RULES, RITUALS
Why prayer religiously five times a day, Why repent over and over as if God does not take notice of your prayers. Do you really think God is honoured when we sacrifice like this?
The truth is you can never pray enough, you can never fast enough, you can never do enough good deeds for others to earn you way into God’s good book! These things are what religion tells us and yes religion would not be religion without these religious duties performed over and over and over again seeking to God get attention.
Religious works dot make a man better sometimes they make him bitter. I was talking to a Muslim some ytars ago who told me that he was fed up with Islam he said I’ve prayer many times a day to All for over 25 years and he’s never answered my prayers! He was angry frustrated and felt betrayed by his book!
Jesus offers a solution
Look what Jesus said to the religious. ‘But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. 14Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.’ (Matthew 23:27). You think that by praying long prayers repeating yourself over and over you make yourself religious.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. 28Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. (Matthew23:27,28).
Jesus offers a solution, He came to change the system. the cross and his death were the ultimate sacrifice, all other sacrifices were to cease being made by the jews and his followers. He was the ultimate sacrifice and final sacrifice according to the prophets before him.
(Hebrews 10:1- 4) “The law is only a shadow of the good things to come, not the realities themselves. It can never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. Instead, those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
REDEMPTION
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us
The law, however, is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.” 13Christredeemedusfromthecurseof the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written:“ Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”14He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.… (Galatians 3:13,14).
Once for All: Jesus has sacrificed himself once and for all. His sacrifice is a superior one. because his holiness is a superior holiness and his way is a new way. Unlike the repeated sacrifices of the Old Covenant, his sacrifice is eternal Hebrews 10:10 affirms, “And by that will, we have been sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Perfect and Complete: Christ’s sacrifice fulfilled all the requirements of the law, none of us by sacrificing day in and day out can do this His blood is greater than the blood of berasts because he alone is holy and without sin. Hebrews 10:14 states, “For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
Should we pray, yes! but we pray, tythe, go to Gods house, YES! but we do these things out of devotion not out of duty, It’s a love walk! Salvation is God’s gift of righteousness. its a gift that cannot be earned only given. our own righteousness is as filthy rags, God’s righteousness is what we need and its free to the repentant. For if by the trespass of one man death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive and abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ’ (Romans 5:17).
