Who Are You? "Man Looks On The Outward Appearance"

God looks on the heart ...

"... Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."  1 Sam. 16:7

We are not what we think we are, but what we THINK ... we are.

Each Nation and each human life is like a stage, and what the audience sees is as a single bay window into one room of a much larger house full "things", thoughts, words and secrets.... back stage.  No one is exactly what they appear to be ... on the stage; some are better and some are worse.  Transparency is a good goal, but, like personal holiness, within our selves, we never quite reach it.  Some more closely than others.  But the only true  righteousness we have is God's which He has placed upon us by grace, not our good works. Isaiah declared that God had clothed him with the garments of salvation and covered him with the robe of righteousness". Isa.61:10.

So it is with we Christians.

An interesting thing about holiness is, that the more of it a person possesses, the least likely they are to see it in themselves.  One attribute of holiness is absolute humility which broadens and deepens our sensitivity to our own tendencies to sin.  So true holiness increases our awareness of the awfulness of sin in the eyes of God and drives us to an attitude of repentance, not pride in our own "holiness", however great.

The most sensitive repenters are those who live closest to our Holy God.  He is the very essence of holiness which throws more light on sin the closer we walk with Him.

When Jesus told his Apostles, in Mark 14:18-19, "one of you shall betray me", it wasn't the saints in the streets which questioned, "Is it I", but it was those closest to Him, His Apostles.  They had some fleeting doubts about themselves, knowing their own human flaws.

So if I ask, "Lord, am I a holy man?", my opinion is, "No, I am only saved by the Grace of God, covered by His own righteousness", not mine.  Whatever God's judgement is, of me, it is far beyond  my comprehension. But of this I am sure; I am saved by grace through faith and that not of myself but it is a gift of God not of works lest I should boast. Eph.2:8

Boasting pride is the nemesis of holiness. RB