One day, I discovered that one of the children spilled bottled water on my bed. I didn’t have time to clean it up at the moment. Later that evening, as I climbed exhaustedly into bed, I felt something wet and realized that I forgot about the spill. I got a towel to try to cover up the wet part of the bed, but that didn’t suffice. A large spot was soaked from the comforter down to the mattress cover. I reluctantly had to get up, remove the wet sheets, and put on clean, dry sheets.
It felt like too much to have to change the whole bed, so I tried to just get by. Sometimes I can have this same mindset when it comes to sin. It can feel like too much to have to deal with sin, so I try to cover it up with the appearance of righteousness. This never works. Even if people can’t see it, God is not fooled by our attempts to cover our sin. Jesus had sharp words for the scribes and Pharisees who attempted to outwardly appear righteous.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Matthew 23:27-28 (ESV)
God sees right through to our hearts. If we are unable to cover up our sin with the appearance of righteousness, then what can we do when we discover sin? Sin, like that big, wet spot on my bed, doesn’t allow us to rest in peace. It has to be addressed. The apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Philippian church that addressed his former dependence on his ability to be outwardly righteous.
If anyone thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him. not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith
Philippians 3:4-9 (ESV)
He zealously followed the law and was a part of God’s chosen people, but Paul realized that this self-righteousness was useless. Following the law cannot remove our sin and make us right with God.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Romans 3:23-28
God opened Paul’s eyes (literally; see Acts 9) to see that what he truly needed was not self-righteousness, but the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. Our attempts to cover up our sin will never succeed. We need faith to believe that Christ removed our sin by paying the penalty of death that we deserved for our sin, and he rose from the dead to make us right with God. Jesus removes the soiled sheets of sin, and puts on the clean, dry sheets of righteousness.
Forgive me for attempting to outwardly cover my sin. My self-righteousness is worthless. You alone can remove my sin. You alone can make me clean. I trust you Jesus.