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Commentary on "In the Loom of Heaven"
Day 2: Sunday, March 27, 2011 - Staring in the Mirror
Overview
This quote from today’s lesson sets the theme:
What Christian, looking in the mirror, stares in the face of someone who is perfectly reflecting the character of Jesus? What Christian, no matter how faithful, staring in the mirror, can claim any kind of righteousness for himself or for herself? What Christian, staring in the mirror, isn’t horrified by what he or she knows lurks beneath the surface?
Observations
In the lesson we are asked to study Isaiah 64 and asked what message is being proclaimed there? The first part of the message is found in these verses:
You welcome the one who joyfully does what is right; they remember You in Your ways. But we have sinned, and You were angry. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins? All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind. No one calls on Your name, striving to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and made us melt because of our iniquity. Isaiah (64:5-7 HCSB)
The lesson correctly points out that Paul continues this theme in Romans 3. However, Paul is in reality quoting from the words of King David:
The fool says in his heart, “God does not exist.” They are corrupt; they do vile deeds. There is no one who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the human race to see if there is one who is wise, one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one. (Psalms 14:1-3 HCSB)
In the lesson each of us are asked to stare into the ‘mirror of our lives’ and asks every one of us; what do we see?
Whether you read Isaiah 64, Psalms 14 or Romans 3, what you will see is that our own righteousness is a garment of ‘filthy rags’. Moving onto to end of Romans 7 where Paul is examining the inner ‘mirror’ of his own life, we come to the solution to this terrible and deadly dilemma:
So I discover this principle: When I want to do what is good, evil is with me. For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God’s law. But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh, to the law of sin. Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. (Romans 7:21-8:2 HCSB)
Summary
Copyright 2011 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised March 22, 2011. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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