She was on her way home after a really bad day.  She slowed down but didn’t stop all the way at a stop sign.  The lights lit up in her rear view mirror and her heart sank as she realized she was being pulled over.  Her first reaction before the officer even walked up to the car was, "I don’t deserve this!"  Before long the officer is at her window.  She’s thinking how her husband often would get a break when pulled over but she somehow always managed to get written a ticket.

Legally, it doesn’t matter if you’re going 1 mile an hour over the speed limit or 50.  Whether you blow the stop sign at 20 mph or just barely roll through, breaking the law is breaking the law and technically an officer can write a ticket for any infraction no matter how small.  He knows that and when faced with her, "I don’t deserve this’ attitude he feels obligated to prove to her that she does deserve it by giving her a ticket.

Even though the officer has every right to give her the ticket, he’s also capable of giving breaks to those who admit to their violation and show some regret for doing wrong and some respect to him.  She would have gotten a lot further in being shown mercy if she would have at least admitted that she did violate a traffic law.  Now extremely frustrated she went home and wrote an obscenity in black magic marker across the ticket.

The next morning, feeling foolish for her hasty, emotional response, she tried to white-out the words without much success.  She mailed in the ticket anyway with the payment, still angry about receiving it but wishing she hadn’t written the obscenity.

She would have been very grateful if someone would have been able to come along and take that ticket for her.  If someone would have volunteered to stand in for her and pay the price of the ticket, and take all the anger and embarrassment that went along with it.

Someone has done something similar to that for us.  All of us have been given a ticket.  Because we’ve all violated the laws of God.  We all have a ticket to pay.  It doesn’t matter if we’re ‘not that bad.’  Sin is sin, and the price for all of it is the same---eternal death.  If it’s 1 mile an hour over or 50 we still have a ticket to pay with a terrible price tag.

Thank God He provided a way to show us mercy.  He sent His Son Jesus Christ to take the punishment for our sin.  When Jesus died on the cross He took the punishment for all our sin-no matter how big or how small.  By believing in Him we receive God’s mercy and forgiveness.

He paid the price for our ticket.  As we believe in Him it’s stamped, "Paid in Full".  If we try to justify ourselves, or get angry about the reality of our sin, it’s just an obscenity written in black magic marker. And once we die, it is too late.  Today is the day and now is the time to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:13)