HEBREWS. 9:10.
GOD'S purpose by the law was that the offense might abound, and that sin might appear exceeding sinful. Man set about to make himself righteous by the very thing by which God was proving him a sinner. This you are doing, if you are seeking to satisfy the demands of righteousness by your own ways. Man seeks to save himself by obeying the law: God never thought of Saving any but by Jesus.
Nor did rites or sacrifices cleanse the conscience. The Jews, like others since, took them to eke out their own righteousness. There were many offerings under the law, which God gave as types of that One Who was to finish transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make expiation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness; and He taught thereby that these repeated sacrifices can never perfect the worshipper.
To attempt either way now, or to employ both together, is mere superstition and worse; for it is virtual denial of Christ and of His one sacrifice, " He, when he offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
In the face of Him and His work, are you, reader, relying on the law and the sacraments? Is it your religion to stand on keeping the commandments, and then to add rites and ceremonies when conscious of your failure? Beware of following the Jews in their fatal error, which God has set in His word to warn you. In your case it is wholly inexcusable; for the Son of God is come, and gives the believer an understanding to know H im that is true. Alas this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil. They might cry up the need of good works; but their own works were evil, and there are no really good works without life in Christ.