“Show us Thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us Thy salvation” (Psalm 85:7).

There’s a story about a lady who went to a photographer to have her photo made. When she saw it, she didn’t like it. So she took it back and told the photographer, “You’ll have to take this over.” He asked, “What’s wrong with it?” She said, “It doesn’t do me justice.” He looked at it and looked at her and said, “Lady, you don’t need justice; what you need is mercy.”

When God takes our portrait, we are able to see ourselves in a new light. Unfortunately we don’t like what we see. We have a tendency to think much about ourselves. However, outside of Christ, we are sinners; and from God’s perspective, sin is ugly.

One of the great gifts God gives us is to show us our sin. Only when we see ourselves from His perspective can we begin to understand why we need a Savior. When we see what He sees, we learn that there is nothing we can do to rid us of the ugliness of our sin. Going to church, serving on committees, or doing any of the other stuff that we associate with church, can’t rid us of the ugliness of sin.

Only Jesus can take away the ugliness of our sin and make us acceptable in the eyes of the Father. He does this by giving us the righteousness of God. The Bible says, “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

God is just, and if He were to give us what we deserve, we would be punished for our sin. But God delights in Mercy. So He sent Jesus to suffer judgment in our place. Jesus died on the cross so He could remove the ugliness of our sin. He rose again the third day and ascended to the right hand of the Father so that we might receive the Gift of His righteousness and eternal salvation. But before we can receive these gifts, we have to recognize the ugliness of our sin.

If you have never come to the place where you have seen yourself as a lost sinner before Almighty God and cried out to Him for mercy, then you’ve never been saved. You may have joined a church, but have you thrown yourself on the mercy of God through Christ? Have you said, “Lord God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13)?

God is waiting. Come to Him today.