erebus-cross

“The place of circumcision was a huge controversy in the early church. It had a long, respected, biblical place ever since God commanded it in Genesis 17:10. Christ was a Jew. All his twelve apostles were Jews. Almost all the first converts to Christianity were Jews. The Jewish Scriptures were (and are) part of the Bible of the Christian church. It is not surprising that Jewish rituals would come over into the Christian church. The message of Christ was spreading to non-Jewish cities like Antioch of Syria. Gentiles were believing on Christ.  Some in Jerusalem thought it was essential. Antioch became the flash point for the controversy. “Men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised . . . you cannot be saved’” (Acts 15:1). A council was called, and the matter was debated. Some . . . rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.” . . . Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that . . . God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe . . . why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” And all the assembly fell silent. (Acts 15:5-12)”

Reflecting on this statement reminds me that ritual is powerless to saves us.  Yet, ritual and works are not powerless in themselves.  They can and do kill us.  They kill us when we see them as a method of winning favor with God or they become the means or an offering to God towards our salvation.   We do them because we want something from God.  We participate in them because they separate us from those who don’t do them.  The end result is that we have done something, are part of something, attended something, that someone else didn’t and thus we hope God will see this as a plus for us.   Performing ritual is a statement of self-righteousness.  And ritual doesn’t necessarily need to take the form of public religion.  It can take the form of subtle things we do on a regular basis, in the hopes of salvation.  Even our prayer, Bible reading, journaling, quiet time, etc.,  if done for the wrong reasons, can be rituals.  I can say all these things because I was guilty of performing acts in the hopes of salvation.  This is not to say we should not do good works or acts of kindness.  God commands us to do them.  However he commands us to do them in response to our salvation and out of love for him and for his glory;  not for ourselves and our own desires.  The question comes down to our heart’s motivation. The reality is that nothing we can do will ever make up for it.  Yet God himself made up for it through Christ.  God calls us not to look back on our actions in regret, nor to make up for them in religious ritual.  He calls us to repentance and faith, for these are both sources of grace and the results of grace.  Grace is the only ground on which we can stand.

Again, I am reminded of a few verses from an old song Rock of Ages by Augustus M. Toplady

Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

Questions:  Has some ritual replaced your reliance on God’s grace alone for your salvation?  What motivates your ritual?  Have you even felt guilty of something you did and then tried to make up for it by doing “good things” to win God’s favor?  Have you ever considered who assigned the definition of “good” to your works? 

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Rock of Ages:  Augustus M. Toplady, Public Domain

Questions, emphasis and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

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