Final Unmasking

Third Series – Sermon Thirty-Five

Original by George MacDonald

Paraphrase by Dale R. Howie

The very idea of being unmasked—that everything hidden within us will one day be brought into the light—is terrifying to most of us. In the Final Unmasking, MacDonald continues the discussion of righteousness begun in the previous sermon. There he redefined righteousness from the Western idea of legal rightness to the biblical vision of relational rightness. He moves us from contractual thinking to covenantal life.

Here MacDonald asks the question that quietly lives in every heart:

“Will all my weaknesses, evil habits, pettinesses, and wrong thoughts I cannot help be revealed to all?”

How we answer that question depends entirely upon who we believe God to be.

If our God is merely a judge, we will hide among the trees as Adam and Eve did. If He is our Father, we will run into His arms and ask Him to expose everything that keeps us from becoming His children in fullness. The issue is not whether God will reveal us, but what kind of God is doing the revealing.

Throughout this sermon MacDonald argues that every judgment of the Father is redemptive. God does not reveal evil because His holiness demands exposure, but because His love desires liberation. He uncovers only to heal. He reveals only to restore. His purpose is always to free His children from everything that is unlike love.

There is no freedom while selfishness remains our master. There is no lasting joy in taking. There is no true life wherever separation triumphs over union.

Heaven is, and forever will be, the condition of heart and mind in which God's children live as one body, sharing together in the mutual life and love of the Father, Son, and Spirit.

 

Outline

Sermon Question:  Do you love the truth more than yourself?

 

    P1 - Loving Righteousness — Our Father chooses relationship over control so that we may freely become like Him.

       P2 - Being Hypocrites — The desire to appear righteous must give way to the desire to become righteous.

          P3 - Being Misunderstood — Jesus willingly endured misunderstanding because He lived before His Father rather than before the opinions of men.

               Theme - Being Unmasked — God's unveiling is not for humiliation but for the freedom of His children.

          R3 - The Terrible Unveiling — The greatest horror is discovering that we loved being right more than loving what is right.

       R2 - Treachery — Self-love, left unchecked, can betray both God and neighbor while still wearing the garments of religion.

    R1 - Justice — Divine justice reaches its fulfillment in repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, and restored fellowship.

 

Loving Righteousness

Question: Do I love what is true?

Our Father is not a God who hides, but one who reveals. Everything He does in relation to His children is an act of revelation. He continually reveals more of Himself so that we may know Him more fully, draw nearer to Him, and walk more closely with Him. If anything remains hidden from us, it is not because God is concealing it, but because we are not yet able to see it.

It is not irreverent to say that God cannot accomplish everything at once. Love itself requires time. God never abandons His purpose, but He often delays its fulfillment in order to accomplish something greater. He has given humanity a genuine place within His purposes and the freedom to participate in them. Our choices matter. Even our resistance becomes part of the journey by which He brings us into a deeper and more glorious restoration.

Our Father chooses relationship over control so that we may become like Himself and give ourselves freely to the truth. He made us capable of choosing wrongly so that we might also freely choose what is right. Forced obedience cannot produce righteousness. Only love freely chosen can make us children who truly resemble our Father.

The movement of everything toward the light is revealed by our Lord in several places throughout the Gospels.

In Luke 8:16 He teaches that no one lights a lamp only to hide it beneath a basket or a bed. The light is meant to shine. Those who have received it are to become participants in its revelation.

In Luke 12:2 He declares that the light will expose hypocrisy.

In Matthew 10:25–26 He tells His disciples not to fear opposition, for nothing hidden will remain hidden forever.

In each case Jesus reveals the same principle. Neither the righteous nor the unrighteous can hide forever. Everything is moving toward the light because the Father is moving everything toward the truth.

Being Hypocrites

"Beware," the Lord says, "for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known."

What is hypocrisy?

Do I love appearing true more than becoming true.

It is the desire to appear better than we really are. It is hiding those things we know ought not to be there because we would be ashamed if others knew them. Doing wrong is evil enough, but hiding it in order to preserve our image is worse still.

The hypocrite is not the one who struggles with weakness. The hypocrite is the one who hides his weakness because he desires the appearance of righteousness more than righteousness itself.

