Can a Speeding Ticket Change Your Heart?

Recently I have been teaching through Baptist beliefs in Sunday School. Last week we discussed the idea of individual freedom in regards to belief and church membership. One of the key aspects of a Baptist church is the idea of voluntary association. In some church models, for example the Catholic church, membership is often involuntary. I can think of two kinds of involuntary membership.

First, there is membership based on infant sprinkling. When babies are born to Catholic parents, they are sprinkled and added to the church. This baby has no choice in the matter and via the chrism oil has been inducted into the church. The second is that of coercion in some form. I think specifically of times through history where we see persecution of nonbelievers for the purpose of conversion or even something like Bloody Mary’s reign in the church of England. Consider that all those parishioners were coerced to become more Catholic and give up the protestant leanings of her older brother. But no one asked the congregants what they thought, and in this sense it was involuntary.

We then discussed the problem with coercion. Coercion has no ability to change internal beliefs. It only has the ability to enforce an external behavior on the threat of force (punishment). This is exactly the same issue with the concept of laws. Laws cannot change internal belief at all. They can only enforce external behaviors. They also function to reveal the state of the person through the rules they prescribe.

A Speeding Ticket Changes Behavior not Belief

Consider this illustration. A person is speeding while driving down the road. The posted sign reads 45 mph but the car is traveling 60 mph. Or for my Canadian friends . . . a speed limit of 70 kph but the car is traveling at 100 kph. A police officer gives the driver a ticket (force/punishment) for driving above the speed limit. What happens next?

The extent of the influence of the law is that the driver may now behave according to the standard of the law. This external change benefits the culture and keeps the road safe. But the law does nothing – nor can it – to the beliefs of the driver. In fact, the evidence of this is the presence of speed cameras throughout the city. This is because the law is powerless to change a person’s beliefs. It can only use force on the behavior.

Let’s say the driver says, “I’m not gonna speed anymore, it’s too expensive!” Does this mean the driver has changed their beliefs about speeding? Actually, no. They have changed their beliefs about how much they are willing to risk to speed, but they still don’t believe that speeding is wrong.

The Law, Behavior, and Belief

All my life I have heard that the Mosaic law was powerless to change our beliefs. I knew that Galatians teaches the law was to reveal our need for a savior by showing us our condition. And yet time and time again I would attempt to use the law – Biblical or my own creation – to try to curb my flesh. Time and time again my own threats of punishment or consequences would not do anything for the killing of my flesh. I would make commitments not to sin or else pay a fine. I would set up guard rails and other barriers to keep me from the ability to sin. This is like putting a governor on your car’s engine that only allows you to drive the speed limit. Yes you have stopped speeding and are keeping the standard of the law. But internally you haven’t changed.

The law uses force and force can only change behavior. To change beliefs, I would need something far more powerful than mere rules and penalties. Though these can serve a purpose in the Christian life to teach us about the reality of the world we live in, the law just can’t change the heart.

One Thing the Law Can Do

But the law has one trick up it’s sleeve, one at which it is perhaps the best in it’s field. The law is excellent at revealing the condition of a person’s heart. In fact, if I wanted to know the condition of a person’s heart, I think I know what I would do. I would just make up a silly rule and see how the person responds. Laws often challenge my self-will. Laws often require giving up our deep desires of our heart. As a revealer of the soul, they can be quite helpful.

So for the Christian, the law can help to show us our heart, but it has no power to change out heart. When Paul commands us, John exhorts or, or James directs us, our response will reveal our heart. If we rebel, or complain, or make excuses, then we know that we are arrogant and living in our pride. The only solution is true humility. We must humble ourselves under the hand of God. We must give up our lives as a living sacrifice. We must die to our own desires. We must see that God’s life is the truly good life. All other paths, though appealing to our flesh, are but hollow and empty paths. They promise joy and goodness but can only deliver death.

Galatians 3:24 – So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
James 4:10 – Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Colossians 2:20-23 – ²⁰ If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— ²¹ “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” ²² (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? ²³ These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.