The Lutheran Hour

"Seeing As God Sees"

#75-43
Presented on The Lutheran Hour on July 6, 2008
Speaker: Rev. Ken Klaus
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries

Text: Romans 7:24-25

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! See the living Lord for who He is: your substitute under the law, your Redeemer from Satan, your victor over death. Today He comes to remake, restore, recycle, sinful souls; to transform them into the Father’s saved saints. Grant this, Lord, unto us all. Amen.

I wonder, when her painting was finished, if Lisa Giaconda, the model for the painting the Mona Lisa, turned to DaVinci and said, “Lenny, do I really look that chubby? Yes, I know I just had my second baby, but couldn’t you have taken off a few pounds. And my eyes, why didn’t you get rid of those circles and add a little eye shadow. It’s not a bad picture as far as oil paintings go, but I don’t like my smile. It’s really not a smile at all. It’s sort of a snicker-smile. I know you’re an artist and all that, but I’m going to be looking at this painting for a long time, so I want to make sure it’s done right. Let’s try it again, OK?” Of course, the art history books record no such conversation ever having taken place, but I’d be surprised if something like that didn’t happen. That’s because most people are obsessed by the way they look.

Talk to the supermodel whose mug is on a multitude of magazines; visit with the actress whose countenance has filled the largest movie screen and they will, without hesitation, give you a complete list of the things which are wrong with their faces and figures. Because we are obsessed by appearances, tabloids regularly run features on the celebrities who have let themselves go to pot, and other articles about the stars who have taken off too much weight too fast. Watch the Academy Awards and you will see a panel of fashion experts who swarm the red carpet as they analyze and scrutinize the celebrities’ jewelry, clothing, shoes, make-up, hair style, manicure, and a multitude of miniscule minutia.

We are obsessed by the way we look. When I was but a young lad, newly invented television carried a program called, Queen For A Day. On that show, women who were leading terrible, horrible, dreadful lives got up and told their stories to the spectators in the studio. Using an “applause meter” the audience responded to the terrible stories they had just heard. The winner, who usually was the most pitiful person on the program, was given a dozen roses, draped in a red-velvet robe, had a rhinestone crown placed on her head, and was sent out for a night in New York where she would reign as queen-for-a-day. That show, as pathetic as it was, has been replaced by today’s fashion programs which center on the looks of a person, not their lives. Queen For A Day stories of depression and despair have been replaced by the tales of human fashion disasters who can’t pull together a suitable ensemble. Where once the general public gave thanks that their lives weren’t as tragic as those of others, today’s spectators rejoice they don’t have bad skin, or an under bite, or a figure which is too flat, fat, or full.

People have become obsessed by physical appearances. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. When Adam and Eve broke God’s single command and ate from the forbidden fruit, they were concerned with their physical appearance. Regarding that fall from grace, Scripture says the eyes of both of our original parents were opened as they discovered their nakedness. Concerned about physical appearances rather than spiritual repentance, Adam and Eve decided their first order of business was to sew together some fig leaves. Knowing they, along with their non-designer duds, would not stand up to scrutiny, they hid themselves when God came looking for them. Eventually He rooted them out and listened as Adam, still concerned with his exterior, explained, “I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself” (Genesis 3:10). God set aside our parents’ peculiar priorities and tried to give them a proper perspective of the damage they had done when He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (Genesis 3:11). After listening to Adam and Eve’s buck-passing and blame-setting, God realized they didn’t get it; they didn’t understand the full spiritual repercussions of what they had done. After the Lord had pronounced some physical punishments on the pair, He gave them some proper clothes and finished up with a promise to send His Son to be their Redeemer, the Savior who would cover their sin-spackled souls with a blood-bought robe of righteousness.

For what God’s grace promised that day, Adam and Eve, along with all of their descendants, should have been eternally, faithfully, grateful. I say they should have been grateful, because all of history bears witness that they weren’t. With eyes which are spiritually short-sighted, humanity continued to concentrate on the temporal, the physical, and ignored the spiritual and eternal. That’s why, when Jesus, God’s Son, was eventually born of a virgin in ancient Bethlehem, the world hardly noticed. Everyone knew a king should be born in a palace and not in a stable, he should be robed in silk, not wrapped in swaddling clothes; he should be surrounded by servants and slaves, not some heaven-sent shepherds.

