Three Oakland Officers Murdered, One Listed In Grave Condition

Three Oakland police officers were killed and one was gravely wounded yesterday in two related incidents. The assailant was subsequently killed by officers.

My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the slain and wounded officers and the greater Oakland law enforcement family. As a retired deputy sheriff I, too, mourn their loss. Although I did not know these officers, they are part of my family.

I also extend my thoughts and prayers to family members of the murderer. While justice for the murderer was appropriately swift and certain (Romans 13:1-5), he likely leaves behind at least some grieving family members who, unlike him, are law-abiding citizens.

As I read the San Francisco Chronicle article about the incident, I was drawn to the quoted statement of a citizen by the name of Mark Green who lives in the area where the tragedy happened. Green was quoted as saying, "It's sad. I'll tell you this much, I'm going to church tonight."

I don't presume to know Mr. Green's spiritual condition. Maybe he's a born again follower of Jesus Christ. Maybe he's a religious man. Maybe he doesn't ascribe to any particular faith tradition. What drew me to Mr. Green's statement is the important reality it expressed. When tragedy strikes, whether or not a person is directly involved, such events often cause people to think about their own mortality.

As a 20-year law enforcement veteran, I can assure you that while the slain and wounded officers planned to go home at the end of their shift, they lived daily with the reality that the next traffic stop or call for service could be their last. Tragically and sadly, that stark reality came to fruition yesterday in the lives of these brave and noble Oakland officers.

What about you? Where do your thoughts take you when you hear about tragedies like this or when tragedy strikes closer to home? Do you simply shrug your shoulders with cold indifference and say, "oh well"? Or do you place yourself in the tragedy, trying to determine in your mind what those directly involved were thinking and feeling during their last moments in this life? Do you ever find yourself asking, "Where are they now?"

If you are the first person, then you are either a liar or your conscience is so seared that you may be beyond help. If you are the second person and your conscience is functioning as it should, then I would like to share something with you.

Most people, when they hear of or experience loss cannot help but to think, "What if that had been me?" Tragedy brings us face-to-face with the reality that ten out of ten people die. Every one of us started the dying process the moment we were born. Our existence, however, does not cease when our physical life draws to a close, whether that happens suddenly and unexpectedly or after a long and seemingly fruitful life.

The Bible teaches that our life is but a vapor--a mist that is here today and gone tomorrow. However, our soul lives on forever. The Bible also says that it is appointed for a person to die once, and after that comes the judgment. You will stand before God when you leave this life and He will judge your every thought, word, and deed. The standard by which God will judge you will not be your own standard built upon your own perceived goodness. He will not weigh the good things you think you have done against the bad things you have done--many of which you have likely minimized and justified in your mind.

The standard by which God will judge you is summarized in the Ten Commandments--His Moral Law.

If you have ever told a lie, God will judge you to be a liar. If you have ever stolen anything, God will judge you to be a thief. If you have ever taken His holy name in vain, God will judge you to be a blasphemer. If you have ever looked at someone other than a spouse and entertained a sexual, lustful thought, God will judge you to be an adulterer. If you have ever been angry with another person without cause; if you have ever hated anyone; if you have ever so much as called someone a fool or an idiot, then God will judge you to be a murderer.

If you still think you can circumvent the Law of God by doing good works or by holding on to the false notion that you are a good person; if you think you can make yourself right with God and enter heaven by meriting God's favor, then to accomplish this all you have to do is be absolutely perfect in thought, word, and deed from birth to death.

So, how have you done so far?

When you die and stand before God, if He finds you guilty of breaking His Law so much as once, He will punish your sin. And the punishment God has ascribed for sin is eternity in hell. God will punish your sin because He is holy, righteous, just, and good.

I hope the thought of standing before God on the Day of Judgment clothed only in the filthy rags of your sin and self-righteousness concerns you. I hope the thought of spending eternity in hell as the just punishment for your sins against God frightens you. I hope you care more for your eternal soul than your fleeting physical existence. If so, then your conscience is at work, and that's a good thing.

Here's the good news.

God has provided only one way to escape His just and holy wrath. It's not by being religious. It's not be trying to be a good person. And it's not by ignoring the realities of who God is and what He requires of you. Your only hope is this.

Two thousand years ago, God the Father sent His Son to earth in the person of Jesus Christ--fully God and fully man, yet without sin. Unlike you and me, Jesus never once transgressed the Law of God in thought, word, or deed. He was perfect. He was the God-Man, the sinless Lamb of God. He was born of a virgin, just as Isaiah the prophet said He would be, 750 years before Jesus' birth.

Having lived the perfect, sinless life, Jesus voluntarily went to the cross. He suffered and died a horrific and bloody death on the cross, shedding His innocent blood. In doing so, He took upon Himself the punishment you deserve for your sins against God. God the Father poured out His just and holy wrath against sin upon His innocent Son. Jesus then forever defeated sin and death when He rose from the dead three days later. He is alive today and He will return at a time of the Father's choosing.

God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness. And what He commands of you is that you repent and turn away from your sin. He commands that you submit to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Jesus said that unless a person is born again they cannot see the kingdom of God. If God causes you to be born again (literally born from above) and extends to you the free gift of eternal life that only He can give, then as a result you will repent and you will receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

On the cross, that ghastly instrument of torture and death, a great exchange took place for those who God draws to Himself and to whom He extends the precious gifts of repentance and faith. Jesus literally takes their place of judgment. For the sake of those who repent and believe, God the Father made His Son who knew no sin to be sin on their behalf, so that in Jesus they might become the righteousness of God. Instead of being seen by God clothed only in the filthy rags of sin, as a result of Jesus Christ's finished work on the cross and His glorious resurrection the born again follower of Christ is seen by God as clothed in the beautiful garments of Jesus Christ's righteousness.

My hope and prayer for you is that you will repent, turn from your sin, and believe the gospel. My hope and prayer is that God would allow that great exchange to occur in your life--that you will spend eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. My hope and prayer is that God will not give you what you deserve for your sins against Him--eternity in hell.

Obey the commands of God! Repent and believe the gospel!

If God--the only true God who is gracious, merciful, kind, and loving--saves you, obey what God commands of the true follower of Jesus Christ. Be baptized as a testimony of your faith in Jesus Christ. Baptism is not a work that leads to salvation. Baptism is a fruit of salvation--something a Christian does after they have received the free gift of eternal life.

Read the Bible--the Word of God--and obey what it says.

Find a good church where the Bible is taught verse-by-verse and become an active, growing member of the Body of Christ.