THE OFFICE OF THE MIRROR
Devotional
Daily
James 1:23-25 For if any be a hearer
of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face
in a glass:
For he beholdeth himself, and
goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the
perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein,
he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be
blessed in his deed.
Here is a mirror
into which we are to look, and search out every defect of character. But
suppose that you look into this mirror and see many defects in your character,
and then go away and say, “I am righteous”; will you be righteous? In your own
eyes you will be righteous and holy. But how will it be at the bar of God? God
has given us a rule, and we are to comply with its requirements; if we dare to
do otherwise, to trample this under our feet, and then stand up before God and
say, “I am holy, I am holy,” we shall be lost in the great day of accounts.
What if we were to
go out into the streets and soil our clothes with mud, and then come into the
house and, beholding our filthy garments as we stand before the glass, we
should say to the mirror, “Cleanse me from my filth”; would it cleanse us from
our filth? That is not the office of the looking glass. All that it can do is
to reveal that our garments are defiled; it cannot take the defilement away.
So it is with the
law of God. It points out the defects of character. It condemns us as sinners,
but it offers no pardon to the transgressor. It cannot save him from his sins.
But God has made a provision. Says John, “If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” So we come to Him and there we find
the character of Jesus, and the righteousness of His character saves the
transgressor—if we have done on our part all that we could.
And yet while He
saves the transgressor, He does not do away with the law of God, but He exalts
the law. He exalts the law because it is the detector of sin. And it is
Christ’s cleansing blood that takes away our sins, when we come to Him with
contrition of soul seeking His pardon. He imputes His righteousness, He takes
the guilt upon Himself.
