The Man In the Mirror

The morality of man is a hard thing to come to terms with. Or shall I say the lack of morality, because our base nature is very lacking in morality. We are all wandering around doing what is right in our own eyes, more or less, and very few of the people in the world adhere to the proper standard. When we step back and look at things, the standard we are all aiming for goes beyond simple morality since morality is usually nothing more than not doing something. As Christians, our most basic pattern of morality is the Ten Commandments, and of those ten, only two tell us to do something. Only one of those two gives us a pattern of action, the other is simply remembering to do nothing. 

Ninety percent of our moral code, in other words, is what not to do. Of course, if we read the rest of the Bible we find that there are a lot of things that we should be doing, especially where walking as Christ walked is concerned, but walking as Christ walked is not simple morals. Jesus was the most moral man who ever lived, but He wasn't much concerned with morality. Morality is a characteristic of a physical species, and it is for those who are sinners. If you are sinning, you need to be concerned about morality as Paul lays out in Romans 6 and 7. It's the last fence between us and complete depravity, in other words, and many in our world live so far on the other side of that fence that the fence is completely invisible. 

As Paul said, morality, or the Ten Commandments, is for those who are sinners to bring them to Christ. It is our teacher, our training wheels, and once we are mature in the faith we have no more need for the law. It is the most basic standard that we are all supposed to adhere to, and by the time we are mature, we are so far on the right side of the law that it's not an issue for us. There is no danger of us falling over the barrier around the waterfall if we aren't even close to it. The fence is always there should we start slipping, and we live out the principles contained in the fence, but our goal is not to lean as far as we can over the fence without falling over it. We are meant for more than riding the fence, and becoming like Christ requires that we become more than fence riders. 

Do we keep the Sabbath? 

Great! That's one of the most basic principles we should be doing. Now we learn how to keep the spirit of the Sabbath, and then we start using it for the tool it and the other Holy Days are. We use it to rest, but also to meet with God and draw closer to Him and learn about His plan for mankind.

We don't commit adultery? 

Wonderful! It is the most basic standard that we mold our lives and relationships to! Now, we rise beyond that to even control our thoughts about other people and not commit adultery in our hearts!

Do you get my point?

Our standard is not the fence. It's great to be on the right side of the fence, but riding the fence is quite dangerous as it won't take much to put us on the wrong side. Our standard is actually Christ, and if the New Testament adds anything new at all, it is the nature of Christ and the Spirit of the law. We shouldn't need the Ten Commandments anymore. We should have graduated a long time ago to live and walk in the spirit. We should have put the flesh on the skeleton structure of our spiritual lives and gone from the basic milk to the advanced meat of the word. 

This is not to say that if you are still mastering the basics that it's wrong; you need to master the basics. You have to drink milk before you can go on to meat, but you are supposed to go on to meat. If you happen to be someone who has jumped right over the basics and gone straight to eating meat, you ignored the tutor and failed to establish the foundation you need to actually be able to eat meat. What happens if you give a newborn steak? It's not good, is it?

No, I'm not saying that starting with the basics is wrong by any means. What I am getting at is that our standard should be higher than the basics. Far too often we look over at Jack and see his problems that we don't have and we feel pretty good about ourselves and where we are at in our walk. Maybe he swears and drinks just a little too much and we don't do that so we feel better about ourselves. Jack becomes our standard and as long as we are doing better than Jack, we must be right where we are supposed to be. Well, Jack is a poor standard. Jack might end up far on the other side of the fence, and then just being better than Jack doesn't even get us to God's minimum standard. 

2 Corinthians 10:12-18 NKJV — For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. We, however, will not boast beyond measure, but within the limits of the sphere which God appointed us—a sphere which especially includes you. For we are not overextending ourselves (as though our authority did not extend to you), for it was to you that we came with the gospel of Christ; not boasting of things beyond measure, that is, in other men’s labors, but having hope, that as your faith is increased, we shall be greatly enlarged by you in our sphere, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s sphere of accomplishment. But “he who glories, let him glory in the LORD.” For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends.

Comparing ourselves to others has its value for motivation if we use it in that way. For example, we see someone who is following Christ better than we are and we want to be like them or imitate them, as is the case with Paul. We can do this only so long as we do not hold them as the end standard, otherwise as soon as we surpass them, we will quit. When I was a younger man, I found my motivation for getting stronger and faster in being better than some friends of mine who had always been stronger and faster than me. Well, with enough effort, I soon surpassed them, and suddenly I found myself without motivation, looking back, and realizing what a low bar I had set for myself. I had to find a new purpose, a new motivation to even stay fit. 

