“CASE DISMISSED!” T he story is told of a woman who received a phone call late one night from the emergency room of a hospital stating that her dad had had a stroke. She hastily threw on some clothes and began frantically driving the 200 miles to where her father was. As she was going through one small town, she looked in her rear view mirror, and there was a police car chasing her. Because she was going so fast, the officer didn’t merely give her a ticket - he arrested her. The next day she appeared before the county judge. As the judge looked over the officer’s report, he said, “Lady, what were you thinking? Do you realize you were going almost 50 miles per hour above the speed limit!? Your fine is either $300 or three days in jail.” The young woman said, “Oh no, your honor, you don’t understand. My father is dying. I can’t possibly spend three days in jail, and I’m sorry, but I left in such a hurry that I left my purse on the kitchen counter. I have no money.” The judge said, “I’m sorry too, young lady, because the law says you must pay $300 or spend three days in jail.” Well, the woman was crushed and she began to weep. For some reason it touched the old judge’s heart. To the surprise of everyone in the court, he stood up, stepped down from the bench, walked over, took off his robe, put on his sports coat, walked around in front of the bench beside the woman, pulled out his checkbook, wrote a check for $300, and laid it on the bench. Then he put his robe back on, and resumed his seat. He said, “Young lady, the law says you must pay $300 or spend three days in jail, but I see that someone has paid the fine for you. Case dismissed!” This is what God did for us.Whenwe stood condemned, without hope, deserving hell, God took off his robe of deity, put on a robe of humanity, became a man in the person of Jesus Christ, and died to pay a fine we could never pay (Isaiah 53:4-6,11; Romans 5:6). According to scripture, Jesus is both God and man. He has two natures: the human and the divine (Philippians 2:6-7; Romans 1:3-4). If we accept his offer of forgiveness, when we stand before God as Judge, we will be standing before the one who loved us and paid the fine for us: “Case dismissed!” (Romans 4:6-7; 8:1). d
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