This past spring, when my wife and I went to Britain, I knew that driving there would be quite a challenge. Not only do you have to drive on the left side of the road; and not only to you have to decipher the lingo on the road signs -- anybody know what a "dual carriageway" is? -- but also you have to learn the rules of etiquette at the numerous traffic circles, called "roundabouts". And most of all, you have to learn how to park.
Now when I say parking is a challenge, I am not referring to backing a five foot wide car into a five foot two inch parking space, while sitting on the right side of the car, remembering how to work a clutch and a gearshift. No, that was a piece of cake. When I say that parking is a challenge, what I mean is finding a spot in which parking is legal and available! Ancient roads, barely wide enough for one car, let alone two, make parking scarce in many places.
And so I could hardly believe our good fortune when we arrived in the city of Worcester. Hard by the great cathedral of Worcester and dangerously close to the outlet shops of the Royal Worcester China factory there was an available spot, ripe for the taking, the only caution the sign which said, "Two hours limit."
Hey, no problem. We can easily see a cathedral, visit a couple of other historic sites, and shop for china to our heart’s content, all in two hours, right? Wrong! We could have shopped to my heart’s content in two minutes, but I was clearly not in charge of the calendar that day.
The result was that when we came back to the car there was a gentle pink greeting for us from the Royal Borough of Worcester, demanding some 15 pounds for overstaying our welcome. That’ s about 25 dollars in real money.
All right. What shall I do? I am an American, soon to go back. How would they ever collect? I have a rented car. How will they ever trace me? What shall I do? I’ll tell you what I did. I tore up the ticket. Tore it up in little pieces, this missive from the law, and forgot all about it, secure in the belief that I had scoffed at the law and saved my twenty-five dollars.
In July, however, there came a letter from the car rental agency. It was written in a scolding tone, sort of like, “You Yanks think you can come over here and do what you jolly well please." And on my Visa card account the agency placed not only the fine, but also the penalty for not paying the fine, a service charge for their trouble, and, I think maybe a charge for wear and tear on international relations. The twenty-five dollars I had saved now cost me ninety dollars.
Tearing up the ticket gave me a rush while I was doing it. I felt above the law. I didn’t believe that the consequences of lawlessness would ever catch up with me. But I ended up paying extra for my attitude.
Tearing up the ticket on God gets the same result. Sin may very well give you a rush while you’re involved in it. You just can’t imagine that God would go to the trouble to deal with a little sin here, another little sin there. But scores of us know, if we but admit it, that, as Scripture says, "your sins will find you out." And somehow it all ends up with a high, high price. Tearing up the ticket on God brings a penalty called guilt and a price called shame.
But what if God Himself were to tear up the ticket? What if our God were to say, "I know you broke my law. I know you scoffed at the way of life I have commanded. And there is a penalty attached to that, there is a high price. But I’m going to tear up the ticket. It’s gone, it doesn’t exist, I don’t even see it." What would you think about that?
God does have plans to tear up the ticket. At least that’s what He told the prophet Jeremiah more than 600 years before Christ. God told Jeremiah that He knew that His people had broken His law. But there was a new plan, and someday that new plan would be in place, and it would mean that God would just tear up the ticket.
I
How can God tear up the ticket and remove the penalty? The key is that He will create a relationship with us. He is going to establish a relationship with us, so that we will know Him personally, and that will make breaking His law a whole different matter.
"I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people … they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. "
You see, one of the reasons we have in our society today such a breakdown of law and order is that we also have a breakdown of community, a breakdown of relationships. People are far less likely to abuse their family members, their friends, their neighbors than they are total strangers. I do not say that never happens; of course it does. But we will most likely feel a deeper sense of responsibility toward those with whom we have a relationship.
Take a child or a teenager who has disobeyed his or her parents. That child has violated the parent’s instructions, but tries to hide that disobedience. Why? Because the child is afraid of punishment? Maybe. But also because the child down deep does not want to hurt Mom and Dad. Most of us have seen kids break into tears when their disobedience was discovered, and even when no punishment was expected. The reason is that the relationship mattered more than anything else. Hurting Mom and Dad felt terrible.
