Don’t be satisfied with natural, fleshly, religiosity

Hebrews 10:1 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Today’s encouragement is to not trust in the old covenant of works and observing and performing divine regulations. We learn the defects of such worship from the author of Hebrews in this verse. Since the Law, the old covenant, has only a shadow of the good things revealed in Jesus Christ, let’s be sure we don’t think God is pleased by our working the shadows. The continual annual sacrifices for sin were powerless to make any worshipper perfect in conscience.  Have you noticed that the continued things you do of a religious nature, week after week, are just as powerless as the repeated sacrificial offerings were in the tabernacle? Does the good really outweigh the bad in your conscience? No, your conscience is still aware of your sins. I read this in Ezekiel 18:24 today. “But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity and does according to all the abominations that a wicked man does, will he live? All his righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered for his treachery which he has committed and his sin which he has committed; for them he will die.”  Outward religious practices without the worship of the whole heart are meaningless to God. They must be done out of love for God by the power of the Holy Spirit for God to be pleased with them. Without the life and love of Jesus gushing out through our worship, the activity amounts to nothing more than dead works. I remember reading about one of the missionaries in China during the Shantung revival in the late 1920’s. Someone was praying in the congregation, and the missionary interrupted the prayer, saying something like this. “Dead man’s language. Dead man’s language. Give us someone who can pray.” The missionary wasn’t being harsh or critical. The Spirit of God was not pleased with natural, fleshly religiosity.  So today, let this verse encourage us not to be satisfied with natural, fleshly religiosity. May we love God by worshipping Him and loving others in the power of the Holy Spirit, filled with the glory of God.