Where our ugliness meets forgiveness and power

Have you ever observed the behavior of another person and thought how rude, unthoughtful, embarrassing, foolish or ugly the behavior looked?

This happened to me recently. I was in a store and saw a woman talking to her husband like he was a child. She was noticeably angry with him and she wasn't hiding it from him or anyone else.

Almost at the same time I thought how rude, embarrassing and unloving her behavior was, I heard a gentle whisper in my heart say, "you don't always speak kindly to your husband."

I was convicted.

I have observed this same behavior in my children. They will point out the bad behavior of each other while they struggle with acting the same way at times. When they see it in someone else, it's ugly and shameful, but they don't readily recognize that same behavior in themselves.

The Word of God says:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:22-25)

Looks (parakypto): look carefully into, inspects curiously

Perseveres (parameno): stays beside, always near

Forget (epilesmone): forgetful, neglect, no longer caring for

*Greek words in parenthesis

The perfect law of liberty is the Word of God. Jesus, the Word, became flesh and lived as a man. This is Who we should look at.

Jesus said,

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17)

Jesus is the fulfillment of the scriptures; the One the Old Testament points to. He is the only one who ever did or will obey God’s law perfectly.

Jesus said,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,”

Jesus came to give liberty to mankind. Our freedom from oppression and slavery to sin came through His death and resurrection. He willingly received the punishment we deserved and God's wrath was poured out on Him instead of us. HE is liberty for anyone who believes in Him alone for salvation.

As I was thinking about our tendency as human beings to see the flaws and failures of others, the above scripture in James came to mind.

The Forgetful Man

The first man looks at his natural face in a mirror, walks away and forgets what he looks like.

When we get into a habit of looking at others flaws and failures, we tend to see the ugliness of their sin and become blind to or forget about our own.

Almost without even thinking about it, we see ourselves as better. We think, "I would never do that!". We become like the Pharisee that stood in the temple praying, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' (Luke 18:11-12)

When the Pharisee looked at the tax collector, the tax collector's sin was ugly and repulsive. Measured up to the tax collector, the Pharisee thought he looked pretty good. He was thanking God that he wasn't like someone else yet utterly blind to his repulsive self righteousness and pride. He forgot that God resists the proud and draws close to those with a humble heart.

We become like the first man when we hear the Word of God, but then use other people as our measuring stick. We forget what the Word of God says about our own ugly sin and get really good at spotting others sin. Or maybe like the Pharisee, we start to brag about the way we live or the things we do. We lift ourselves up and in the same breath tear others down, all while "thanking" God.

Like the first man, we will fail living like this. When we build ourselves up by looking down on others we miss out. Our own ugliness has less of a chance to come face to face with the forgiveness and transforming power the perfect law of liberty offers.

The Seeing Man

The second man looks into the perfect law of liberty AND perseveres. This man intently and curiously inspects the Word of God for a lifetime. He remains in the Word. He recognizes that Jesus is the fulfillment of scripture and his only source of liberty. This man doesn't grow neglectful or lose his care for the Word of God.

When we intently fix our eyes on Jesus and curiously inspect the Word of God, it serves as a perfect mirror. We see the perfection and holiness of God and how we fall short of His glory. We see the depth of our need for Him, not just for salvation, but for a lifetime of sanctification. We see that though we've grown in obedience, there will always be room for us to grow and need for us to repent.

We see His transforming power in areas of our lives that were dead and lifeless. We see His mighty hand molding us and shaping us to be who He has created and gifted us to be. We see that without Him we can do nothing and it is only by His grace and the power of His Spirit working in us that we can obey His Word.

We see that God is just and that OUR sin deserves punishment. We see that God is love and because of His character He gave us Jesus who received the punishment for us.

When the perfect law of liberty is our mirror we will see our ugliness but we will also see ourselves how God sees us: perfect and righteous in Jesus!!

We will continually see our need for God’s forgiveness AND His great goodness in providing the transforming power OUR ugly sin needs.

Above all, we will see the absolute beauty of God and the more we behold Him, the more our desire for Him will grow...

The second man is blessed because he responds to the perfect law of liberty. He gets to know Jesus, listens to Him, observes what HE has done and joyfully responds in obedience.

He is blessed because as he gazes into the truth of the Word of God it sets him free. His blinders of self righteousness and pride are stripped away and he no longer wants to measure himself up to others. Jesus is his righteousness and instead of pride, he gains compassion for others.

He loves others and builds them up knowing that the only hope anyone of us has, rests in Jesus Christ alone.

"...let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, LOOKING TO JESUS, the founder and perfecter of our faith," (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Looking (amphora): turn your eyes away from something else and fixing them on Jesus

Sincerely,

Amy