Don’t go back to trying to be who you already are- the reasons not to be religious.

1. So if the tabernacle made by man helped generations waiting for the Messiah then how much greater is the heavenly tabernacle.

2. So if the unwilling animals that were sacrificed helped generations to feel outwardly clean then how much more did the willing High Priest shed his own blood to give him access into the Most Holy Place.

3. So if for Israel this imperfect sacrificial system was sufficient temporarily then how much more is the ultimate sufficiency of Christ’s perfect sacrifice.

“How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!“ (Hebrews 9:14)

How much more …!

4. So if the sacrificial system meant there was a continual need to get right before God through ‘’acts that lead to death’ then how much more does the death of Christ cleanse our own consciences from being tempted to go back to that kind of servitude. We serve the living God without the fear of reprisals.

Let’s look at those points above again:

1. Some church buildings are simply wonderful and the atmosphere that the ‘eternal Spirit’ brings only points to a greater eternal place.

2. Religious acts of service can have wonderful feel-good experiences that God is pleased but only Jesus brings us into the presence of God.

3. Righteous acts and efforts to be good actually may make you look like a better person but it is only His act of righteousness that makes you a new creation.

4. No matter how good you are today by your own efforts tomorrow you will have to do it all over again. But only a relationship with Jesus can remove that desire to perform and to rest in what He has done so that you can serve God through Him.