The Judge
The Judge
A young man ins brought before a judge for drunk driving. When his name is announced by the bailiff, there’s a gasp in the courtroom-the defendant is the judge’s son! The judge hopes that his son is innocent, but the evidence is irrefutable. He’s guilty.
What can the judge do? He’s caught in a dilemma between justice and love. Since his son is guilty, he deserves punishment. But the judge doesn’t want to punish his son because of his great love for him.
He reluctantly announces the sentence: “Son, you can either pay a $5,000 fine or go to jail.”
The son looks up at the judge and says, “But, Dad, I promise to be good from now on! I’ll volunteer at soup kitchens. I’ll visit the elderly. I’ll even open a home to care for abused children. And I’ll never do anything wrong again! Please let me go!”
At this point the judge asks, “Are you still drunk? You can’t do all of that. But even if you could, your future good deeds can’t change the fact that you’re already guilty of drunk driving.” Indeed the judge realizes that good works cannot cancel bad works. Perfect justice demands that his son be punished for what he has done.
So the judge repeats, “I’m sorry, Son, As much as I’d like to allow you to go, I’m bound by the law. The punishment for this crime is $5,000 or go to jail.”
The son pleads with his father, “But, Dad, you know I don’t have $5,000. There has to be another way to avoid jail!”
The judge stands up and takes off his robe. He walks down from his raised bench and gets down to his son’s level. Standing eye to eye next to his son, he reaches into his pocket, pulls out $5,000, and holds it out. The son is startled, but he understands there’s only one thing he can do to be free-take the money. There’s nothing else he can do. Good works or promises of good works cannot set him free. Only the acceptance of his father’s free gift can save the son from certain punishment.
God is in a situation similar to that of the judge-he’s caught in a dilemma between his justice and his love. Since we’ve all sinned at one time in our lives, God’s infinite justice demands that he punish that sin. Because of his infinite love, God wants to find a way to avoid punishing us.
What’s the only way God can remain just but not punish us for our sins? He must punish a sinless substitute who voluntarily takes out punishment for us (sinless because the substitute must pay for our sins, not his own; and voluntarily because it would be unjust to punish the substitute against his will). Where can God find a sinless substitute? Not from sinful humanity, but only from himself. Indeed, God himself is the substitute. Just as the judge came down from the bench to save his child, God came down from heaven to save you and me from punishment.
Jesus came to offer us a way out of that punishment and to offer us eternal life.
So when Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6), he was not making an arbitrary claim but a statement that reflected the reality of the universe.
Like the father did for his drunkard son, God satisfies his justice by punishing himself for our sins and holding out that payment for each one of us. All we need to do in order to be set free is to accept the gift.
Here’s the problem: just as the father can’t force his son to accept the gift, God can’t force you to accept his gift either.
God loves you so much that he even respects your decision to reject him.
More in the book, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist
