Grace Not Ritual

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Don't be led astray by various kinds of strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be established by grace and not by foods, since those involved in them have not benefited. Hebrews 13:8,9

Throughout the book of Hebrews the author has established Christ as the new high priest. By doing so he does away with the old way of offering animal sacrifices and only eating certain foods. The old way did not result in life and grace but the new did.

When people who have loved the old way come to Christ there is a tension. I remember when I came to Christ I had been brought up in the Catholic Church and it has a lot of ritual and formalism, which I had been fond of.

I have to transition to a way of doing church that had no formalism and ritual, or very little. In that process I had to lay down the old and all it's trappings and embrace the new and not try and bring along any old ways just to appease my emotional connection, it had to be severed for me to grow in Christ.

Christ wanted me to be free from earning salvation to receiving salvation by faith in His finished work, not by my own methods.

Today is Sunday and I go to church to worship in spirit and in truth, without ritualistic performance. I am so grateful, now, to Christ and the freedom He won for me. I am glad I endured and trusted His freedom. Amen!

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