The motivation I’ve found is the drive to be able to be around and active for my future kids and to have the strength to offer others has provided all the motivation I could ever want, but that could have been the end of my fitness right there because I dared to compare myself to others. It's an easy trap to fall into if we aren't careful. In our spiritual life, it works much the same. Our final comparison, the final standard we aim for is the example of Jesus, becoming people after His own heart. Anything less than that and we risk losing the motivation and drive to go beyond a minimum standard.

When the congregation I'm part of looks to select a new pastor, I should be the best choice, the best man for the job, but I'm not. That's a major problem. That means I need to get my act together. Not just me, every man in the congregation should be the best choice for pastor, cheered by others as the obvious one for the job, but they aren't, and that is a serious problem. If you think I'm wrong, give it a minute. No matter who is selected, someone would be able to raise a valid reason they should not have that job, and that someone would be correct. 

He's great in church, but I know how he talks and treats his wife, employees, kids, friends, coworkers, etc outside of Church. He's got the Ten Commandments down, the basics, but he hasn't gone beyond them yet. He hasn't grown and often doesn't practice what he preaches. He talks a good game when he's in church but we all know who the man behind the mask is.

Every man in a congregation should be a great choice for pastor or elder, and every woman for Sabbath school! They should! Too many of us have settled for a standard less than Christ, however, and usually less than the minimum for these roles, and we have a huge problem. If you don’t believe me, take a look in the mirror and tell me what you see. Our Bible is supposed to be a sort of mirror except it is intended to show us our hearts. It’s meant to really show us who we are on the inside, but unlike a real mirror, it also shows us where we need to change to get the reflection we want to see; the reflection of Christ. 

We might be moral people, but are we in the image of Christ? There are plenty of moral people out there, plenty of "good" people, but far too few men and women after God's own heart. The law is for sinners, and we should be beyond sinning at this point. We are a spiritual people governed by a higher law, a spiritual law that we should be aligned with. That's not to say the law is done away with. It is our tutor and our foundation. We can no more get away from it and follow God than we can get rid of skis and still be skiing. 

If we are to have the sort of relationship with God that we all desire, we must go beyond the basics. As Paul said, the law is a tutor that brings us to Christ. It is the foundation of everything we believe, or rather, it is the foundation of our way of life. It's the beginning of the road to following Christ to be sure, but we want to get to the end of the road, not hang around at the trailhead! Paul called them the elementary principles of Christ.

Hebrews 5:12-14 NKJV — For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

The first principles of the oracles of God are the laws laid out in the Old Testament. The question is, why are we hanging around with these things when they are the first things we should have learned? We should already be able to teach these things as masters! If you hang around with basic music theory forever, you will never play Mozart. We've got to go beyond the basic milk and get into the meat as seasoned followers of Christ. Paul is going to add to what the basics are in chapter six and he explains that not only is the law supposed to be the very basics of what we learn, but so are what are considered “New Testament” doctrines.

Hebrews 6:1-3 NKJV — Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.

The whole point of this is to what? It's to go on to perfection! In other words, we are supposed to be growing into the image of Christ, and quite frankly, that is terribly absent in Christian culture. We get caught up in the basics and we stay there because guess what? They are easy! It's really comfortable for us to stay in the basic milk of the word when we should have moved on to meat a long time ago. We settle for being moral when we should be in the image of Jesus. As I mentioned earlier, morality is just not doing wrong actions, being a "good" person, but we were meant for more. 

Without a doubt, as followers of Christ, that makes morality the basic line to toe, because a whole lot of action is required to be in the image of Christ. Even in the Old Testament, we find the spirit of the law, though it is not called such until later. This spirit of the law is often referred to as the circumcision of our hearts. Oddly enough, this is seen to be a New Testament idea, and certainly, many of the authors in the New Testament had quite a bit to say about it, but it originated in the Old Testament. The Spirit of the law is nothing new, and since the law was created it has always led us in the same direction. For what purpose has He done this thing?

Quite frankly, so that we may love God with all our heart. 

Deuteronomy 30:6 NKJV "And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

God is offering us life, real life with the laws He has given. Morality is where we get started, but Jesus is where we end up. Paul brings this home in a deeply personal way in his letter to the Colossians and drives home the point that the basic points of the law, the things that are easiest for us to do, are still there for us to do. They show us what is coming and most importantly, they give us a foundation to build upon. 

Colossians 2:6-7 NKJV As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 

7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Being established in the Faith requires us to have a basic foundation. Good dirt, if you will. We won’t abound if the dirt we are planted in is tough clay, but if it is a rich loam, the sky is the limit.

