VAIN WORSHIP
“Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” — Mark 7:7
Biblical Christianity is not a religion. There are, however rituals—religion—that parade as Christianity. These come under divine indictment. It is this disparity between religious formalism and genuine faith that the Son of God confronts in our text for today and its context.
The Pharisees had developed and formalized many rituals that had no connection with the Law of Moses, and published them as essential elements of religious practice. One of them was a ritual washing of the hands which had no connection with sanitation, but was merely symbolic—and empty of meaning. We might call it “going through [the] motions.” So committed were they to this ritual that when some of Jesus’ disciples failed to follow their tradition, they found occasion to “find fault” with them, and with Him.
The Savior’s response was to charge them with hypocrisy, expose their inconsistency and expand upon it, and to penetrate the issue to its heart—no pun intended. He charged them with “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,” and in the process undermining truth, ”Making the word of God of none effect through [their] tradition.” (v. 7, 13) And on another occasion He declared, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity [Mat. 23:27-28].” It is most important to understand this in its relation to the gospel of the grace of God.
Immediately following this confrontation He called the people to Him and proceeded to instruct them in the great central fact that a right relationship with God is not realized by the observance of religious ritual, but is an affair of the heart, a truth often emphasized in the Word of God. His disciples sought further enlightenment (v. 17) to which He responded, in essence, defilement (moral and spiritual corruption) is not the result of things external, but of the condition within—an affair of the heart. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” (v. 21-23)
The externals reach us not because of what they are, but because of what we are—sinners by nature! There is no ritual nor religion on earth that can cure that condition. The remedy, if there is to be one, must come from a source much deeper than can be realized by any kind of religious exercise. Hear the word of the Lord:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings [Jer. 17:9-10].”
“…out of [the heart] are the issues of life. [Prov. 4:23b].”
For as [one] thinketh in his heart, so is he: [Prov. 23:7a].”
Man’s greatest need is not a new religion, but a new relationship with God. It is for this that the Father sent the Son, and Son of God came into the world. And now, with sinful man as with sinful Israel, God’s plea is “Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye Ezek. 18:31, 32].” And this is not a “do it yourself” exercise accomplished by mere church attendance and/or the rituals associated with it, (in whatever denomination) but by a direct appeal to God’s grace revealed in and through “the Son of God.” A new heart can only be obtained from the hand of God Himself, Who promises, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them [Ezek. 36:26].” In New Testament terms, the need is for “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Cf. Acts 20:21)
On yet another occasion Jesus exhorted His hearers, His critics, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life [John 5:39, 40].” Where do you stand in relation to “Jesus Christ, the Son of God”? Have you come to Him for a spiritual heart transplant, or are you still, for all your religion, a “whited sepulchre…fuil of dead men’s bones,” appearing outwardly righteous before men, but inwardly full of hypocrisy and iniquity? The answer to that question has eternal implications.
"Pastor" Frasier
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