The blue lights flashed behind me and immediately I knew I was in trouble.
I was a young teenage driver and I was doing 60 mph in a 55. I found a safe spot, pulled over and, within seconds, a local officer was standing beside my door. He was angry, and the tone of voice and look on his face made that known very clearly.
“Do you know why I pulled you over?”
“Yes, I do,” I replied. “I was going 60 in a 55, and I apologize.”
“I ought to give you a ticket,” he said, “but I’m in a hurry. From now on, don’t you ever go that slow in the lefthand lane again!”
My jaw fell open, but thankfully I did not say anything. That was my first experience with our somewhat flexible code of law. I had been speeding, disobeying the posted limit and was angrily denounced by an officer of the law for not disobeying it more excessively.
What brings that back to mind is the fact that, just over an hour ago, I was once again in the left lane and had another local officer behind me. I set my cruise control for 70 in a 60 and hoped that would be fast enough to avoid a ticket for going too slow and slow enough to avoid a ticket for going too fast (odd, that).
Very shortly he flashed his headlights at me and I dutifully moved over a lane. Then he sped past me, and an entire line of cars fell in behind him. I joined them.
No, I will not admit how fast he and all of us were going, lest it be counted as a confession admissible in court. But I cannot help but wonder how our law code has arrived at a point where one has to break the law by, say, (hypothetically, of course) 21 mph in order to avoid getting a ticket and stay caught up with an officer leading the pack?
About two years ago I was stopped for going 11 mph over the speed limit in the left lane and was given a verbal warning, this time for speeding.
Thus, what I have learned so far is that five mph over can get you a ticket for going too slow, 21 over is perfectly acceptable, 11 over is too fast, and the posted speed literally means nothing.
So how are we to view the law? In this case, the answer is … I have no idea. I am just glad there are officers out there enforcing it; they do a great job under difficult circumstances, and I have the utmost respect for all of them.
But I do know how to view another law, namely the Old Testament law. Galatians 3:24-25 says, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”
All the Old Testament law was designed as a way to point out man’s unholiness, thus pointing him to the only hope he has for holiness, the Lord Jesus Christ. It was never designed as a means of salvation. Romans 3:20 says, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.” Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Keeping the law in its entirety was impossible; it was both unattainable and, unlike our traffic laws, utterly rigid. Only one person was ever able to do it, and he was able to do it only because he just so happened to be the very Son of God. Having done it, though, he satisfied its righteous demands, gave himself as a sacrifice for we who could not do it, and offered us salvation through what he did on Calvary.
I would love to have told the officer that tonight, but my little Mazda could not keep up with him or anyone else in the pack.
Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, N.C., and the author of several books which are available at wordofhismouth.com. Contact him at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.