Demerits

She was a new teacher.
She was very young.
She had just graduated from college and this was her first teaching job.

A high school math class filled with juniors was her charge.
A higher level math class.
You would think the students would have had some modicum of wisdom.

Math was not my strong subject.
When tests were returned, I would commiserate with the person that sat in front of me.
We would each get a high “C” on our test, possibly a “B” but never an “A”.

There was a pocket of students in the front of the room who just seemed to get it.
They were the “math and science guys” and they usually got “A’s”.
This new, young teacher taught a few math classes.
The young man, that was to be my husband five years later, had this teacher as well.

We were not in the same class, however.
He was in class with another pocket of math and science students.
“A’s ” all around, it seemed.

Except this pocket of students and the new, young teacher did not see eye to eye.
They “knew it all” and she was “young and inexperienced.”
Not true in reality, but true to them.

They knew the material, they finished their work, and they got all the right answers.
They had to sit in the desk but they didn’t want to be there.
So, they decided to read the newspaper in class.

She was sweet and so very young and these “smart guys” made that class difficult for her.
She did what any teacher would have done under the circumstances.
She gave them demerits…lots of demerits.
Smart guys who never got in any trouble, now had detention and rightfully so.

He and I were not officially dating then, but the junior prom was coming up.
Having demerits and detention prevented you from going to the prom.
We had gone to the sophomore dance together and I was hoping to go to our prom as well.

I was a member of the student council in my high school.
A council member could represent a student in circumstances like these.
I was willing to do that.
This was the one and only time I called a boy on the phone…to offer my help.

If you need representation, I will represent you, so you will be able go to the prom.
But not with me, of course…with whomever you want to take!
I was sinking fast and rambling a bit as well.

He thanked me politely, but I never knew what he was thinking.
Going…not going?
With me…with someone else?

When you were on Student Council, you had to serve in the school.
I happened to be given the post outside the vice principal’s office.
I was on call for whatever needed to be done during my study hall.
I made up my mind that I would ask about the possibility of leniency in this case.

When I arrived on Monday, after my weekend phone call, I was called into his office.
I just wanted you to know that a certain young man came to see me today. He wanted me to allow him to go to the prom. I usually don’t agree to such things under these circumstances. I asked him who he was going with and he told me you! I told him that under THOSE circumstances, he could go!

I was thrilled that it was important enough for him to ask for leniency.
I was delighted that the vice principal said yes.
He still had to go to detention, but the prom was allowed.

I then asked the vice principal if I could do something out of the ordinary.
The vice principal said yes to me, too.
I got an empty demerit slip and filled it out.
The name filled in; the amount of demerits in the millions.
The offense: Failing to officially ask me to the prom.

The rest is history.
We graduated high school and went off to college; he to Georgia, I commuted near home.
We were married the October after our college graduation.

Aren’t you glad that God doesn’t operate on a demerit system?
A system where all the bad things you do end up as ominous marks on a clipboard.
The demerits are deserved but God doesn’t work that way.

God operates on a system of grace.

The vice principal extended grace that day, which led to restoration.
The person that was being taken to the prom caused him to agree to the request.

It is no different for us.
We have accumulated millions of demerits…sins against a Holy God.
Our debt is insurmountable.

God is holy and cannot look at sin.
We cannot stand before Him with our demerits in our hands and expect any favor.
As we stand before God, we stand on our horrible record.
We should get what our sin deserves.

If we have trusted in Jesus for our salvation, we do not stand before God alone.
It matters WHO we stand with.
When God looks at an unbeliever, He sees the sin; the demerits in hand.
When God looks at a believer, He sees His Son.

As believers, we stand before a Holy God covered in the righteousness of His Son.
We look at Jesus and see that He is holding our demerits.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Our sin was placed on Him.
We are clean; we are forgiven.
We are justified: JUST AS IF WE NEVER SINNED.
Just as if we never had any demerits.

I asked him who he was going with and he told me YOU!
I told him that under THOSE circumstances, he could go!

God the Father will ask us why He should allow us into heaven.
We will tell Him because we are going in with Jesus.
And that makes all the difference.