So, as of Monday, face coverings are compulsory on public transport in England. The rules, on the gov.uk website, are crystal clear...

"From 15 June 2020, it is the law that you must wear a face covering when travelling in England on a:

• bus or coach
• train or tram
• ferry or hovercraft or other vessel (I haven't been on a hovercraft for decades!)
• aircraft
• cable car (something I have no desire to go on)

If you do not wear a face covering you will be breaking the law and could be fined £100, or £50 if you pay the fine within 14 days."

Lawbreaking is pretty obvious in this case, though there are some exceptions allowed due to age or health conditions for example.

The first passenger on the first 91 bus I saw heading up Hornsey Road this week was not wearing a face covering and was someone clearly not in one of the exception categories. Perhaps there is some allowance being made for people needing a bit of time to get used to the new law. 

In any case, there is something in us that leans towards lawbreaking. Human beings can be a strange mixture of being sticklers for rules, on the one hand, and yet, on the other, happy to bend and break them, or find loopholes or reasons to excuse ourselves from keeping them. We seem particularly sensitive to others breaking rules, yet curiously insensitive to doing so ourselves (I had a good reason...it was harmless...I only did it once...nobody else could see...I don't care...this rule is bad...).

God has written the requirements of His law on our hearts (Romans 2:15). God's law can be summed up in the crystal clear words of Jesus, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind...Love your neighbour as yourself" (Matthew 22:37-38). It's not new and we don't need time to get used to it. For all our individuality, there is one thing we certainly all hold in common which is that this is a law we fall well short of keeping. We don't even come close. Our consciences bear witness to this and sometimes even accuse us. We need to listen to our consciences. God has given us this faculty as a sort of sense of true right and wrong, an innate awareness of His law. We may try to suppress our consciences but can succeed only to our own cost. In the end, whatever we may say about it, God will bring all our lawbreaking to light in judgement (Romans 2:16), and no exceptions will be allowed at all. The law cannot forgive lawbreakers, only demand that the penalty be paid, and that penalty is crystal clear too, "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). But, in the Gospel we discover that God, the lawgiver, has made it possible for lawbreakers to be forgiven freely! Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty on behalf of all who believe in Him for forgiveness and life. "The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" Romans 6:23). Good news indeed in bad times.