Our Disguises Are Worthless

“Go disguise yourself, so they won’t know that you’re Jeroboam’s wife,…” – 1 Kings 14.2, CSB

Why do we think that the disguises we wear are effective before the Lord? 

Here, in 1 Kings 14, Jeroboam’s son, Abijah, fell ill. Jeroboam led the people of Israel to sin against the Lord in ways that no other king before him had done. And this sin angered the Lord. God confronted Jeroboam about this, telling him through an unnamed prophet about God’s judgment against him and his descendants. So Jeroboam’s plan was for his wife to disguise herself and go to the prophet Ahijah, who was blind, in order to obtain a favorable word from the Lord. But the problem with his plan was that even though God’s prophet was blind, God wasn’t. And Ahijah started off his conversation with her saying, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you disguised? I have bad news for you.” (1 Kings 14.6, CSB) 

The disguise didn’t work.

Our disguising ourselves has been going on since the third chapter of the Bible when Adam and Eve made “clothing” out of leaves to cover their nakedness and then hid themselves when they heard God walking in the garden in the cool of day looking for them (Genesis 3.7-8). Why do we do it? Why do we keep going back to tricks that are not effective? Here are a few reasons that come to mind.

Because of sin.

Perhaps you read this and know that the Holy Spirit has been convicting you for some time over your sin. I’m not talking about the sinful desires of the flesh that we, as followers of Jesus, wage war against daily. That’s a battle that we will continue to fight until we stand before Jesus in glory. Instead, I’m talking about the deliberate and active rebellion that you’re living in that you think you’re getting away with. You may even be disguising yourself as walking with the Lord while your sin entangles your soul. You have kept things quiet and flown below the radar so that no one sees. However, God sees. He sees it all. And the conviction you are experiencing is both his warning and his invitation to confess your sin, repent of it, and come to Him. But instead of getting rid of your disguise, you add to it. And the same cycle continues to spiral you out of control, or the control you think you have.

Because of shame.

Perhaps you read this and feel the crushing weight of the guilt and shame of your past. You wish you could go back and change that one thing so that your life would look completely different today. But you can’t. So, you continue to disguise yourself as being fine while, in reality, you’re anything but fine. “No one can know.” “What would people think of me if they knew what I did?” So, you continue to add to your disguise, but the weight of constantly adding pieces to your disguise leaves you feeling even more burdened.

Because of fear.

Perhaps you read this and are afraid of what people would think if you were honest about the struggles that you currently face. You’re a follower of Jesus, yet you continue to struggle and, at times, fail against the temptations that plague you. And with each failure, you feel like a failure. You’re supposed to be victorious, and yet you feel defeated. So, instead of confessing your sins and brokenness to God and others in order to find healing (James 5.16), you disguise yourself and try to fight alone. And that fear also makes you afraid, afraid to be honest before the Lord. It causes you to question the grace and mercy of God. It causes you not to believe that the mercies of God are new every single morning (Lamentations 3.22-23). It makes you think that God is not for you but against you. So you add more to your disguise.

But there’s a remedy.

I know my list of reasons behind our disguises is not exhaustive. If your reason is not listed, please add it. Acknowledge it and admit it. But then move away from it and move toward God’s remedy. And here it is:

Get honest. 

I mean, get real and raw before the Lord and get honest. Look at how honest Paul was when he wrote to the Christians in Rome.

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave under sin. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. 21 So I discover this law:, When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me. 22 For in my inner self I delight in God’s law, 23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body,, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. – Romans 7.14-23, CSB

Paul struggled. His sinful desires frustrated him. He longed to live his life in complete obedience and surrender to Jesus. Yet, he struggled. He did things that weren’t good. He desired things that weren’t from the Lord. He cried out, confessing his wretchedness with a question that we, too, ask from a place of hopelessness: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7.24, CSB) And still, even amid his struggle against his sinful desires, he exclaimed this with life-giving hope: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7.25, CSB).

But don’t stop there. Move on to what he says next.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, 2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, 4 in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. – Romans 8.1-4, CSB

There is no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus. I have held on to the hope found in Romans 8.1 for years. It has been a constant in my life, a verse I return to time and time again to be reminded that I’m free from the condemnation that my sin deserves. But it wasn’t until this morning, as I continued to read Romans 8, that God revealed even more. “God condemned sin in the flesh by sending his Son.” God does not condemn me. Rather, he condemned my sin by sending Jesus. 

My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one. 2 He himself is the atoning sacrifice, for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world. – 1 John 2.1-2, CSB

22 The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe, since there is no distinction. 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as the mercy seat, by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus. – Romans 3.22-26, CSB

Read those verses again. And then again. And at least one more time.

Our disguises are worthless. They do nothing for us that helps us. Instead, they keep us away from the intimate fellowship that God desires with us. They keep us away from each other. They keep us away from freedom from sin and the guilt and shame that plague us. They may make us look presentable for a time, but after a while, it becomes obvious that we’re just wearing a costume.