June 30
The Continual Burnt Offering" I n vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of menø5making the word of God of no effect through [their] tradition."
Man is ever prone to suppose that formal religious observances will be acceptable to God as a means of procuring the divine favor. But religion as such has no saving value. If forms and ceremonies could purchase a place in Heaven, there would have been no need for Christ’s redemptive work. And even on the part of those already regenerated, the only thing that gives value to outward observances is a right state of heart before God, who desires truth in the inward parts (Psalms 51:6). He has said, “But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:2). Again and again He sought to impress upon Israel the importance of reality in their approach to Him (Deuteronomy 10:12; Isaiah 57:15; Micah 6:8). Yet they were persistently substituting the outward for the inward, supposing that God would be satisfied by sacramental observances, when all the time He was calling for repentance from dead works and a living faith In His promises.
Many today make the same mistake, a mistake fraught with sad and fearful consequences, for it involves the rejection of the only way of life and salvation and the substitution of “a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12).
One Priest alone can pardon me,
Or bid me “Go in peace;”
Can breathe that word “Absolvo te,”HYPERLINK \ "1Absolvo te\- (I absolve thee) are the words used by the Catholic priest when he assumes the Divine prerogative of forgiving sins."And make these heart-throbs cease:
My soul has heard His priestly voice;
It said. “I bore thy sins—Rejoice!”
1“Absolvo te” (I absolve thee) are the words used by the Catholic priest when he assumes the Divine prerogative of forgiving sins.