Saturday, January 17, 2009
1 John 3:2 Now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
MIRROR REFLECTIONS
We are accustomed to speaking of God's Law, the Ten Commandments, as having three uses. One of them, the Law's chief purpose, is to serve as a mirror. As we peer into the Commandments we're made to see how we look, spiritually and morally, in the sight of God. We see the imperfections of our lives and our need for a Savior to make us clean. Through the Gospel we rejoice to see that God provided this Savior in the person of His Son. Jesus, the holy Lamb of God, took our sins away and clothes us in a garment of righteousness. He caused our scarlet sins to become as white as snow. Because of Jesus, God looks on us as if we had done nothing wrong.
Still, as we walk our heavenward way, we notice imperfections. Sins of thought and word and deed crop up daily. On the one hand, we are saints -- and yet we are sinners. This troubles us so that we lament: "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24).
The glory of the Gospel is that this rescue too shall be accomplished! As surely as God's Son once descended from heaven for our salvation, so surely will He come to receive us to Himself. In that Day He will change our lowly bodies, now subject to the sin-curse, and transform them to be like His. He will make us to be, morally and spiritually, mirror reflections of Himself, perfectly pure. The fierce and daily struggle that goes on now between our old Adam and New Man will be over once and for all.
Until then we ask the Holy Spirit to help keep our eyes fixed on the Christ of Scripture who loved us and gave Himself for us, and to strengthen us in our ability to reflect His holy image in our lives.
Grant us grace to see Thee, Lord, Mirrored in Thy holy Word;
May we imitate Thee now And be pure as pure art Thou
That we like to Thee may be At Thy great Epiphany
And may praise Thee, ever blest, God in man made manifest.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 134:6)
