Book 1 of Musings Adding Religious Practices to Christ
To walk with the living Jesus, to be guided by him in every detail of life, is the highest form of law and righteousness. Any religious routine added to such guidance brings confusion and is loss for Christ.
People universally have a natural bent toward the practices of religion. In the United States there is so much emphasis on the acquisition of material goods that the idea of doing something just to please God is not always popular. Nevertheless numerous American people practice some form of religion, even if it is a self-directed sort of activity such as Yoga.
Because the true Christian salvation actually entails living in the Presence and guidance of the living God, and not some sort of combination of rules that one can follow, it is difficult for the believers to just look to Jesus and do what He says, without adding some observance to it in order to assure one's self that all requirements have been met.
Now here is the problem. There are some Evangelical groups that indeed do say there is nothing one is to do, just believe. The problem here is that while the believers do nothing and just believe, they are missing the other half of the new covenant that they do not understand, which is to live in the Presence and guidance of Jesus.
They are told they are going to Heaven by grace and there is nothing further for them to do except to "go out and get other people saved." Since most Christians do not have the Divine grace necessary to do the work of an evangelist, they end up just attending church and continuing with their daily life as usual. They live under condemnation to a certain extent because they are not doing all the pastor is telling them to do. While they agree with the teaching, they just don't have the grace to practice what is being taught, and so they continue with their ordinary life.
By the way, this practice of sitting and not doing what is taught produces a cynicism and hardening. Once this happens to the believers it is almost impossible to awaken them once God really does move. They have learned to let the preaching just go over their head and continue to play the customary church game.
Because of the void produced by the grace-rapture-Heaven-get other people saved emphasis, some believers are going to Jewish synagogues and embracing the Torah. Why do they do this? It is because they need something to adhere to during their daily life that makes them feel like they are serving God.
So they observe circumcision and the feast days, after all the warnings of the Apostle Paul against returning to the ordinances of the Law of Moses.
Now, adding circumcision and the feast days to the redemption that is in Christ is like gluing feathers on a horse. The feathers won't help the horse run any faster and they look out of place on the animal.
Why won't adding the Jewish observances help with our salvation? It is because our salvation is the forming of Christ in us; it is not the following of religious rules. Our guilt was removed completely through the blood atonement made on the cross. We continue without condemnation provided we are following the Spirit of God each day.
Right here is the problem: we do not understand the necessity for following the Spirit, and we don't know how to follow the Spirit. And so we just attend church and listen to the preacher tell us how we ought to go out and "compel them to come in."
You can't follow the Spirit and observe any part of the Law of Moses or of any other religion. Why is this? Because the Spirit will never lead you to do this. In order to follow the precepts of a religion you have to take your eyes off the Lord and fasten them on your rules.
You can go out and evangelize if the Spirit guides and empowers you to do so, but otherwise you can't. God does not expect you to attempt to perform the work of the ministry apart from the Holy Spirit.
A believer has to learn how to follow the Spirit. How do we do this? We pray every day. We read our Bible every day. We gather together with fervent disciples, if we can find any. If we can't find any fervent disciples who are following the Spirit of God, we try to locate a church that is not confining itself to the popular traditions, and seek fellowship there. Or we meet in our home on a regular basis with others who want to be disciples of the Lord. Leaving an established church can be dangerous because fellowship is important, as is the oversight of godly elders. But it is better than sitting and fretting because of the unscriptural ideas that are preached today.
We need to learn to pray! This is difficult for us Americans because we are people of action. Also, it takes a while before we are enjoying our prayer time. At first our efforts at prayer may be nothing more than an unwelcome interruption of our busy schedule. But when we learn to wait on the Lord, our prayer time becomes the most enjoyable part of our day.
An important aspect of learning to walk in the Spirit is that of bringing every decision to the Lord. I mean every decision of the day, such as what to eat (if we have food); who to talk to and what to say; every aspect of your daily work; when to visit people and when to stay home; how to bring up our children. As the pressures of spiritual darkness come upon America we will have to learn to pray without ceasing if we are to survive.
In the meanwhile Christ is being formed in us.
Can you see what I mean when I say religious practices are a distraction? They do not add to the forming of Christ in us.
Of course, all of us have many duties. We have to do what is set before us. We may not have the option of choosing whether or not to perform the majority of tasks of the day.
Nevertheless we can pray about each step we take, asking for wisdom and guidance. This is how we learn to follow the Spirit of God. And those who are following the Spirit of God enjoy perfect righteousness in the sight of the Lord. This is how the new covenant operates.
Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. (Galatians 6:15)
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