Mirror from 3.3.17 https://youtu.be/Z-FjlJriZuI
Personal Matters
Christians easily forget their true identity in Christ; “have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?”; “whoever (godly) lacks these qualities…is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” (Heb 12:5; 2 Pet 1:9). James intensifies our clarity as to why we are so forgetful; “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 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. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.” (James 1:22-24). Whoever intently sees themselves in the Word and obeys will never be confused about their identity. If we look at ourselves in the mirror of the Scriptures we see the image of who we are in Christ; “we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18 NKJV). The alternative to seeing yourself through scripture is to fall prey to the opinions and accusations of others. As a friend adopted as a child put it, “I was often spoken toas if I was not all there.” Rarely do Christians speak to one another in the power the Spirit so we mutually feel “all there” (Rom 8:15). The aim of this teaching is to uphold Christ in the mirror of scripture, for in seeing Jesus in the Word we see who we are in him (1 Cor 1:30; 1 John 3:2).
Tarnished
The Lord spoke his Word to Adam in a way that faithfully reflected all that would come to pass if it was broken; “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”” (Gen 2:17). But Adam was not meant to be alone. In God’s plan Adam’s relationship with Eve would mirror back to him his faithfulness as her divinely appointed husband. As the one to whom the Lord has spoken to directly Adam was called to “nourish and cherish” his wife by holding up to her the mirror of God’s commandment (Gen 2:17; Eph 5:29). While the first couple were physically unclothed they felt no shame as long as they remained faithful to the ordering of God; something for which Adam had a special responsibility (1 Tim 2:14). Insidiously, the word which Satan held up like a mirror to Eve,““you will be/come like God””, implied she was not yet like God as she could/should be (Gen 3:5). This evil word was in complete denial of the Word of the Creator that she was already made “in his image” (Gen 1:26-27). In paying heed to the devil Eve felt a sense of incompleteness. Instead of seeing herself in the Word of the Lord Eve saw herself in Satan’s word and turned away from the true mirror of the commandment to a tree to become like God. Adam’s sin was to passively stand by whilst the devil approached his wife with a word that was counter to the truth about the divine likeness (Gen 3:6). It was as if Eve had no husband at all. The man left his bride naked concerning the true Word of life and failed to be her glory (1 Cor 11:7; Phil 2:16). His failure to speak God’s Word to the serpent and Eve created a space for demonic deception about human identity. Immediately the way Adam and Eve looked at each other changed, God didn’t need to tell them they were lacking wholeness, they saw each other as naked and experienced the shame of unfaithfulness to God’s order of covering and submission (Gen 3:7).
Fallen
All accusation ultimately derives from the devil who has ensnared humanity into believing that there is some measure of attainment that can be recognised and honoured by others. In a fallen world, by glance, mood, word or action people are constantly telling one another that they are less than they could/should be (Gen 3:11). No one can simply shake off the judgements of others because having lost the glory of God we are less in the likeness of God than what we were always designed to be. Guilt and shame corrupt all relationships because we all feel we are “less than what we could be”. In this sense what Satan suggested to Eve has become true. In listening to a voice not of God all human beings now try to identify who they are by trying to be like someone else, someone other than their Creator. We all carry the dreadful burden of looking into ourselves and feeling we are less than what we were destined to be. There is no escaping this mirror of conscience (mis)shaped as it is by family, peer and social judgements. Only someone who is fully faithful to the mirror of the Word and whose conscience is perfectly free from any sense of moral failure, guilt and shame can deliver us.
Perfect Reflector
Jesus can confidently state, ““I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”” (John 15:10). Christ is fully conscious of himself as the glory of the Father because he has always obeyed God’s Word and so knows himself to be the express likeness of God (Col 1:15). As the perfect hearer and doer of the Word the Son is completely covered by the blessing of the Father (Rev 1:3; 22:7cf. James 1:22-24). The cost to Jesus of continuing to mirror the Word is however beyond measure. To fulfil all the righteousness of God Jesus must go to the cross and shed his blood to absolve the world of satanic accusation and divine vengeance (Matt 3:15; John 1:29; Heb 12:24). The paradox of the cross is that Jesus’ identity as the mirror-Word of the Father must be obscured to himself by the shed blood which speaks forgiveness and peace. This is the forsakenness of the Son of God (Mark 15:34). Jesus cannot see himself in the likeness of God but neither can he accept the accusations of those who jeer at him from the foot of the cross (Matt 27:38-44). Knowing he is unlike Satan and sinners but unable to behold as in a mirror the glory of God Jesus is “cast into the outer darkness” the place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 8:12). In this place of pure absolute darkness Christ is unable to see and “obey the gospel” for he is “away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thess 1:8-9). The resurrection and glorification of Jesus is his restoration as the one who is the perfect likeness and complete mirror image of his Father, the “radiance of the glory of God” for us (Heb 1:3).
Conclusion
The terrible crisis of forgetfulness in the Church today has its roots in our substituting a “shiny Jesus” who reflects our earthly aspirations for the Word of the cross (1 Cor 1:18). This false image of God-likeness is an idol polished up by human effort and can never deliver us from depending for our self-image on the judgement of others. Lest we be found “naked and seen exposed” at the Judgement we need to put on pure garments “washed…in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 7:14; 16:15 19:8). We need to ask the Lord to strip us of our own garments of positive (or negative) self esteem lest we “shrink from him in shame at his coming” (1 John 2:28). On that Day all who see themselves in the mirror of their own knowledge, wisdom, power, spirituality etc. will be utterly disgraced before the glory of Christ. A promise however remains, “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 1:25). This “perfect law” can only be sighted in the face of him who in perfect love has for God’s sake fulfilled all the law and the prophets in the place of sinners (Matt 22:37-40; Rom 13:8). Look intently at Jesus through the mirror of scripture and you will see in him all that you are destined to become. No one has put this better than John Calvin; “Christ, then, is the mirror in which we ought, and in which, without deception, we may contemplate our election.”