Blinded as they were by the worldly, the people of promise who should have been first to see the Savior, did not. When Jesus came to His hometown to proclaim salvation had come, those who heard Him that day couldn’t get past the idea He was the Son of Mary and Joseph, not the only-begotten of the heavenly Father (Mark 6:3). When Jesus fed thousands with a few loaves and fishes, the crowd considered Jesus to be a filler of empty bellies, not the Savior whose body and blood could nourish lost souls (Mark 6:30-44, 56). People came to Him for healing of their ailing bodies, but seldom approached Him to straighten out their sin-sickened souls.

It’s not surprising Jesus continually and faithfully had to encourage His hearers to look past the physical and see the importance of the spiritual. That’s the point Jesus was trying to make when He warned, “Do not fear those who can kill the body but are unable to do damage to your soul” (Matthew 10: 28). Jesus tried to lift their eyes, their minds, their hearts, to the heavenly when He told them, “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?”‘ (Matthew 6: 25). Instead, He encouraged His followers to “First seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” If you do that, the Savior said, “You will get everything else you need”(Matthew 6:33).

Of course, people being what and who they are, didn’t listen to Jesus, nor did they see how He was giving His life as the sacrifice to save them from their sins. The Pharisees saw Him as Satanic and not the Savior; the religious leaders looked upon Him as competition rather than the heaven-sent Christ who would redeem them; the government saw Him as an inconvenience rather than the incarnate Redeemer. Because the world looked at Jesus’ exterior and never bothered to examine the perfect life He was leading; because they saw only Jesus’ physical actions rather than His spiritual warfare; they had Jesus arrested, tried, and crucified. Upon a cross outside the city walls of Jerusalem, Jesus willingly gave His life so any and everyone who believed on Him could be saved. There, on that cross, the sins of the world were paid for and damnation’s debt was depleted. Three days after His death, a living Christ, a risen Redeemer, showed to all the world His sacrifice had been accepted and all who believe are forgiven.

This is the Gospel. This is God’s Good News of salvation. Because of Jesus, men, women, and children who once were wretched are delivered; because of the Savior, those who once were eternally damned to eternal death have been saved. To that Good News of great joy, almost 2,000 years ago the ex-murderer, the ex-persecutor, Paul, joyfully responded, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Thanks be to the Father for keeping His gracious promise and sending His Son to carry our sins. Thanks be to Jesus for having shouldered our transgressions, for having avoided Satan’s seductions, for having given His life as the complete payment for our transgression. Thanks be to the Holy Spirit for calling us from being lost and condemned creatures and making us into God’s saved sons and daughters. Thanks be to God! May all humanity join together with Paul in making their own personal proclamation of praise, “Thanks be to God!”

Having said that, let me stop and ask you, very personally, “You are joining me in saying those words, aren’t you?” You are saying ‘Thanks be to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!’ aren’t you?” Today, I am sure that millions of Lutheran Hour listeners are doing just that because they can’t help themselves. Because of what Jesus has done for them, heaven – not hell – is their eternal destiny. Because of Jesus’ resurrection victory, a shout of triumph reverberates in their hearts and a proud proclamation remains perpetually upon their lips. They give thanks, as well they ought.

But there are others, millions of others, who feel no need to express any appreciation to God for His great grace. When these people look into the mirror, they see a person who, at least to all external appearances, seems to be a pretty good guy or gal; a person who is doing just fine and has no need for a Savior or the salvation He has won. If that’s all that you observe when you look into the mirror, the Lord wants you to know – you’ve got a problem. You see, a mirror has limitations. A mirror can only show you your outside, your exterior. The mirror may say you look great for your age; it may tell you everyone at your reunion will envy you. The mirror may reflect a person with abs of steel, a face devoid of lines, and a body which seems immune from the tug of gravity. If that is what you see when you look in the mirror, congratulations. I’m glad for you – but you have a problem.