The real question, then, is not whether we possess weaknesses, but whether we are becoming more transparent before God. Are we ashamed because we have not yet become more open? Are we resisting the temptation to protect our image instead of surrendering ourselves to the truth?

Our Lord has no thought He would be ashamed to reveal before His Father or before His universe. Neither will He be satisfied until His children live in that same freedom. He encourages us to persevere with His promise that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled.

The righteousness of the Father is not held before us merely as an impossible ideal to admire. It awakens within us the desire to become like Him. Those who have truly become good are the only ones who are good—not because they have become perfect, but because they desire truth more than appearance.

Answer: Hypocrisy ends when I desire to become righteous more than I desire to appear righteous. God's light is given to transform me, not merely expose me.

 

Being Misunderstood

Question: Do I love the truth more than my reputation?

Jesus also said,

"It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known."

To the one who truly loves righteousness and loves his brothers and sisters, misunderstanding is always painful. Not because reputation has become precious, but because misunderstanding wounds relationship. It is especially inevitable whenever someone begins living by principles beyond the understanding of those around him.

Those who are only half-hearted in their pursuit of Christ often appoint themselves guardians of righteousness. They condemn the very things they have not yet learned to recognize.

Our Lord Himself was accused of being a drunkard, a glutton, and a friend of sinners. Were He walking among us today, many who proudly call themselves Christians might accuse Him in much the same way. Jesus lived from a righteousness higher than they understood. He acted from depths of virtue they admired in theory but had never experienced in life.

He endured their accusations without resentment because His life was lived before His Father rather than before the opinions of men. If they called the Master the devil, should His servants expect better treatment?

So long as people identify themselves as Christians for reasons other than belonging wholly to Christ, becoming children of the Father, and dying to themselves, they will continue to misunderstand those who follow Him most faithfully.

Therefore, do not hesitate to speak the truth. Never allow the fear of labels or criticism to silence the gospel.

Few who have sincerely sought to obey Christ have escaped misunderstanding, disappointment, false accusations, or misrepresentation. Often these things come from those who have themselves benefited from our love. Such experiences reveal how deeply humanity still needs the transforming work of righteousness.

How many hear the words, "Be not conformed to this world," without realizing that what we often call culture, society, or public opinion is precisely the world to which we have already conformed? Those who are governed by what others think have already surrendered themselves to its authority.

The righteous person does not allow culture to become the judge of what is right. He lives under the direction of Jesus Christ and is therefore free from the judgment of the world.

Let us simply do what is right toward our brothers and sisters without becoming enslaved to the opinions of others. Truth needs no defense beyond itself. One day every misunderstanding will be removed. No false judgment will accompany us into eternity. We shall stand among those who know us as we truly are.

The question each of us must answer is this:

Are we preparing ourselves for that unveiling?

Do we love the truth enough to welcome—even if only with trembling—the exposure of everything within us that remains unknown to ourselves? Are we willing to discover that some of the wrongs we believed others committed against us were actually misunderstandings within our own hearts?

It may be, for instance, that you were mistaken about what you believed were wrongs committed against you, while all the time waiting for the judgment of God to vindicate your cause.

Will you welcome whatever the truth reveals, even if it excuses another by exposing something false within yourself? Will you rejoice to discover that you were wrong when you believed someone else was? Can you gladly surrender your own vindication if it means your brother or sister is found more innocent than you imagined?

If we can meet such revelations with humility, then we are of the truth and need not fear the unveiling. Whatever the truth reveals will make us more faithful, more humble, and more pure.

Answer: If I truly love the truth, I will not live for the approval of others. I will even welcome the possibility that God's judgment may reveal I was wrong, if it leads me into greater humility and love.

 

Being Unmasked

Question: Will I welcome the truth about myself?

Does the Lord mean that everything we have done or thought will one day be laid open before the universe?

Yes, I believe so, as far as it is necessary. Whatever must be revealed will be revealed to those who have known us, loved us, and to those who will know us in the ages to come. The purpose is not our humiliation, but that we may be truly known. Everything in God's kingdom moves toward revelation, never toward concealment or misunderstanding.

