I am done wearing a mask.
No, not that kind.
Lately I have seen much complaining about having to wear face coverings in public, and it got me to thinking— is this not a great illustration?
Have we not been volunteering to wear much heavier masks in public each and every day?
We are smiling when we are sad. We are pretending to have all the answers as a cover for our insecurity. We are filtering our imperfections for Instagram. We are shouting at our spouses and kids as we pull into the church parking lot, then switching gears as we walk into the building. We are hiding secret sin and only sharing surface level struggles to appear transparent.
The fact is, to some degree, we are all mask-wearing liars. We walk around as those with two identities. As if we are successfully maintaining two selves: the hidden self, who struggles with anger, anxiety, depression, doubt, insecurity, inadequacy, weakness, illness, failure, and sin—- and the public self, who wears a mask of confidence, achievement, wisdom, organization, strength, happiness, rest, and victory.
Who are we trying to kid?
Our masks of self-righteousness cover us no better than fig leaves hurriedly strung over our bodies to hide from an all-seeing God. And this God has exposed us.
He tells us that none is righteous, no not one. That all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And yet, he has called us out of hiding, out of guilt, and out of shame.
How can that be?
Because Christ has prepared for us a better covering. The covering of his own self.
Friends, there is freedom in confession, repentance, and acknowledgment that apart from the covering of Christ’s perfect life, death and resurrection, we have no righteousness to stand on.
As long as we are counting on our own ability to clean ourselves up and hide what we haven’t cleaned up, we are rejecting Christ and his work on our behalf.
You can have his righteousness, or you can have your own. But you can’t have both, and only one offers freedom.
So take off the mask.
1 John 1-2:2
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
