Rituals Versus Relationship

By Pastor Aubrey Duncan

Recently, I came across a video by a very prominent and influential evangelical preacher. To my curious surprise, he made a profoundly strong case for God’s Sabbath. In fact, he kept insisting that the Sabbath was given for us to recognize God as our Creator. Nevertheless, he injected the popular, erroneous teaching that the Sabbath was only for the Jews and was therefore not to be observed by Christians. Quite a case of Cognitive Dissonance, I thought, or perhaps outright hypocrisy. This poor gentleman ended His presentation by promising to continue the following week to show how Sunday replaced God’s Sabbath and should be kept in honor of Jesus’ resurrection. I didn’t follow up, for I know that such is not the teaching of God. I had heard enough.

As the world is celebrating Easter, supposedly to honor the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there remains an alarming element of duplicity in this ritual, as is evidenced by the popular preacher I listened to not too long ago. It is mind-boggling to understand how one can celebrate His passion but reject His clear, distinct admonition to honor Him as Creator. This poisonous concoction so widely consumed and deadly intoxicating fails to recognize one essentially relevant fact: had there been no creation, there would be no need for Easter celebration. Further, had no one disobeyed their Creator, Calvary would be totally unnecessary.

God’s Sabbath, on the other hand, remains an eternal bookmark on the sands of salvation history. Each week, like an enduring clockwork, it sounds a resounding alarm every seventh day. The Seventh-day Sabbath points us back to a perfect creation that, though damaged by man’s indiscretions, reminds us of the One who created it all for us. The Seventh-day Sabbath demonstrates that He cares for us infinitely beyond our finite imagination.

The memorial of God’s Creatorship provides for us, without earthly legislation and enforcement, a moment in time to strengthen our relationship with our Creator and to contemplate the manifold blessings He has bequeathed to us. In the process, the Creator’s Sabbath inspires us to focus upon the earth restored to its glorious perfection when Jesus returns to redeem only those who have kept His commandments, His sabbath included: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:14).

How one claims that we should neglect that righteous experience and substitute in its place a day and a human tradition that God never sanctioned nor endorsed is quite puzzling. But Jesus solves the puzzle: “Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition” (Mark 7:7-9).

The claim that because Jesus rose from the grave on the first day of the week, we should celebrate Easter Sunday in honor of His resurrection is without a Scriptural foundation. It is based solely on human invention, specifically on Catholic dogma. The God of Creation gives no such instructions or remotely intimates the requirements of His creation. He did warn, however, of the condition of men’s hearts in the closing scenes of earth’s history: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3–4).

The Scripture is actually very clear on the fact that Jesus was crucified on the sixth day of the week, today called Friday, and rose from the grave on the first day of the week, today called Sunday, some two thousand years ago. We find that record in all four of the gospels. Let us review a few of them to establish that fact. The historian Luke reports: “And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment” (Luke 23:54–56).

Please notice a few facts about this narrative:

• The day on which Jesus was crucified was the day before the Sabbath (today called Friday).
• There wasn’t then, nor is there any command in all of Scripture that asks God’s people to celebrate the day on which Jesus was crucified. This is purely a human invention.
• Jesus’ disciples so highly regarded the Sabbath that they would not even anoint the body of their Savior on His holy day. But, the Scripture says: “they rested on the Sabbath-day according to the commandment”.

As we continue reading, we find that Jesus’ disciples did return after the Sabbath, on the first day of the week, today called Sunday, to anoint His body. The young apostle Mark recorded: “And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him…2 And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun” (Mark 16:1-2). But praise God, the angels declared to them, “He is not here, but is risen” (Luke 24:6).

Here again, we need to make some keen observations:

• The Sabbath had passed; therefore, regardless of what any man, or woman, for that matter, says, Sunday can never be God’s Sabbath.
• The work that His disciples would not do on the Sabbath because of their reverence for it, they were willing to do on the first day of the week. This illustrates that Sunday, the first day of the week, is just another working day, and no one is commanded by Creator God to keep it holy.

To better understand what took place two thousand years ago, we need to go even further to perhaps another 1,500 years prior.

The people of Israel had been in Egyptian bondage for more than 400 years. God raised up His servant Moses to deliver them from the hardship and oppression of their Egyptian task masters. Pharoah, the king of Egypt, refused to let them go, so God had to send some plagues upon the Egyptians so that they might know who truly was in charge. Despite nine plagues ranging from frogs, lice, profound darkness, and turning the water into blood, among others, the king of Egypt even more fervently refused to let the Israelites go.

God then sent the final plague, the death of all the firstborn of the Egyptians. But He provided a plan to save His people from this monstrous calamity that would befall the Egyptians. Creator God ordered His people that each household should sacrifice a lamb and apply its blood to the lintel and door posts of their houses.

He assured them that when the angel descends upon the land on its mission of destruction and sees the blood, he will pass over them. His people would be saved from the pain and agony that would befall the Egyptians. And, in fact, they were. None of the Jewish families experienced the death sentence that was pronounced upon the firstborn of the Egyptians. Moses records: “For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. 13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:12–13).

The Israelites were later commanded by their Deliverer, none other than Jesus Christ, to remember their miraculous deliverance by celebrating this day every year throughout their generations: “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever” (Exodus 12:14).