Who, in such a kingdom of light, would desire concealment or choose misunderstanding? Concealment belongs to darkness; misunderstanding is its fog. Every child of God will gladly leave the door of his house open, for it is the temple of the living God. There will be nothing to hide and everything worthy of being seen. Such is the glory of God's kingdom. Every person's light will shine for the blessing and joy of his neighbor.

"But will all my weaknesses, evil habits, pettinesses, and wrong thoughts that I cannot help be revealed to everyone?"

Yes, if they continue to constitute your character—if they have become the settled direction of your life. But if you are honestly fighting them, if you have come out of the darkness and are walking toward the light, they do not define who you truly are becoming. You may trust your Father that what He has cured, what He is curing, and what He has forgiven will no longer define you. If some of these things must yet be seen, then only the truth of them will be seen—that they are battles you have fought, not sins you have cherished.

God will be fair with you—fair with the fairness of a Father who loves His own. He is determined to have you clean. He will spare you no necessary shame, yet neither will He expose you to any shame that serves no redemptive purpose. The things we have overcome are dead and forgotten, or if remembered, our Father Himself will comfort us. "If any man sin, we have a Comforter with the Father." We may trust Him with our past as completely as we trust Him with our future.

Nothing can ultimately harm us so long as we do not hide from the truth. As long as we are willing to face it honestly, whatever it reveals will become another step in our healing.

To be divinely ashamed is a holy and blessed thing. Such shame belongs only to those who truly desire to be free, not to those who merely wish to preserve appearances. It is the difference between passing an examination and entering into the heart of the lesson itself.

Therefore, in our Father's name, let us have nothing we are unwilling to bring into His light. Let us be ready to meet whatever truth comes to meet us. To bow our heads in humble repentance is not humiliation—it is to be immersed in the cleansing waters of truth itself.

Answer: Yes, because my Father's purpose is not to shame me but to free me. Whatever He reveals, He reveals to heal. Whatever He uncovers, He uncovers so that it may no longer define me.

 

The Terrible Unveiling

Question: Do I love being right more than what is right?

As to the ways in which God reveals His truth, I need not speak further. From the beginning He has been revealing Himself through His prophets, through His Son, and through all who love the truth. He has never ceased revealing Himself and never will.

But there is another kind of revelation of which we must speak. It is the unveiling of evil for what it truly is.

The most terrible revelation is not that of God to man, but of a person to himself. What horror awaits the one whose pleasure has been increased by the suffering of others; one who, though despised by every honest conscience, has never truly seen what he has become. What a fearful awakening when his eyes are finally opened and he sees himself as God has always seen him. Imagine awakening in a single moment to find the eyes of the universe fixed upon you, while at that same instant seeing yourself exactly as they see you. What an awakening! An awakening into the full blaze of truth, reality, and self-awareness.

Think what it will be for one who has counted himself religious, orthodox, and exemplary to discover that there was no true religion of love within him—only love of self. No love of what is right, only a great love of being right. What a dreadful unveiling for the one who loved appearances more than righteousness itself.

Among those who may experience the sharpest awakening are the wealthy who have never recognized the injustice hidden beneath their generosity. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus warns us that prosperity can easily disguise a hardened heart. A person may believe himself one of God's elect while remaining blind to the suffering at his own gate.

Money, perhaps the most subtle of all idols, promises independence while quietly teaching us self-sufficiency. It persuades us that we have no need of others and, ultimately, no need of God. Whether inside or outside the church, it remains one of the most worshiped of all false gods. The terrible unveiling will expose not merely the misuse of wealth, but the self-centered heart that trusted in wealth instead of love.

Of all who will stand in deepest sorrow, perhaps none will grieve more than those who knowingly betrayed their brothers and sisters. They will discover that the very life they built was founded upon pretense. While claiming friendship, they used others for their own advantage. While speaking of unity, they created division. Dante placed such treachery in the lowest circle of hell. If there is one thing that stands in complete opposition to the heart of God, it is the betrayal of love.

Answer: The greatest horror is not being judged by God, but discovering that I loved myself more than righteousness. True repentance begins when I value truth above my own self-image.