The exterior stuff is not what God sees when He looks at you. When God gazes upon you, He sees past the shell; when God looks at you He sees your interior, your mind, and soul. And although your outside may show you to be a hunk or a hottie, the inner you, the you which God sees and is concerned about, is pretty pathetic and pitiful. Even if you’re a pretty nice individual; even if you try to be a person of honor; even if you work hard at being the best you can be; you, like all of humanity, have your flaws and failings, your shortcomings, and yes, your sins. The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, talking about the part of us which God sees, said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

That is God’s way of saying, “No matter what your mirror shows you on the outside, no matter how good you think you look to yourself or others, the inside is pretty rough.” I’m sorry, but it is. I know you don’t want me to say it, but if we’re honest, I mean really honest, you have to agree with what God is saying here. Think about it. Your happiness depends on people not seeing what you’re thinking, not knowing all you’re doing. If our thoughts of lust, greed, anger, pride, were all flashed on our faces so everyone could read them, who among us would have the gall or gumption to show ourselves in public ever again? What political candidate would ever get involved in a debate; stand before a press corps; sit down for talks with an opponent? What would your children think of you if they knew your every thought; which parent would want to know what their children think of them? If others could see us as God does, life would be embarrassing, it would be frightening, it would be damning.

And if you’re thinking, “Pastor, you’re making things worse than they are. Most people are pretty good.” I’d reply with this story: Years ago, the state of Delaware tried an experiment. Like you, some of the decision makers of The First State believed most people were basically individuals of integrity. That’s why, for a period of 20 days, the authorities decided to use the honor system in collecting Turnpike tolls. If a motorist was on the toll road and, for some reason didn’t have the right change when he came up to one of the automatic booths, he could take an envelope. Then, when he got home, he could use the envelope to mail in the money which was owed.

Believing people to be good, and thinking nobody would risk their reputation and honor for such a small, inconsequential amount, Delaware counted on their toll-roaders to do the right thing. Would you like to know what happened? You can probably guess. What you might not guess is how bad things got. People used the envelopes; at least they took the envelopes. During those 20 days, 26,000 envelopes were taken. And how many of those 26,000 envelopes were returned? Only 582. Twenty-six thousand envelopes were taken and 582 were returned. You might also want to know that not all of those 582 envelopes came back with the missing money. Some were returned with stamps in them, others had pieces of paper instead of money. Before the 20-day experiment in honesty ended, it cost the state of Delaware $4,000. That’s $4,000 which didn’t include the cost of the lost tolls.

Now a person hearing that story might conclude the people who drive the toll roads of Delaware are very poor and therefore should be excused for not paying the tolls; or he might conclude the riders of Delaware’s pay-expressways are a forgetful people and misplaced the envelope or couldn’t remember the amount they owed. Some folks (although I am not one of them) might think the folks on Delaware’s toll roads are an unscrupulous lot, far more dishonest than the real honest people who hail from where we live. Of course you might come to the right conclusion: the Lord and Jeremiah were correct – human hearts are dishonest and deceitful. In truth, the people on Delaware’s toll roads aren’t worse than we are; they are the same as we are.

Which is why, just like Adam and Eve, people try to find excuses – brilliant, creative excuses, to justify their wrong actions, words, and thoughts. And we can get creative. In 1980, a Boston court found Michael Tindall innocent of flying illegal drugs into the United States. Michael claimed to be a victim of Action Addict Syndrome, a malady which made him yearn for dangerous situations. In Oregon, a court cleared a man of attempting to kill his wife. The man said his Depression-Suicide Syndrome made him plan his wife’s murder so poorly, he really wanted to get caught or killed by the police. Some of you may remember Dan White who said his binging on junk food caused him to murder San Francisco’s mayor, George Moscone. White’s excuse eventually came to be known as the “Twinkie Syndrome.”

Now, I am not a judge, jury, therapist, or witness for or against any accused. I do know the day is coming when we will stand before the Lord and He will judge us. Standing before Him with nothing hidden and all revealed, there will be no excuses which can get us off the hook; no loophole through which we can crawl, no attorney’s words which might justify our actions. On that day, because of who we are and what we have done, we will be condemned. On that day, on our own, without any excuses, we will be lost.

Unless…

That is a very big unless. We will be lost unless Jesus Christ is our Savior and Lord.

