Take Heart Redeemed One, The Perfect Is Coming

I don’t go looking for them – at least not the first one. But if I come across one, I might find another one. And maybe another one after that. Now, if I’m that deep – I’m probably crying. Not just welling up – like ugly crying. Of course, I’m talking about the videos of people with colorblindness trying on colorblind correcting glasses. And before you “Well, actually…” me – yes, I know that the lenses don’t actually correct colorblindness and that the efficacy is disputed. Not the point. Watch the videos. Watch the reactions of the people who try them on. They are seeing something different. There is a contrast that wasn’t there before. 

Not too long ago, I was watching one of these videos and crying on the couch when my kids stopped playing and asked, “Dad, why are you crying?” “Because of the gospel,” I responded. I cry when I watch these videos because they remind me of people putting on the lenses of faith in Jesus Christ. When someone believes the good news of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the world looks different. There’s more contrast. The colors pop.

You see God for who he is in all of his glorious and good perfections. You understand that you are not good or perfect like he is - and it’s not just that you lack his perfection, you’ve actively despised his perfection. You know you are wrong and you know you deserve to die. But through these lenses you also see the cross. You see the God-man, Jesus Christ, in your place. You feel the love of God. You can taste the sweetness of his mercy.

For some of you, the exhortation this morning is this: try on the lenses of faith in Jesus. Confess your sins to him and trust him to save you.

For others, maybe you put those glasses on long ago and you remember how everything changed – but now… maybe there are scratches on the lenses from deep wounds. There’s dirt and smudges from life and you just can’t seem to get them clean.

For you the exhortation is this: take heart, Redeemed One, the glasses were never the permanent fix. The surgery is scheduled. The insurance is covered - no copay. You are getting new eyes! The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now we know in part; then we shall know fully, even as we have been fully known. As the old song says, your faith shall be sight. Lord, haste the day!

This reminds us of our need to confess our sins.

Father, your grace is boundless. Your mercies are new every morning. How many of them escape our attention due to our own sin? Forgive us, Lord! Forgive us for scorning your perfections rather than praising them. Forgive us for allowing bitterness to take root in our hearts. Forgive us for our wrongful anger and our envy and our grumbling. Forgive us for choosing to live according to the dull, gray haze of this world instead of walking in the radiance of your light. These are great sins. We know, God, that if we regard sin in our own hearts our prayers will be ineffectual, so we confess our own sins to you now in this moment of silence.

Thank you, Father, for Jesus. You are justified to stand far off in your perfection and to have nothing to do with sinful men and women save the destruction their sin deserves. But you did not stay far off. You sent your Son to come near, to put on our flesh, to be tempted in every way that we are and to remain sinless. You have given us the gift of faith, by which we are saved. Open our eyes again each day to behold your beauty and keep us until that day when we stand in your presence!