My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. - 1 John 2.1

One woman claimed that yes, she was selling food on the street without a permit, but that was all right because her folding table was not a food court. A man admitted that he had parked his car illegally, but argued that everyone else on the street did so as well. One man said he was pretty sure he had not been drinking from an open container in public, although he was drunk and couldn't remember anything that happened that day.

If a New York police officer issues you a citation for various non-criminal offenses, you can appeal it to something called the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, or OATH. There is one in each borough of the metropolis. It's a rather intimate process: a judge (sans robe and gavel) meets you face to face across a small table in a tiny room. The judge hears your explanation and either enforces or dismisses the charge. It works just over forty percent of the time, mostly because a lot of the excuses don't wash. Most people don't bring a lawyer. 

Yes, my yard was full of trash, but it wasn't mine. Yes, I was drinking in public, but I had almost finished the beer when the cop came along. Yes, my bodega sold cigarettes to an underage patron, but the cops sent him in there in the first place. 

Innocence is one thing. Excuses are another. 

Scripture makes it clear that we will all face God's version of the OATH. Our Judge will not be informally attired, but swathed in the blood-stained robe of his perfect righteousness. True, he will not hold a gavel; instead, a he clenches a double-edged long sword between his teeth. But it will be intimate: One on one we hear the record read out. We may offer excuses, but cannot justify ourselves. As Adam and Eve learned to their grief, peer-pressure or "the devil made me do it" won't wash. The conviction rate in that court will not be forty, or even ninety-nine, but one hundred percent.

The difference is that our Judge has sworn a different kind of OATH - a promise to cover our transgressions in his perfect innocence. He has done our time, paid our fine, taken the heat. In that court, we can bring a lawyer who works pro bono; moreover, our Judge is also our Lawyer. He will not plead our innocence, but his. He will not ask the court to dismiss the penalty, but will argue that it has already been paid and produce his pierced body as a receipt. He's never lost a case.

Don't make an excuse; repent. Don't plead extenuating circumstances; plead the extended arms of Christ on the cross.