 

Treachery

Question: Will I allow the truth to expose my self-love?

Do not imagine Judas to be the only one of whom our Lord could say, "Better were it for that man if he had never been born."

Were those words spoken in personal anger, or did Jesus reveal a spiritual reality? Did He speak because He Himself had been betrayed, or because He pitied the one who had become a betrayer? Was He declaring the fearful consequences awaiting Judas, or grieving over the tragedy of a soul that had become capable of such treachery?

The greatest tragedy is not merely to betray another, but to awaken to the realization that we ourselves have become that kind of person.

"O God," we think, "how terrible if it were me!"

Yet that is precisely the point.

How terrible that it should be Judas—and how necessary it is that each of us ask whether the same seed lies hidden within ourselves. Have I never acted from the same root of selfishness? Have I never allowed self-love to govern my choices? Left to grow unchecked, that same seed could one day bear the bitter fruit of treachery.

Except I come to love my neighbor as myself, I too possess the capacity to betray both my brother and my Lord.

Therefore, let us be compassionate, humble, and hopeful for every person.

A person may descend so gradually that he scarcely realizes what he is becoming. He may continue to think of himself as a faithful churchman, a respectable Christian, or a defender of truth while repeatedly violating the quiet voice of conscience. Such a life cannot continue forever without awakening.

Some never truly see the darkness within themselves until it is exposed before everyone. Then the crowd stares with self-righteous eyes, condemning sins unlike their own while remaining blind to the same spirit living within themselves. One condemns greed while harboring pride. Another denounces immorality while cherishing hatred. Different sins often spring from the same root.

There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed.

What if Judas himself could not have awakened in any other way? What if the only path left was for his betrayal to run its dreadful course until he finally saw himself?

Judas did not hate his Master when he kissed Him. His tragedy was far more subtle. His love of self proved stronger than his love for Christ. Not being a true man, his very love betrayed him.

The righteous person, aware of his own capacity for evil and refusing every refuge from the light, welcomes the exposure of corruption as another victory of truth. Every unveiling of hypocrisy, whether in ourselves or another, becomes God's gracious interference on behalf of His children.

The only victory truth can ever achieve is its recognition within the heart of the one who has lived the lie.

Its triumph comes when a person is no longer content merely to say, "I was blind, but now I see," but instead cries,

"Lord God, just and true, let me perish if I must, but let Your truth endure forever. Let me live because You live. Save me from myself—from the lie I have nourished within me and even called righteousness. Hallowed be Your name, for You alone are true. You alone love perfectly. You alone are holy because You alone are humble. You alone have never sought Your own, but always the good of Your children. Yes, O Father, be true, though every man prove a liar."

There is no satisfaction in revenge for the one who has been wronged. The greatest punishment the sinner can ever experience is to see himself truthfully. No suffering imposed from outside can equal the agony of discovering what selfishness has made of us. Neither can revenge satisfy the injured heart. So long as the wrongdoer refuses the truth, neither justice nor reconciliation can reach their completion. 

Answer: The seed of Judas lives wherever self-love rules the heart. The victory of truth comes when I recognize that seed within myself and surrender it to God.

 

Justice

Question: Will I rejoice when the truth restores my brother?

Therefore, while the satisfaction of justice is an unavoidable and eternal reality, the satisfaction of revenge is an eternal impossibility.

The sinner's vision of himself becomes both the beginning and the measure of his punishment. The moment he sees himself truthfully, justice begins to accomplish its work. That awakening marks the beginning of his transformation into a righteous man.

At that moment the offended brother also begins to change. Seeing genuine repentance, he can no longer cling to resentment. Instead, he receives the offender back into his heart with greater tenderness than before. The one who was dead is alive again. The one who was lost has been found.

Here the great opposites meet.

Here the extremes of divine judgment and divine mercy embrace.

The wheel has come full circle.

I can imagine no greater agony than to see myself as vile through my own choices and actions. Yet neither can I imagine any greater joy, short of being one with God, than to see the heaven of forgiveness opened before me. There the shining stair appears once again, leading home to the Father's house, where He has been waiting all along for His child's return.

