Unbelieving Israel, not having the righteousness
which is of faith, and so not appreciating the great sacrifice
that the Heavenly Father has made, sought righteousness by virtue
of the offering itself and because of the merit of presenting
the offering.
Thus was perverted every form of service and
everything which God had appointed to be the means of expression
to a living faith and which could not have any real meaning except
by the living presence and power of Christ Himself in the life.
And even this was not enough. For, not finding the peace and
satisfaction of an accomplished righteousness in any of this
nor in all of it together, they heaped upon these things which
the Lord had appointed for another purpose, but which they had
perverted to purposes of their own invention--they heaped upon
these things ten thousand traditions, exactions, and hair-splitting
distinctions of their own invention, and all, all, in a vain
hope of attaining to righteousness. For the rabbis taught what
was practically a confession of despair, that "If but one
person could only for one day keep the whole law and not offend
in one point--nay, if but one person could but keep that one
point of the law which affected the due observance of the Sabbath--then
the troubles of Israel would be ended and the Messiah at last
would come." --Farrar, "Life and Work of St. Paul,"
p. 37. See also pp. 36, 83. What could possibly more fittingly
describe a dead formalism than does this? And yet for all this
conscious dearth in their own lives there was still enough supposed
merit to cause them to count themselves so much better than other
people that all others were but as dogs in comparison.
It is not so with those who are accounted
righteous by the Lord upon a living faith freely exercised. For
when the Lord counts a man righteous, he is actually righteous
before God, and by this very fact is separated from all the people
of the world. But this is not because of any excellence of his
own nor of the "merit" of anything that he has done.
It is altogether because of the excellence of the Lord and of
what He has done. And the man for whom this has been done knows
that in himself he is no better than anybody else but rather
in the light of the righteousness of God that is freely imparted
to him, he, in the humility of true faith, willingly counts others
better than himself. Phil. 2:3.
The giving themselves great credit for
what they themselves had done and counting themselves better
than all other people upon the merit of what they had done--this
were at once to land men fully in the complete self-righteousness
of Pharisaism. They counted themselves so much better than all
other people that there could not possibly be any basis of comparison.
It seemed to them a perfectly ruinous revolution to preach as
the truth of God that "there is no respect of persons with
God."
And what of the actual life of such people,
all this time? O, it was only a life of injustice and oppression,
malice and envy, variance and emulation, backbiting and talebearing,
hypocrisy and meanness, boasting of their great honor of the
law, and through breaking the law dishonoring God, their hearts
filled with murder and their tongues crying loudly for the blood
of One of their brethren, yet they could not cross the threshold
of a Roman tribunal "lest they should be defiled!"
Intense sticklers for the Sabbath, yet spending the holy day
in spying treachery and conspiracy to murder.
What God thought and still thinks of all
such ways as this is shown plainly enough for our present purpose,
in just two short passages of scripture. Here is His word to
Israel--the ten tribes--while yet their day lingered:
"I hate, I despise your feast days
and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer
Me burnt-offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept
them, neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs, for I will not
hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters
and righteousness as a mighty stream" Amos 5:21-24.
And to Judah near the same time He said
the same thing in these words:
"Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers
of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?
saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and
the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks
or of lambs or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me,
who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring
no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the
new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away
with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons
and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble
unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your
hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many
prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood.
"Wash ye, make you clean; put away
the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge
the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason
together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool." Isa. 1:10-18. The Lord Himself had appointed
these feast days and solemn assemblies, these burnt offerings,
meat offerings, and peace offerings, but now He says He hates
them and will not accept them. Their fine songs sung by their
trained choirs and accompanied with instruments of music, making
a grand display--all this that they got off for wonderfully fine
music He called "noise," and wanted it taken away.
He had never appointed any feast days
nor solemn assemblies nor sacrifices nor offerings nor songs
for any such purpose as that for which these were used. He had
appointed all these as the means of worshipful expression of
a living faith by which the Lord Himself should abide in the
heart and work righteousness in the life, so that in righteousness
they could judge the fatherless and plead for the widow and so
that judgment could run down as waters and righteousness as a
mighty stream.
Songs sung in the pomp and stylish intonation
of a vain show are but "noise," while the simple expression,
"Our Father," flowing from a heart touched by the power
of a true and living faith and "spoken in sincerity by human
lips is music" which enters into the inclining ear (Ps.
116:2) of the Heavenly Father and brings divine blessing in power
to the soul.
This and this alone is what He had appointed
these things for and never, never to be used in the hollow pretense
of a dead formalism to answer in righteousness for the iniquity
of a carnal heart. Nothing but the washing away of the sins by
the blood of the Lamb of God and the purifying of the heart by
living faith--nothing but this could ever make these things acceptable
to Him who appointed them.
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