Justified by faith!

A lot of Spiderman’s and princesses looked in the mirror yesterday. The Spiderman’s flexed their foam muscles and the princesses admired their plastic tiara’s as they looked in the mirror at home. Then, they came to the Scare on the Square event in Downtown Rockwall. They filled their bags and buckets with candy and prizes and went home sticky and satisfied. Looking in the mirror after a long day like that shows good memories are made, but looking in the mirror does not always show us good things.

Looking in the mirror shows all our imperfections. This past week I felt something on my forehead and looked in the mirror to see what it was. Turned out to be a pimple, which is a negative for most unless you are getting older and something like that takes you back to the days of high school. The mirror shows us our many imperfections, and some are skin deep, but others we see as we stare into our own eyes reliving memories, conversations and unspoken thoughts that play on repeat driving us into depression, guilt, shame, regret, jealously, envy and despair. Mirrors show us our imperfections, which we do not want to see, but that is why we keep mirrors around, so that we can see what we do not like and do our best to fix it. And there are some imperfections that we can fix or coverup, and those that fade or go away, but some linger and grow.

The mirror cannot give us what we need. Looking into a mirror may help us look and feel our best, but the mirror itself does not do the work. In our New Testament reading, we see that God’s law acts like a universal mirror showing the whole world its sin as we read in Romans 3,

19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

The law referred to in these passages refers to God’s moral law that he holds all people accountable to stretching back to Adam and Eve and continuing until Jesus returns on Judgment Day. Both Jew and Gentile are under this law, and whether someone acknowledges God does not excuse someone from accountability. For a basic list of these laws, we look to the Ten Commandments and can summarize the law further as showing love to God and all people. When anyone and everyone compares themselves to God’s law as if looking in the mirror, it shows glaring imperfections. The purpose of God’s law is not to show us how to live so that we can fix ourselves, coverup the past, look better than other people or do our best. Instead, the purpose of God’s law is to make us conscious of our sins seeing that we are sinful and have no excuse for our bad behavior before God. Our situation is worse than the odds of a costumed spiderman having to battle with an actual evil villain or a princess having to make responsible decisions that impact the welfare and future of her country. The mirror of God’s law does not show us good things about ourselves or a way to save ourselves; the mirror of God’s law shows us our sins with no way to remove them or escape judgment.

But God wants us to look away from the mirror to Jesus. What we need to see in the mirror to give us confidence, peace, rest, joy, strength, etc. is found in Jesus. Rather than spend hours and lifetimes looking in the mirror, God calls to us in Romans 3 to turn our heads to see what he has done for us as we read,

21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.

The Old Testament described the image of something better than the law, the righteousness of God. Rather than a mirror, we are to look at the billboard announcing God’s righteousness. Better than any lawyer billboard, God testifies on our behalf that we are not guilty of sin and will not be punished. And we see our confidence for this testimony in the next verses as we read,

22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

God has not shared his law to leave us shamed and judged, but as a call to repentance to turn us from ourselves to him. God’s gift of righteousness is given through the gift of faith. And this righteousness from God for us is universal as Jesus redeemed and paid for our freedom from sin and its consequences. God handed his own Son over to be punished to take us back as his own children who are loved, perfect, worthy and belong with him. God did not dismiss the seriousness of what his law shows us, but with all severity gave Jesus as a sacrifice as we read,

25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

On a hill for the world to see, Jesus was lifted up on the cross for all to see the ugliness of sin from all time put to death. Unlike the annual sacrifice on the Day of Atonement carried out with the blood of beasts in the back of the Temple in Jerusalem, God demonstrated his justice in public. Many who saw Jesus still mocked him and they will mock us for looking to him as we read in our Gospel reading from Matthew 10,

22 You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

We will be hated for not looking in the mirror striving to do our best to save ourselves, but by looking to Jesus, the grace of God, his righteousness, his sacrifice, his redemption, his justice, his freedom, his Scriptures and his glory, we will hold on to our salvation and be taken home to heaven.

Looking in the mirror of God’s law exposes our idols. As Christians justified by faith in Jesus, God’s law continues its purpose to show us our sins. When we say to ourselves or someone else, “I’m doing my best.” to excuse or explain why we have not met a certain deadline, standard, grade, image, metric, SOP, weight, etc. it reveals our idols. Though we often make a distinction, even subconsciously between our lives as Christians and other aspects of our lives, there is no distinction. We have been justified, made righteous and saved by Jesus all the time, so those things that weigh heaviest on our hearts and minds that for each of us cause us to say, “I’m doing my best” are our idols. They take up our time, money, thinking, testimony, devotion, worship, etc. They are our standard and judge. The thing we want to be better at so we can finally feel confidence, peace, rest, joy, strength, etc. has become an idol and our boast, but those things will only serve to show us our imperfections and never give us what we want or need, as we read in Romans 3,

27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

Our idols are overcome by Jesus. Our faith in him, rather than our best keeps us from idolatry. Our faith in Jesus, allows us to work at things in life, but not be defined by them. When we are working so hard, with such busy schedules and feeling so far behind, God speaks to us in our Psalm for today, Psalm 46,

10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

God rises above all things; he is the standard, the judge, the best, the Savior and one true God. God defines who we are and defends us when we look to him as he did for a man named Daniel who was given the death sentence for praying to God in our Old Testament reading from Daniel 6. Thrown into a den of lions overnight, God was Daniel’s only hope for survival, and we hear he was delivered in Daniel 6,

23 The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

If we picture ourselves as Daniel in the lions’ den, some might see themselves scratching the lions’ bellies, while others might picture themselves in the corner having torn up their robes up to tie the lions’ mouths shut just in case. Instead, with Daniel and ourselves, as we face each day and eternity it is best to be in the middle, being still, knowing God is with us and Jesus stands between us and the mirror of God’s law, so God sees us through Jesus and through Jesus we will see God in heaven.

A lot of Spiderman’s and princesses looked in the mirror yesterday. Then, they came to the Scare on the Square event in Downtown Rockwall. And when they got home, they looked in the mirror sticky and satisfied. Looking in the mirror does not always show us good things; in fact, the mirror of God’s law shows us our sins. We cannot coverup or do our best to take away our sins and change how we look to God. Only through Jesus apart from anything we do are we perfect in the eyes of God. We have been redeemed through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. We are not going to heaven by what we see in the mirror, but through Jesus, we are justified by faith. Amen.