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Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1(ESV)

Has it happened to you? You’re enjoying a delicious dinner out with friends, talking and laughing the hours away. A few sweet teas into the evening, you hit the restroom and gaze at your reflected smile…only to see a big green hunk of spinach between your teeth. The mirror has shown you what your friends didn’t tell you—and you couldn’t see.

So, we take down the mirror off the wall and use it to clean our teeth, right? Of course not! The mirror only reveals the problem, it doesn’t fix it.

This is a perfect analogy for God’s law. Throughout the Bible, the Jews were trying to use the law to achieve a level of holiness that would be acceptable to God. Even today, followers of nearly every world religion—and many Christians—believe the “rules” are steppingstones to salvation.

But sisters, the law was never meant to be the way to God. Our Father in heaven is perfect, and He requires nothing less than perfection. So striving for rule-following, no matter how hard we try, will fail. Humans are not perfect, and we are incapable of following God’s law with perfect righteousness.

Just like the bathroom mirror that reveals food caught in your teeth, the law is meant to show us we are not good enough for a perfect, Holy God. His law shows us how unrighteous we really are so we’ll run to the only One Who is perfect. Jesus came to this earth, fully God and fully man, to pay the price for our sinfulness. Because he died for us and rose again, we are able to accept His gift of grace and be made perfect in God’s eyes.

The mirror cannot remove the spinach from our teeth. But it was necessary to recognize there was a problem—a big hunk of green. And trying to follow God’s rules will not remove the stain of sin from our lives. The law shows us there’s a problem…but Jesus Christ is the only answer.

“Lord, there is only one way for us to perfectly reflect You—by accepting what Jesus did on my behalf. Thank you for revealing my sin and for paying the price.”

For His Glory

Julianne Winkler Smith
TRBC Women’s Life