The Greatest Plan Ever Drawn

In God’s divine plan, the day of the first Passover came upon Nissan 14 of the Jewish Calendar. That day could have come on any day of the week. Unlike Easter, it was not relegated to a season that embraced Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, as is commonly practiced. For 1,500 years before the first advent of Christ, the Passover, celebrating the Jews deliverance from Egyptian bondage, was introduced. The event prefigured the Epic of Calvary. The apostle Paul helps us to make the connection: “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). Thank God for the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. Christ took our sins to the grave and left them there. He did not abolish His law, as many believe, but rather paid the price for man’s disobedience.

However you celebrate Easter, be reminded that no man-made ritual can suffice for keeping God’s commandments.

Following Passover was the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. Moses records: “And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread” (Leviticus 23:6). As unleavened bread does not rise, so didn’t Jesus on the day following His crucifixion. He rested in the tomb on His Sabbath day.

Even in death, Jesus celebrated His Sabbath, only to rise on the first day of the week. It is quite amazing that the day on which He rested, the only day He has commanded us to remember and celebrate, is the day the entire Christian world forgets and tramples upon while fervently celebrating their annual ritual void of any Scriptural foundation.

So many are celebrating Easter Sunday, but have you stopped to think about what this really means? Have you considered the true meaning of His resurrection? Jesus’ resurrection demands not the celebration of a day but the transformation of our lives from sin to righteousness. Paul illustrates: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Romans 5:1–5).

He continued: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1-2).

Oh yes, God is not so much concerned about your ritual as He so deeply wants to have a loving, abiding relationship with you. His desire is to have a personal relationship with each of us individually. I can think of the time when He created Adam. Just He and Adam until He decided to give him a wife. But even before Creator God gave Adam his wife, He [God] had a personal relationship with her also. For when Eve was created, God, having placed Adam under divine anesthesia, had a one-on-one encounter with her.

Jesus declares to us all the depths of that personal relationship He wants to have with each of us individually: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:16–17).

His Father sent Him as the Perfect Example of how we ought to live our lives in total obedience to His Father’s will. He gave Him to us as the Only worthwhile Ransom to redeem us back to Him. He was gifted to us so that we might have an Advocate between Him and us. He was bequeathed to us the Blessed Hope of eternal life with Him. So, Jesus declares, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). It’s our relationship with Him, evidenced by total obedience to His law, including His Sabbath, that gives the right to eternal life: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:14).

Our rituals will not grant us that eternal life that He so freely gives. Only an abiding, obedient relationship with Jesus would: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:1–5).

A saving relationship—that’s what He desires. It’s a relationship that is based on His word and not our rituals. Paul describes that relationship: “For He had made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin: that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  God’s special Gift to us was for the sole purpose of us developing a saving relationship with Him. Paul pleads with us: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25–27).

Yes, now is a time when we hear a lot about the cross of Calvary. To some, it is a good luck charm to be worn around the neck. Yet others display it as evidence that they are Christians. It has become a decorative piece to adorn church edifices. To too many, the cross is an object to be worshipped. None of this, however, embodies what God intended this emblem of supreme sacrifice to be. The cross of Calvary was not designed to be taken lightly, as so many take it to be. God never desired that this act should be reduced to any of the above or to an annual festival of display and revelry that cheapens the cost of our salvation.

He entreats us: “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. 19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land; But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (Isaiah 1:18–20). What will your response be? Your ritual or a relationship? Will you accept His invitation or will you reject Him or esteem your Easter ritual of higher value?

Ellen G. White, in her book, Desire of Ages, a classic on the life of Christ, tells us: “By His humanity, Christ touched humanity; by His divinity, He lays hold upon the throne of God. As the Son of man, He gave us an example of obedience; as the Son of God, He gives us power to obey” (E.G. White, Desire of Ages, p. . 23).

His prayer for us: “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me” (John 17:21-23). It’s being one with Him and His Father that matters above any ritual.

What the world needs most is a true demonstration of the character of God and the glory of God in the lives of those who claim to be His followers. We can only accomplish that by having that saving, abiding relationship with Him. Jesus summarizes the essence of that relationship: “If ye love Me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15). He pleads: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Revelation 3:20-21).

It’s our relationship with Him and not our rituals that will allow us to experience that promise. Jesus, through His servant Paul, offers the Blessed Hope only to those who have that relationship with Him: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Where comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:14–18).

Easter celebrations will soon pass. And yes, it serves as a reminder of what God has done for humanity through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Sadly, however, most want Him only as a Savior, and few demonstrate that they honor Him as Lord. Yes, Calvary shows how much He cares. But how much do you care? Do you care enough about Him to have Him as your Lord, obey Him, and honor Him as your Creator?

There can be no true acceptance of Calvary while at the same time rejecting God’s Law, the transgression of which made Calvary necessary and efficacious. Celebrating a season and a day does not constitute righteousness. Conformity to His whole law, including His blessed and holy Sabbath day, by the empowering grace of the Man of Calvary, does. Holiness, not rituals, is what God desires. It is exhibited in the lives we live, demonstrating to the universe that His law is written in our hearts.

He cares: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). But do you care? There’s only one way to show that you do: “ If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love” (John 15:10).

No ritual will suffice.

About: Follow Pastor Aubrey Duncan at his Unfolding Prophecy Page.