A glazier is an artisan responsible for cutting, installing, and removing glass.
God is a glazier.
Imagine this: we have this mirror. And the mirror’s job is to show sin. All our ugliness, all our junk, all the things we cannot hide from ourselves, and some stuff that no other people get to see. Mirrors tell the truth. And the truth is that for all of us, sin is a big problem—a deathly big problem.
Our mirror is looking busted—there are cracks everywhere, the glass won’t stay polished, the frame is chipped and peeling away. This mirror looks worthless. And we know we cannot fix it. But what if God gives us a new mirror?
god gets to mirror making
Jesus. The Son. The Christ.
Jesus who emptied himself and became one of us, who was humble and obedient even to death.
Jesus came, lived, died, and resurrected to rescue us from the sin we see in the mirror.
We were incapable of rescuing ourselves. So God, being “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,” took it upon himself to rescue us (Exodus 34:6). Jesus’s rescue of us comes at his own shame, humiliation, and death. Sin brings death and enslavement to all of us. The only way to conquer sin—to bring life and freedom to all of us—is for a sinless person to die. And who can achieve a sinless life except Christ, who is both fully human and fully divine?
Jesus died to bring us life in place of death and freedom instead of bondage.
new mirror, new you
Because of Jesus, we get life and freedom. And we get a new mirror to see ourselves. Gone is the mirror of sin and death. We’ve got something priceless now, handcrafted frames and polished glass that doesn’t crack. Jesus’s death gives us the opportunity to replace the vision of us in the mirror with himself. Because, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new is come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). And the new “us” that we get isn’t a “human being round two.”
This is salvation by grace. We can now put on the new self, “which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:10).
The girl in the mirror is forgiven, redeemed, renewed, indwelled and empowered with the Holy Spirit. She now has the ability to resist the temptation of sin, ask for forgiveness, and strength for repentance.
Girl, God’s salvation looks good on you.
I think the main way I still carry around the old mirror is my fear that I am still being punished for my past. I was talking to a dear friend about this last night and talking about how I felt like though God had forgiven me of my past drug and alcohol abuse that I was still facing consequences 6 years later with health issues that seem to have come out of nowhere. I carry around so much shame that I rarely tell my testimony to others. I was reminded last night that God does amazing things, and that He does not punish His children for something they did 6 years earlier.
Never doubt the power of sharing your story! God is continuing to do amazing things in your life. Someone needs to hear your story. And when you share it, the power of shame will be diminished as you see how others rejoice with you in God’s victory over your past. Blessings!