June 30

Mark 7:7,13
 
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 fonts 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 (Psa. 51:66Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. (Psalm 51:6)). He has said, “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My Word” (Isa. 66:22For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. (Isaiah 66:2)). Again and again He sought to impress upon Israel the importance of reality in their approach to Him (Deut. 10:1212And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, (Deuteronomy 10:12); Isa. 57:1515For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. (Isaiah 57:15); Micah 6:28) Yet they were persistently substituting the outward for the inward, supposing that God would be propitiated 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 which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Pray. 14:12).
“One Priest alone can pardon me.
Or bid me ‘Go in peace;’
Can breathe that word ‘Absolvo te,1
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 Romish priest when he assumes the Divine prerogative of forgiving sins.