So, friends, however deeply we have been wronged, revenge has no place in the universe of God. Justice is never fulfilled by another's suffering, but by the triumph of truth, repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

The day will come when the one who has wronged me sees himself as he truly is. When that day comes, my own heart must be ready to bury his sin rather than preserve my grievance.

Let us, therefore, anticipate our forgiveness.

Does anyone dare suppose that Jesus would have us hate Judas, through whom He went to the cross?

Can we imagine Him asking us to withhold forgiveness from the one for whom He gave Himself?

We have not yet sounded the depths of forgiveness required of those who would truly be His disciples.

How, then, will our friends know us on that day?

Will they rejoice because they discover we were better than they imagined? Or will they grieve because we were less?

Perhaps many misunderstandings will also disappear. Many veils will be removed, not only from evil, but from goodness that was hidden beneath mistaken judgments. Faces once clouded by suspicion will shine with the beauty of truth. Relationships long burdened by misunderstanding will finally be healed.

Whatever disappointments remain, every sorrow will be swallowed up in the all-sufficient joy of God's kingdom.

Those who have welcomed the truth, even when it humbled them, now stand at the threshold of the kingdom. They are ready to enter ever more fully into the inheritance of the saints in light, where nothing remains hidden except the endless wonders still waiting to be revealed.

Answer: Divine justice is fulfilled not by revenge but by reconciliation. If I truly love the truth, I will rejoice when my brother is restored, just as the Father rejoices.

Sermon Answer: Then welcome every work of God that reveals the truth. Love righteousness more than reputation, truth more than appearances, your brother more than your own vindication, and you need never fear the final unveiling. For the Father's purpose in revealing the truth is always to restore His children into His likeness and into fellowship with one another.

 

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Continue your Quest . . .

Next Sermon - Abba, Father!

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CLIFF NOTES WITH MACDONALD’S ORIGINAL QUOTES

 

Loving Righteousness

 

“He gave man the power to thwart his will, that, by means of that same power, he might come at last to do his will in a higher kind and way than would otherwise have been possible to him. God sacrifices his will to man that man may become such as himself, and give all to the truth; he makes man able to do wrong, that he may choose and love righteousness.”

 

Being Hypocrites

 

“What is hypocrisy? The desire to look better than you are; the hiding of things you do, because you would not be supposed to do them, because you would be ashamed to have them known where you are known. The doing of them is foul; the hiding of them, in order to appear better than you are, is fouler still.”

 

Being Misunderstood

 

“The Lord himself was accused of being a drunkard and a keeper of bad company—and perhaps would in the present day be so regarded by not a few calling themselves by his name, and teaching temperance and virtue. He lived upon a higher spiritual platform than they understand, acted from a height of the virtues they would inculcate, loftier than their eyes can scale.

 How many hear and accept the words, 'Be not conformed to this world,' without once perceiving that what they call Society and bow to as supreme, is the World and nothing else, or that those who mind what people think, and what people will say, are conformed to—that is, take the shape of—the world. The true man feels he has nothing to do with Society as judge or lawgiver: he is under the law of Jesus Christ, and it sets him free from the law of the World.

 What I mean to ask is, Do you so love the truth and the right, that you welcome, or at least submit willingly to the idea of an exposure of what in you is yet unknown to yourself—an exposure that may redound to the glory of the truth by making you ashamed and humble?”

 

Being Unmasked

 

“Who in the kingdom will desire concealment, or be willing to misunderstand? Concealment is darkness; misunderstanding is a fog. A man will hold the door open for anyone to walk into his house, for it is a temple of the living God—with some things worth looking at, and nothing to hide. The glory of the true world is, that there is nothing in it that needs to be covered, while ever and ever there will be things uncovered. Every man's light will shine for the good and glory of his neighbour.

 'Will all my weaknesses, all my evil habits, all my pettinesses, all the wrong thoughts which I cannot help—will all be set out before the universe?'

Yes, if they so prevail as to constitute your character—that is, if they are you. But if you have come out of the darkness, if you are fighting it, if you are honestly trying to walk in the light, you may hope in God your father that what he has cured, what he is curing, what he has forgiven, will be heard of no more, not now being a constituent part of you. Or if indeed some of your evil things must yet be seen, the truth of them will be seen—that they are things you are at strife with, not things you are cherishing and brooding over.

