PILGRIM'S PROGRESS – THE SHORTCUT TO HEAVEN
" 'Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.'" (John 10:1)
"As he (Christian) was thinking about this, he saw two men come tumbling over the wall on the left side and onto the path. They immediately came toward Christian. The name of the one was Formalist, and the name of the other was Hypocrisy. Soon they were walking with Christian on the path."
People are always looking for shortcuts. When we moved to Sun City West, I kept getting lost because I was looking for shortcuts to where I wanted to go. But SCW is built around golf courses, and many of the streets end up in dead-ends, or bring you back where you started.
People who want to find a short-cut to heaven do not want to come by way of the cross, so they think that they can come another way that pleases them. Some are Formalists. That is, they think that by going through all the rituals, they can fulfill the obligations of being a Christian and God will accept them into heaven. If they keep all the rules, that is all that is required. They have no concept of grace that provided a way even though they are not worthy. Hypocrisy puts on a show of being a good Christian without having a change of heart. He just wears a mask that looks like a Christian and does the things that look Christian.
The attitude of Formalist and Hypocrisy is that as long as they keep the rules, they are okay. So, when confronted with the truth by Christian, they responded that as far as the laws and ordinances were concerned, they would obey them as conscientiously as Christians. They missed the whole point of Salvation. We are not saved because we keep a bunch of rules, but because we trust Christ to cover our shame and guilt and sin. The shortcuts of formalism and hypocrisy will not get us to heaven. They are dead ends. Only the blood of Jesus can cause us to be accepted into heaven.
Love, Dad
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