If Jesus is our Savior, the price for our sins has been paid; if Jesus is our Savior, the penalty for our transgression has been erased; if Jesus is our Savior, death’s stranglehold on our souls has been broken. If Jesus is our Savior, we have been delivered from this body of death and we are, with Paul, able to say, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” If Jesus is our Savior, we are forgiven and saved. On the outside we are forgiven; on the inside, forgiven. From stem to stern, top to bottom, in this world and the next, we are forgiven. Jesus will have given us a real, a complete, a total, and eternal makeover.

My friends, do you like the way you look? I mean on the inside? Today I am sharing the Savior. He can bring about a wonderful, lasting change in your mind, your heart, your soul, your eternity. Please call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.

LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for July 6, 2008
Myanmar

ANNOUNCER: The people of Myanmar desperately need our help. I’m Mark Eischer, and I’m talking today with my colleague Dr. Walt Winters who is The Lutheran Hour Director of International Ministries. About a month ago, cyclone Nargis devastated the country of Myanmar. It generated a twelve-foot high storm surge and 130 mile per hour winds that caused wide-spread damage and left approximately 150,000 people missing or dead. Well, that was a month ago. Walt, what’s the present situation?

WINTERS: The present situation is that the people are homeless, they’re without relatives, and without sanitary and safe places to stay. In most cases, the people were forced to go back from the refugee camps and so they went back to virtually just a piece of land. And they had to put up a piece of plastic and a couple of bamboo poles, and that’s where they’re living.

ANNOUNCER: So people are just living totally out in the open with no resources whatsoever?

WINTERS: Yes, that’s the current situation, and in spite of that they also have the desperation of the relatives that they lost.

ANNOUNCER: What specific dangers are the people facing right now?

WINTERS: I think the dangers are really sickness, because they don’t have safe water, they don’t have food, and they are also without hope.

ANNOUNCER: Lutheran Hour Ministries has operated a ministry center in Myanmar called “Word of Hope.” We’ve been there for nine years. How are our co-workers affected?

WINTERS: Some of our co-workers were affected a little bit because the typhoon actually hit Yangon, but by and large our office is safe and they were able to, with help from the Garuna Foundation who gave a gift immediately for assistance, they were able to distribute blankets, rice, mats, clean water, and some food products that helped them to get over the hump immediately.

ANNOUNCER: Could you describe for us in specific terms some of the individual hardships or individual stories that they heard about as they were working with the people right away?

WINTERS: Yes, actually our Area Counselor was there and she was able to travel to the area. I remember she was telling me, for example, a grandfather and his son – it was a family of 16 people before – and that’s the only two that were left. Then, you have in some cases, a few children, and they have no parents left. They are looking for their grandparents, they’re looking for their aunts and uncles, and they can’t find them. The devastation is just absolutely unbelievable. You’re talking about 150,000 that are either dead or missing.

ANNOUNCER: What is Lutheran Hour Ministries doing right now to help the people of Myanmar?

WINTERS: We’re actually doing two things. One is, in this situation we work with the local churches and congregations to provide a word of hope. And our Ministry Center is called the “Word of Hope.” Along with them we want to give out aid – that is pure water wherever we can, blankets, mats, whatever we can, in order to give a word of hope and demonstrate the message as Christ did that He cares about the whole person.

ANNOUNCER: Now, why do you believe that Lutheran Hour Ministries will be successful in getting this aid into the country when other organizations have been turned away?

WINTERS: The difference with Lutheran Hour Ministries is that we’re actually registered as a local organization in Myanmar. And so we have the protection of the government because they know who we are, and we are not regarded as foreigners. So, they trust us and they allow us to work, and we really appreciate having that “in,” so to say, that we’re not hassled to distribute aid.

ANNOUNCER: If our listeners would like to help support this effort to bring aid to the cyclone survivors, you can call our toll-free number 1-800-876-9880. We’ve been talking with Dr. Walt Winters. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.

Music selections for this program:

“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC

“Christ, the Word of God Incarnate” performed by Dan Suelzle. Text © 2001 Steven P. Mueller.

“Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness” arr. Chris Loemker. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC

“Preludio” by Arcangelo Corelli. From Charles Callahan Plays the Organ of the Church of the Holy Family by Charles Callahan (© 1997 Charles Callahan)