Colossians 2:8-10 NKJV Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 

9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 

10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. 

At the same time, we can mistake human wisdom for good soil to be planted in and use it as the foundation we build upon. This will always get us into trouble, but if we stick to what is in the Bible, we will be completed in Jesus. 

Colossians 2:11-17 NKJV In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 

12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with [Him] through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 

13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 

14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 

15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. 

16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 

17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

The Spirit of the law, or the Holy Spirit, is the tool used to write the Law of God on our hearts, to remove the stubborn humanness of our hearts, and to wash our hearts clean from the sin that smothered His words. The physical act that begins this process is baptism, and from there, we go on to grow into who we are really supposed to be. The Holy Spirit is our counselor and advisor, a direct line to God, a tool to help us grow into the image of Jesus.   

 

By the same token, the law also holds the potential to be far more than just a simple baseline, or the basic standard we are held to. When we get into the Spirit of the law we discover a few startling yet obvious facts. Every law in the Bible contains far more than what is outright stated in writing. The law is living and powerful and able to lead us to eternal life, so this should not be a surprise to us, but it still came as somewhat of an epiphany to me when I was contemplating this article. Every command written in the Bible also tells us something about the opposite of it as well. Every law contains two parts, in other words, by giving a command it contains two. 

Let’s look at the command to not lie as a great example of what I mean. The command is to not lie, but that is an implicit command to tell the truth. Some of the laws contain their opposite law stated right there in scripture, but a lot don’t. Realization of this fact gives us a valuable resource to use when we are looking for answers or seeking to go deeper on a topic in the Bible. If we aren’t given enough information about something in the Bible, quite often we can gain incredible insight by looking at the direct opposite of that topic. 

Getting back to the Ten Commandments gives us a way to turn them from our most basic standard and take them even deeper. Taking what God has given to us and living it, taking it to the next level, and departing from the letter of the law, not to throw it away, but to move upwards to the higher calling we ought to be achieving. We now have a good idea of what the Spirit of the law is and a practical way to do this in our everyday Bible study. Morality is a great standard for people, but a poor standard for followers of Jesus. We are supposed to be at a different level as Christians which means that we are genuinely living in the Spirit; the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of the law. 

How many of us can look the Bible in the eye and say that we are living in the Spirit? 

There’s a man in the mirror of the Bible that each one of us can see if we are willing to look. If we are using the Bible to tell us where we need to change our lives rather than to excuse and give our current lifestyle permission, then we will readily see a true reflection staring back at us. 

James 1:23-25 NKJV For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 

24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 

25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues [in it], and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

We don’t find this as an automatic process in our lives; it’s not a process that happens without effort. We have a lot of work to put in, and that’s the whole point of the Bible in the first place. We change how we live and we change who we are, but it’s not an act we put on. The change starts from the inside as we saw earlier; it’s the circumcision of our hearts and the renewal of our minds. 

Romans 12:1-2 NKJV I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, [which is] your reasonable service. 

2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what [is] that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Are we where we are supposed to be in our walk with God? Are we a living sacrifice to God? Did we stop with simply achieving the baseline standard, did we stop at the fence?

I invite you to take a look at the man in the mirror, an honest and deep look, and decide if you like what you see. If you don’t like what you see and you aren’t where you want to be, remember that that’s okay because we are supposed to be growing into the image of Jesus. It’s a process, and as long as you are working toward being in the image of Jesus, you’re doing good. Just remember that there is a higher standard than the Ten Commandments and a level we are supposed to be rising toward. 

If we drink milk forever we will never be able to enjoy a good steak, and our spiritual life will stay flat and flabby. We are supposed to move beyond the basics and grow into the advanced things of God. Take a look in the mirror and see if you are eating milk or meat, and whether you are in the Spirit or the letter. Obedience to God and maintaining a base standard is the foundation that you have to have in place to grow up in the Spirit, but the Spirit takes you way beyond the basics of the law. You must maintain your foundation, but the building goes far beyond the foundation. The morality of man is, quite frankly, severely lacking in today’s world. Morality is a poor standard for followers of Jesus, but it seems to be the highest standard that most Christians aspire to, as if they like the idea of Jesus but not the work it would take to truly be followers of Christ. We are called to something higher than mere morality and we were given a mirror to look into and see if the man we think we are measures up to the man we are supposed to be. So, take a look at the man in the mirror and see who looks back. Is it Jesus, or is it someone barely walking the line? Where you go from there is up to you.