WE HAVE AN ALTAR!

The people of God are blessed with a degree of participation never known before the glorification of Christ Jesus. In salvation, we become capable of imbibing the Divine Nature--a requisite to eternal life.

"Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come." (Heb 13:9-14).

Devotion 4 of 12

WHAT IS NOT GOOD

The people of God have always been assaulted with legalistic teachers. By "legalistic," I mean more than someone with a penchant for precision. Demanding that the Word of God be exalted, and refusing to allow compromise is not legalism. Rather, legalism is a frame of mind that relies upon procedure rather than God. Trust is in routine rather than the Savior. Spiritual establishment, it is to be remembered, is "not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them" (Heb 13:9, NIV). You cannot affect the heart by external habits. 1,500 years of Law certainly confirms this to be the case.

Look at those who rely upon mere disciplines and liturgies in their efforts to please the Lord! Has it brought them closer to God? Do they know Him more? Are they uprooted from the world? Do they seek a "better country, that is, an heavenly?" Heb 11:16). Are they confident God has received them? (Rom 14:3). Do they know their names are "written in heaven?" (Lk 10:20; Heb 12:23). Are they being "conformed to the image of" God's "Son" (Rom 8:29)? What about a pressing quest to obtain the prize (Phil 3:14). Do they confess they are "strangers and pilgrims in the earth" (Heb 11:13; 1 Pet 2:11). Every insightful heart knows the answer to these questions!

If we are doubtful about these things, the Spirit speaks expressly to us! This approach (routine) has not profited those devoted to it! They have not come closer to God, understood the things of God, or cut loose from the world! The reason for this failure is clearly delineated in God's Word. "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch! (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using)-- in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence" (Col 2:21-23, NASB).

This approach cannot take away the appetite for sin! It cannot enable the individual to crucify the flesh, with its affections and lusts (Gal 5:24). You simply cannot remove the desire to sin by regimen! It takes more than information and habit to change a heart!

PRAYER POINT: Father, I thank You through Jesus that I have been given freedom to approach Your throne with confidence.

-- Tomorrow: THE GLORIOUS AFFIRMATION --