WHAT DID GRACE REPLACE?
IF GRACE didn’t replace theTen Commandments, and if it didn’t replace the statutes, and it didn’t replace the judgements, and it didn’t replace the hygienic laws and health laws, then what did grace replace? The answer is simple: it replaced rituals.
Rituals! Yes, grace took our sins away, revealed a loving God to humanity; paid a price we could not pay, redeemed Adam/lsrael, and made salvation available to all races, kindred, and tongues. However, to the Israelite it was also a replacement of rituals that were for so many years a burden on the priesthood as well as on the people.
THE SHOCKING TRUTH
If you can put yourself in the position of an Israelite after the Dayof Pentecost, you would feel the impact of the Gospel in a more shocking way. Why? It is because the Israelites had spent hundreds of years with a ministry of reconciliation that included animal sacrifices and celebrations of new moons and feast days. That all came to a halt when Jesus became the fulfilment of all the law. There were the laws of commandments, statutes, judgements, and animal sacrifices.There were dietary laws, laws regarding feast days and new moons, and laws of cleansings. While many of these laws dealt with principles of Godly living, a large portion of the law of God concerned rituals.
Those Israelites had operated in the tradition of rituals for hundreds of years. Suddenly the apostles came along preaching that Jesus had taken the place of all their rituals, and now all the Israelites had to do was repent and believe what Jesus fulfilled. Then their relationship with God would be elevated to a higher level and they would have a much easier way to regain harmony with God if they sinned or grieved the Holy Spirit.
That would be like you and me spending our lifetimes celebrating Thanksgiving and suddenly someone coming along and telling us that a jackrabbit had taken the place of our beloved turkey. The day of thankfulness didn’t change only the ritual. We modern Christians cannot imagine the tremendous impact it must have had on those people of that era.
At the same time, the Levitical priesthood lost their jobs when Jesus became the all-encompassing sacrifice for sin, trespass, evening oblations, and so on. Jesus Christ, the Lord from glory, is what we now celebrate. I have been invited to speak at a Feast of Tabemacles or one of the other feast days celebrated by Christians, and have refused to go. Call it a conference, a meeting, a revival or whatever, but the feasts of Israel were swallowed up in the resurrection of our Lord. I now feast on His Word, His presence, His love, His power, His authority, and His truth that sets me free.
God Almighty had to get rid of a corrupt priesthood as well as the rituals. There was a black market operation on the Temple grounds with the money changers raking in profits, and worse than that, the sale of pigs. No wonder the religious rulers were so upset when Jesus sent a herd of pigs over a cliff to their deaths. The owners lost money.
WHAT ABOUT COMMUNION?
I’m glad you asked. I’ve had many friends over the years that believe we must have communion at least once a month. Others tell me we must have communion every week. If we do, it becomes a ritual. [read 1 Corinthians 11:25 Editor] Take a look at the Dark Age church and see the rituals that still pervade their masses. If you really want to know what rituals God is still blessing they are praise with up-lifted hands, a voice that rejoices in the Cross, prayer, reading and meditating on God’s HolyWord, and ministering to others who are in need. These are the elements of rituals if we can call them that at all.
The following passage from the Book of Isaiah gives us the heart of God in the matter of what our more important relationship with Him should be:
Isaiah 58:6: “Is not this the fast (sacrifice) that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?”
Isaiah 58:7: “Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?”
Isaiah 58:8: “Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.”
Isaiah 58:9: “Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity.”
Isaiah 58: 10: “And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:”
Isaiah 58: 11: “And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fall not.”
Isaiah 58:12 “And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places… thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.”
The preaching and sharing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ fulfils the above passage. But the Israelites were not just in bondage under the rituals. God also wanted to deliver them from the corrupt Temple and religious rulers. There would be no more paying the Temple tribute. There would be no more paying inflated prices for sacrificial animals during feast days. There would be no more purchasing a variety of things for purification, cleansings, and so on from markets owned by the High Priest’s family. Jesus Christ replaced all that and delivered the people from the “bondage of corruption” found in the Levitical system.
Paul spoke of rituals in Galatians 2:16: “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works (rituals) of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ…”
Because some Christians were trying to mix circumcision with grace, he also said in Galatians 4:9: “But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements (rituals) whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?”
He called the works of the law (rituals) just that – “works.” He called the Levitical rituals “beggarly elements” and rightly so. Who wants to go back under bondage to the rituals?
So what did grace replace? First of all it replaced the death penalty that was pronounced on the Adamic race in Eden.
Second, it replaced the rituals of the Old Testament.
Third, it changed the ministry of reconciliation from the Levitical priesthood to the five-fold ministry of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher. Thank God!
We no longer have to find a priest, bring an animal sacrifice, and wait for the priest to slaughter the animal, clean it, bum it, and then eat it. Because of grace, all we have to do if we displease the Lord is to repent. We can do it privately in our own conscience, or we can do it verbally but the moment we repent, the Bible says that God forgives us and casts our sin into the sea of forgetfulness, never to hold us accountable for that sin again. It’s done in a flash. The “good news” of the Gospel is that rituals have been replaced with the life of our Saviour, once and for all. When we miss the mark, deliberately sin, harbour iniquity in our hearts or accidentally displease Jesus, all we have to do is follow four simple steps of repentance.
Step one is “I was wrong.” Step two is “I am sorry.” Step three is “Will you please forgive me?” And step four is “How can I make it right?” This works with God or with your fellow man. Sometimes there is something for us to do to make things right when we have grieved the Holy Spirit and another human being was involved. Sometimes it is not enough to just ask the Lord to forgive us; we must go to the offended party.
Our sacrifice becomes fulfilling Isaiah 58:6-7, but look at the benefits. Our light shall break forth as the morning, our health shall spring forth speedily, our righteousness shall go before us, the glory of the Lord shall be our rereward, and when we call on Him, He will answer us. The Lord shall guide us continually, satisfy our soul in drought, and make fat our bones. We’ll be like a watered garden and a spring of water that fails not. We shall raise up the foundations of many generations and be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in. WOW! I want all of that, don’t you?
I’m glad grace replaced the rituals because I now have direct access to the Holy One of Israel. I am His child. He is my Father. It is a personal relationship. I don’t go through a ram, goat, lamb or heifer, but through the Cross and shed blood of the Lamb of God. How refreshing! How relieving!
I will bring this writing to a close by using a simple illustration that you will readily identify with. If you can, imagine the bondage of all those rituals of sacrifices, feast days, fees, animals, odours, priests, etc. It must have been a shock when the disciples began to preach that they were all fulfilled in Christ our Lord and done away with through Calvary. What a relief! What a freedom! What a Gospel!
The best way to relate to the feeling of relief is to get you to imagine your head throbbing with a blinding headache and at the time find you have no medication to relieve it. Eventually after taking the appropriate medication you experience a wonderful sense of relief. The burden of pain, suffering, and misery is lifted and you feel so good that it’s like a New World. Now, imagine how a thousand times more relieved those Israelites were when grace replaced the rituals. Oh, what a Saviour, oh, hallelujah! I came to Jesus, weary, worn, and sad. He took my sins away, restored me to harmony with the God of the Universe, set me free from man’s dogma of ritualsand demand for fees, and wrote my name in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
The law of rituals could not do what the grace of God did on Calvary. The Holy Spirit has gathered us back into the fold through the Cross and the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. The face of grace is the faith of a Nazarene who paid a debt He did not owe, and all for me. Hallelujah!