 God will be fair to you—so fair!—fair with the fairness of a father loving his own—who will have you clean, who will neither spare you any needful shame, nor leave you exposed to any that is not needful. The thing we have risen above, is dead and forgotten, or if remembered, there is God to comfort us. 'If any man sin, we have a comforter with the Father.' We may trust God with our past as heartily as with our future. It will not hurt us so long as we do not try to hide things, so long as we are ready to bow our heads in hearty shame where it is fit we should be ashamed.

For to be ashamed is a holy and blessed thing. Shame is a thing to shame only those who want to appear, not those who want to be. Shame is to shame those who want to pass their examination, not those who would get into the heart of things. In the name of God let us henceforth have nothing to be ashamed of, and be ready to meet any shame on its way to meet us. For to be humbly ashamed is to be plunged in the cleansing bath of the truth.”

 

The Terrible Unveiling

 

“The only terrible, or at least the supremely terrible revelation is that of a man to himself. What a horror will it not be to a vile man—more than all to a man whose pleasure has been enhanced by the suffering of others—a man that knew himself such as men of ordinary morals would turn from with disgust, but who has hitherto had no insight into what he is—what a horror will it not be to him when his eyes are opened to see himself as the pure see him, as God sees him! Imagine such a man waking all at once, not only to see the eyes of the universe fixed upon him with loathing astonishment, but to see himself at the same moment as those eyes see him! What a waking!—into the full blaze of fact and consciousness, of truth and violation!

 To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself!

 Or think what it must be for a man counting himself religious, orthodox, exemplary, to perceive suddenly that there was no religion in him, only love of self; no love of the right, only a great love of being in the right! What a discovery—that he was simply a hypocrite—one who loved to appear, and was not!”

 

Treachery

 

“'O God,' we think, 'how terrible if it were I!' Just so terrible is it that it should be Judas! And have I not done things with the same germ in them, a germ which, brought to its evil perfection, would have shown itself the canker-worm, treachery? Except I love my neighbour as myself, I may one day betray him! Let us therefore be compassionate and humble, and hope for every man.

 A man may sink by such slow degrees that, long after he is a devil, he may go on being a good churchman or a good dissenter, and thinking himself a good Christian. Continuously repeated sin against the poorest consciousness of evil must have a dread rousing. There are men who never wake to know how wicked they are, till, lo, the gaze of the multitude is upon them!—the multitude staring with self-righteous eyes, doing like things themselves, but not yet found out; sinning after another pattern, therefore the hardest judges, thinking by condemnation to escape judgment. But there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed. What if the only thing to wake the treacherous, money-loving thief, Judas, to a knowledge of himself, was to let the thing go on to the end, and his kiss betray the Master? Judas did not hate the Master when he kissed him, but not being a true man, his very love betrayed him.

 The only triumph the truth can ever have is its recognition by the heart of the liar. Its victory is in the man who, not content with saying, 'I was blind and now I see,' cries out, 'Lord God, just and true, let me perish, but endure thou! Let me live because thou livest, because thou savest me from the death in myself, the untruth I have nourished in me, and even called righteousness! Hallowed be thy name, for thou only art true; thou only lovest; thou only art holy, for thou only art humble! Thou only art unselfish; thou only hast never sought thine own, but the things of thy children! Yea, O father, be thou true, and every man a liar!'”

 

Justice

 

“Behold the meeting of the divine extremes—the extreme of punishment, the embrace of heaven! They run together; 'the wheel is come full circle.' For, I venture to think, there can be no such agony for created soul, as to see itself vile—vile by its own action and choice. Also I venture to think there can be no delight for created soul—short, that is, of being one with the Father—so deep as that of seeing the heaven of forgiveness open, and disclose the shining stair that leads to its own natural home, where the eternal father has been all the time awaiting this return of his child.

 Let us try to forethink, to antedate our forgiveness. Dares any man suppose that Jesus would have him hate the traitor through whom he came to the cross?”