Today is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent in many churches. It is a time to humble ourselves by realizing our sinful states and our need for a Savior. On Ash Wednesday we "humble" ourselves by having a smudge of ashes placed on our foreheads to remind ourselves and others that "dust we are and to dust we shall we return."

We do it to show others that we are no better than they are, that we are sinners too, in need of God's forgiveness that comes to us through his Son's suffering and death on the cross. During Lent, we realize our sinfulness through the law so that we may rejoice all the more on Easter Sunday when we hear, "He is not dead, he is risen."

In my last article, I talked about the difference between the law and the Gospel. The law kills and destroys in that it shows us our sins and brings us to our knees in humility seeking forgiveness through the mercy and grace of God. We see this happen in Scripture. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah is before the God's throne when he realizes his sinfulness and falls with his face to the ground. He said, "Woe to me for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the Lord God Almighty."

In the New Testament, after Jesus provides the miraculous catch of fish to Peter and the other disciples, Peter realizes his sinful state and falls down on his face and says, "Move away from me Lord for I am a sinful man."

When Moses came down from the mountain after receiving the Ten Commandments from God, his face shown with the brilliance that could only come from being in the presence of Almighty God. When the Israelites saw this brilliance they exclaimed that it was too much for them and they asked Moses to cover himself when he came down from the mountain.

It is the same with us. When confronted with the magnitude and seriousness of our sin, our first reaction is to hide. Take Adam and Eve, a perfect example of the shame of sin. Immediately after they ate of the fruit of the tree of which they were not supposed to eat, they realized that they were naked so they hid.

In today's world, we think we can hide from God. We do things in secret, thinking that no one can see us, when God is right there beside us. We lie and deceive.

Even as Christians, we like to explain or excuse our sin away. Think of all the things you do wrong every day and how you justify it by claiming that you didn't have enough time, that it was a little mistake, that everyone else is doing it, or that it is an accepted practice in society. We do and say these things hoping to justify ourselves. But we know all along that we are only hurting ourselves and our Lord God.

As Christians, we need to confront sin head on, not on our own, but with the power of the Holy Spirit who works through the Scriptures. When someone is sinning openly and unrepentantly, we need to confront that sin so that the person may be saved. We don't do this in a judgmental way, but we "speak the truth in love."

If God's love is not in your heart when confronting another's sin, you will fail in your task of bringing that person to God for forgiveness. If you have not love you are "nothing but a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."

When we are sinning ourselves, we need to come clean, not only to the person or people we are sinning against, but most importantly to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

As long as we continue to dismiss sin by saying things like, "It's not that bad," or "He is doing it too," or "The devil made me do it," we only hurt ourselves and the rest of the church.

When we are confronted with sin and feel the sheer despair that only the true and unadulterated law can bring, we need not remain in despair. We can find perfect comfort and peace in the Gospel.

Martin Luther went through this very thing. As a monk, he felt as though he was keeping the law perfectly. Because he kept it perfectly, he felt as though he was gaining his way to heaven.

As he read deeper into the law, he realized that the harder he tried and the more he worked, the more he failed and the deeper he fell into despair. He had no relief. He had no peace - until he realized what the Gospel was all about as he read passages such as Romans 1:16 and Ephesians 2:8-9.

In these passages, he discovered, "No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather through the law we become conscious of sin" (Romans 3:20). He read a little further and found that there was "a righteousness apart from the law to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe" (Romans 3:21-22).

Through God's word, Martin Luther and millions of others before and after him came to realize their total reliance on God for salvation from first to last, because they couldn't rely on themselves any longer.

It is important that we keep the Law and the Gospel in balance in our lives. It is important that every day, as we are confronted with our sinfulness through the law, that we acknowledge it, confess it, and let the Lord Jesus kill it and remove it from you with the Gospel.

We cannot hide form the law, because no matter where we go or what we do God is there. He knows our very thoughts before they even come into our minds. We cannot excuse it away as being no big deal. We must deal with it face to face. It is how we deal with it that makes the difference. We must deal with it through the means of grace and forgiveness that our Lord God has given us.