And so our God moves toward tearing up the ticket on our lawlessness by reaching out to establish a personal, intimate relationship with us. He is not so much concerned with whether you know the law as He is about whether you know Him. He is not so much wrapped up in whether you are a sophisticated student of moral principles as He is in whether you know Him and love Him. Our God is concerned with our relationship to Him.
Remember, too, that relationship is not the same thing as information.
Our God’s concern is not finally with how much Bible you know or how literate your theology is. Our God’s interest is not so much in your theological vocabulary or your psychological understanding, important though all of these things are. The issue is, “Do you know Him? Are you in a close and intimate, day-by-day personal fellowship with Him? Is prayer as much a part of your diet as the corn flakes and the morning paper? Do you know Him?”
"I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people … for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more."
When you know God as Creator and as friend, you’ll discover you want to live for Him. You want to live His law. And you’ll find that He will tear up the ticket, He will take away that nagging sense of guilt and that shame.
II
But how does God get this done? How does He get close to us and create an intimate relationship with us? What will it take to make this new covenant, this new relationship? How can He draw us near close, so that we will live in such a way that He can tear up the ticket on our disobedience?
This Jeremiah saw only dimly. This Jeremiah could see only from afar. He knew it would happen, He saw that such a day would come, but little could Jeremiah discern it. But you and I know how God has done it.
The mystery that grasps us as Christians is that our God chose to pour Himself into one solitary life, the life of a man named Jesus, born of woman, raised in an obscure village in Galilee, in an outpost of the Empire. You and I dare to believe that in that one the infinite became finite, the remote became near, the distant became close. You and I dare to believe that in Jesus we do know God. We know God not just because we have information about Him; that we had already. We know God not just because we know His will and His law. Those were written on tablets of stone long ago.
But in Jesus the Christ we come to know God because God in infinite mercy chooses to become one of us. He accepts the limitations of our humanity, He identifies with our struggles. God becomes man in order to understand how we could have gotten away from Him. And in love He reaches out and does something unthinkable to bring us back to Himself.
What is the unthinkable? What is this incredible thing our God does in order to tear up the tickets and forgive and forget our sin? The cross.
In Jesus the Christ He goes to the cross and dies. He breaks His own body and sheds His own blood, and the penalty which should have been ours He pays. The price we know full well we owe but had hoped we could dodge, He accepts. He pays. The point is not that you and I get off cheap and easy. The point is that this one who loves us so takes care of our deepest need. He changes our very heart, he changes our thinking.
Now when we see what our sin costs God, we don’t want any part of it any more. We come to hate that sin which once was so attractive. We come to abhor all the little tricks we used to play with God’s law. And for us there is no longer any interest in seeing whether we can get away with something. It’s no fun any more to think about how you can get around this God.
For when you see the cross, and when you know that your brother, your friend, this Christ Jesus, has thrown Himself on that cross, all for you, then you don’t want to cheat any more. The law of God has been written on your heart, etched indelibly by the blood of Christ.
"The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant … not like the covenant that they broke … but I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts … for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest … for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more."
"When the hour came, he took his place at the table … he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, ’Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’ Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ’This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. ’ And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. ’"
Tear up the ticket on your guilt, for there is one who knows you and will forgive you.
Tear up the ticket on your shame, for there is one who knows all about you and chooses to remember your sin no more.
Tear up the ticket on the penalties you know you owe, for these is one named Jesus who paid it all.
Tear up the ticket on your bad conscience, for as God has become one of us, He has so loved us that while we were yet sinners He would die for us.
Tear up the ticket on your disappointments, for in the one called Jesus there is a companion for the journey and a friend without peer.
Break the bread, pour the cup, and tear up the ticket. God has claimed you and redeemed you. You are His own. You are free.
