Is that Roman?
a Saturday Story
“Is that Roman?” he shouted.
I turned toward the voice and saw a young man. He had squeezed his upper body through the restaurant drive-through window and was now hanging precariously, head and torso over hot asphalt and body hidden behind brick and mortar. I had just parked my truck and was locking the tool bins up before I went inside to meet my siblings and Mom for lunch.
“What did you say?” I replied.
“There, on the back of your truck. Is that Roman or something?” he elaborated while grinning and pointing to the back of my truck.
“Oh! Give me a minute and I’ll come over there and tell you.”
He was pointing to the vinyl lettering on the back of my truck cap. My grandson, Andrew, had similarly asked with more candor, a few weeks prior, “Paw Paw, what’s that gibberish on the back of your truck?”
The gibberish or Roman, depending on your own guesswork, reads, “Simul Justus et Pecator.”
I finished locking things up and walked across the parking lot to where the young man was anxiously awaiting my explanation. “It’s not Roman,” I said without a hint of condescension because I believe he was thinking Greek, one of the languages of the Romans. “It’s Latin,” I continued.
“I knew it,” he interrupted. “I knew that wasn’t any normal construction guy’s truck,” smiling even more broadly as if he has won a bet with someone in the kitchen whom I couldn’t see.
I laughed. “Can I tell you what it means?”
“Sure!”
“It can be translated in English as ‘simultaneously just and a sinner.’ It means that, as a person who has put their faith in Christ and His death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sin, I am now forgiven and my standing before God is as one who is just. And even though that is true, I am still a sinner as long as I am in this life. I still struggle with temptation and I still fail, but even then, my standing before God is as one who is righteous because of Jesus’ sacrifice for me.”
“That’s awesome!” he responded.
When I got this truck commercial cap, I did something I had not done over the previous decade and a half. I ordered vinyl lettering to advertise my business. I wanted something more though. Something other than business information. I wanted some sort of witness to Christ and the gospel, but I didn’t want it to be a “use me because I am a Christian” sort of thing. So, I settled on Latin for the back and sides.
The back says, “Simul Justus et Pecator,” and both sides read “Coram Deo.”
Why Latin? For the reason I just illustrated. I wanted something that most people would have to ask me about if they wanted to know. I wanted something that would lead to a fuller conversation, something a “Christians aren’t perfect just forgiven” sticker wouldn’t do.
I don’t have people lined up to talk to me about it, but I have been engaged in several conversations. Every one of them has been conversations that other people have engaged me in. In other words, they opened the door and asked the question.
Mission accomplished and ongoing.
Love it!