I urge you to deal with your sin, so that you are not burdened with it any longer and that "The peace of God which is beyond understanding keeps your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Amen.

What is the law for? I'm not talking about the law as in the laws of the land - although they are based upon the laws to which I'm referring. I am talking about the law set before the people when God gave it to Moses on the mountain: the Ten Commandments. What are they for?

Many people throughout the world view these commandments as rules to live by. Yes, this is one reason we are to live by the law, but is that the only reason that God gave us the law?

What happens when you don't follow that law perfectly? What happens when you look at someone other than your spouse lustfully? For Jesus tells us that anyone who looks at another woman (not his spouse) has already committed adultery in his heart, thus breaking the third commandment. He also tells us that if anyone says, "Racca" (I hate you), to his brother, he has already committed murder in his heart. Or what about all of those times that you held money in higher esteem and with more value than you did the Lord? Didn't you break the commandment there as well?

Jesus tells us that if we break the commandments at just one point we are guilty of breaking all of it. What good are the Ten Commandments, not to mention the hundreds of other laws, if we don't follow them perfectly?

Well, back when I was in eighth grade confirmation class I learned it this way. The law acts as a curb, a mirror and a rule. It acts as a curb to keep you from straying too far from God and to keep you on track. It is the way that God has given to his people to keep from destroying themselves. The laws of our land are based on this point. They keep us from anarchy and total destruction. They are used to keep the peace.

The second use is as a rule. The verse from the Scriptures, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," has a good application here. The problem is that we would be in big trouble if we stopped there. We would be constantly depressed if this was where we stopped in our use of the law of God, because we would realize how much we fall short on a daily basis.

That leads us to the third use of God's law.

The law also acts as a mirror. As you look at yourself in the mirror and see all of your flaws and blemishes, so you can look at the law and do the same with all of your failures and spiritual blemishes. When you look at the law you can see all of the things that you did that you shouldn't have done: the evil thoughts you had, the things you failed to do and the evil words you spoke.

It is through this use of the law that you are driven to your knees in despair, seeking mercy, grace and forgiveness because you are helpless and hopeless to save yourself.

It is in this way that the law is good. It brings us literally and figuratively to our knees. It helps us to confess that we are poor, miserable sinners. It helps us to forego our pride and put our very lives in the hands of Almighty God who alone has the power to save.

This reminds me of Jeremiah 31:31-34, which I have used several times before, but I want to remind you of it again. In it God tells us that the time is coming when he will make a new covenant with the houses of Israel and Judah. It will not be like the first covenant, which they broke. The difference in this covenant is that it will only be God who is responsible to keep the covenant. In this new covenant, he will forgive our wickedness and remember our sins no more.

In the old covenant under the law, God's people were responsible for keeping all of God's laws and commandments. When they broke the law, they were to offer sacrifices or "sin" offerings. This wasn't necessarily to pay for what they had done wrong or to appease God. It was to help them realize how costly and serious sin is. Too often, these sin offerings were not given with a penitential heart, but only in a dutiful manner, as a way to simply "pay" for sin and keep God off their backs. The offering lost its meaning and effectiveness. The sins remained and the people were dead in trespasses and sins.

Under the new covenant, the gospel, Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, has fulfilled all that we could not fulfill, and paid the penalty that we could not pay. He is the perfect sacrifice for us. He is the sacrifice that paid for all of our sins for all time. Therefore, instead of looking to our own superficial and meaningless sacrifices to appease God or to rid ourselves of sin, we look solely to Jesus, who "takes away the sin of the world."

I urge you, as you look at your life and measure it up to God's perfect law, and as you realize his command to "be perfect therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect," I pray that you come to the conclusion that you are totally lost and condemned.

Then, fall on your knees, and tell God you're sorry. Turn from your sin, knowing that your sins have been forgiven - not because of your confession and repentance or that you turned your life over to him and totally committed yourself to him. Rather, it is because of what Christ has done for you by living a perfect life, dying a perfect death, and rising victoriously over sin, death, the devil and hell.

"Then, the peace which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:7)."