Page 10 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 16
P. 10

The Bible: Proverbs, Matthew, and Paul            will be justified in his sight, since through
             In the Bible, self-reflection is a given. A bib-  the  law  comes  knowledge  of  sin”  (Rom
             lical picture of the human person assumes         3:20). Aligning oneself with God’s law and
             our ability to self-examine, to take a look       ways  is  one  thing,  but  Paul  teaches  it  is
             at the state of our heart, soul, mind, and        not enough, because for the person whose
             strength  (Deut.  6:6-9;  Matt.  22:38).  Jesus   “mind is set on the flesh”—that is, who is
             directs us to evaluate our own ethico-spiri-      self-reliant—claiming to follow God is me-
             tual wellbeing before judging others: “first      rely a smokescreen for sin. Religious people
             take the log out of your own eye” (Matt.          who pursue “works of the law” may appear
             7:5).  Self-reflection  is  a  God-given  power   righteous and spiritual, but they are actual-
             meant  to  help  us  see  our  true  selves,  so   ly just living “in the flesh,” which leads to
             that we can make the changes necessary to         the same end as the less disguised path of
             become more like God.                             lawlessness.
             Despite  having  this  power,  however,  the      Neither  legalism  nor  antinomianism  can
             Bible  reveals  that  we  are  often  very  out   solve the problem of sin, because the solu-
             of touch with our true selves, because we         tion can never be attained through fleshly
             have  lost  touch  with  God.  In  our  foolish-  means but only through Christ in the Spi-
             ness, humans have rejected “the fear of the       rit (Phil. 3:3). To live as if this were not the
             Lord” (Prov. 1:7) deciding to evaluate what       case belies a false self-understanding.
             we see in ourselves not against God’s stan-       On the other hand, the Bible clearly holds
             dards, but doing whatever we deem right           out the possibility for true self-understan-
             “in our own eyes” (Prov. 12:5).                   ding. Wisdom cries out, “... the complacen-
             Further,  the  more  we  distance  our  self-     cy of fools destroys them; whoever listens
             evaluation from God’s standards, the less         to me will dwell secure and will be at ease,
             accurate our self-understanding becomes,          without dread of disaster” (Prov. 1:32-33).
             to the point that what we consider our true       Although  there  is  a  way  leading  to  self-
             self is actually a false self of our own ima-     delusion and death, there is another path
             gining. We become hypocrites, who think           leading  to  increasing  self-understanding
             they  are  one  way—and  who  convincingly        and life: “But the path of the righteous is
             portray themselves as such to others—but          like the light of dawn, which shines brighter
             who really another.                               and brighter until full day” (Prov. 4:18).
             There is probably no better model for this        As  the  Bible’s  revelation  progresses  from
             kind of hypocrisy than the Pharisees that         Old Testament to New, we see that the way
             Jesus often encountered, who appeared to          of Yahweh is most fully revealed in Jesus,
             themselves and others as “beautiful on the        who  is  “the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life”
             outside”  but  were  inwardly  “full  of  dead    (John 14:6). The way of Jesus is the way to
             people’s  bones  and  uncleanness”  (Matt.        wholeness, in which the outside  matches
             23:27). Jesus teaches that merely aligning        the inside (Matt. 12:33-35; 23:26).
             oneself with God and claiming to fear him         The first step is to admit that we are not
             is  not  enough  to  avoid  foolishness  or  hy-  whole. We must be poor of spirit, mourn-
             pocrisy, since even people who claimed to         ful, meek, and desperately desirous of the
             do things in Jesus’ name fell into it (Matt.      righteousness  we  don’t  yet  fully  possess
             7:21-23).                                         (Matt.  5:3-6).  In  doing  so,  with  the  plank
             But how could this happen? Paul answers,          in our eye removed, we can see the truth
             “For by works of the law no human being           about ourselves.






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