happened and that he was now under arrest. He apparently had hoped that his record as an exemplary husband and father would impress the officer. He may well have been an exemplary husband, but that did not change the fact that he was an escaped criminal. Though he was ‘right’ with his family, he was all wrong with the state of New York.

We may well be exemplary citizens and we may well live an upright life, but we are all felons in God’s sight We have all broken God’s law and fallen short of His glory. We all stand guilty before God, and our only hope is not to hope that our good deeds will cancel out our sins. There is only one thing that can wash away our sins, nothing but the blood of Jesus. lt is only through faith In Jesus Christ, that we can be acquitted of our sins.