Whats In A Ritual...Part 2
Back on June 29th I commented on rituals and their importance...I ended that post by saying,
"Since the people of God are the salt and light to the world...I wonder how much of the common law marriages we see today are not the world learning from the church?
But that is for another day."
I obviously have been side-tracked...but this is "that" another day.
A few days before my June 29th posting I was at a church that kept saying that they had an outreach in which 30 people became 'Christians', and then a few minutes later they would share about how great it was that 30 people made a 'decision for Christ'.
Their definition of a Christian was simply someone who made a decision for Christ...and this definition falls short of the mark.
Entering God's covenant is objective...it is something you can observe, it is not something that merely happens in the realm of the feelings...deep inside the heart.
When a person is baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, they have entered covenant with God and have become a Christian.
When we make a mere decision for Christ the standard for being a Christian then we have taken away God's objective sign.
The person ignoring or even refusing baptism can claim with his/her whole heart how much they love Jesus, how they want to talk with Him [pray] and listen to Him [read the bible] and live their whole life with Him, and even eat at His table [Lord's Supper].
Many people may read the above and say..."and...what's wrong with that!?"
Well...let's use those same arguments for a young couple "in love".
They really love each other but don't need some ritual or ceremony to prove it.
They can just go through all the motions of marriage because they have made that heart decision to love each other and be devoted to each other...right?
When we read the Bible we see that God is the One who has ordained rituals, they are very important, life changing, status changing.
We must not ignore them!
posted by Dale Callahan at 6:10 AM
3 Comments:
Just so I'm clear, if I ignore the rituals I am not saved? If I do not conduct myself in accordance with the rituals of the church I am not a Christian and if not a Christian then not saved?
Just so I'm clear, if I ignore God's commands or outrightly rebel against them, then am I still 'saved'?
I thought Jesus said 'why do you call Me Lord, Lord and do not do the things I command".
Is there a difference between not being able to be baptized and refusing to be baptized?
Do you make being a Christian equal with being 'saved'?
I do not believe that the Bible gives us that definition of the covenant. Both the Old and New Tests show us that there are both blessings and curses for those in covenant with God.
When you say 'ritual of the church' you sort of make it seem like baptism is a tradition of man...take it or leave it...is that what you mean?
And finally...taking this back to my post...do you think that a person who refuses to be married is still in a blessed relationship with his/her partner?
There has to be more to marriage then the sexual union of a man and woman coming together...if not then how would someone commit fornication...every time they had sex they would be taking up another wife.
To answer you question Barry, I would strongly encourage someone NOT to ignore God's rituals...you can take or leave man made traditions.
I believe that you can rebel against God's rituals and still be a Christian...in the same way I believe a wife can really be married and still be an adulterous sleeze bag.
I do not equate a person being a Christian with automatic salvation...like being saved was a coin you kept in your pocket...salvation is faith in Christ.
There are branches in the vine that will be cut off...they are really branches and really in the vine and are really cut off.
If the act of baptism is merely a ritual to the person being baptized, then they have missed the point of what being baptized is about.
I heard a story of a woman who, when she made meatloaf, she cut the ends off. Someone once asked her why she did it, and she didn't know. She had been taught to do it that way by her mother.
Curious, she later asked her mother why she cut the ends off the meatloaf, and her mother thought about it for awhile and finally said that she didn't know why, but that her mother had taught her to do it that way.
Even more curious, the daughter called her grandmother and inquired about the meatloaf recipe and why she cut the end off.
"Why, dear. It wouldn't have fit in the pan, otherwise."
The point in baptism is this: Jesus taught his disciples to be baptised as an act of obedience, to indicate their desire to follow after him. Its portrays, in a kind of mime, the act of being buried and raised from the dead, it symbolizes having your sins washed away. It symbolizes our dependency on another to raise us from the dead (since we can't baptise ourself).
But, in the end, baptism is ultimately an act of obedience borne out of a desire to obey and follow the one who saves us, and stands as a declaration that "this is the way I want to live my life."
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