{"id":1016,"date":"2011-07-16T08:24:36","date_gmt":"2011-07-16T08:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=1016"},"modified":"2011-07-16T08:24:36","modified_gmt":"2011-07-16T08:24:36","slug":"paying-for-admittance-into-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=1016","title":{"rendered":"Paying for admittance into heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Paying for admittance into heaven<\/strong><br \/>\n(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gracegems.org\/19\/Bonar_books.htm\">Horatius Bonar<\/a>, \u201cBible Thoughts and Themes\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe saved us\u2013not by works of righteousness that<br \/>\nwe had done, but according to His mercy.\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/kjv1900\/Titus%203.5\">Titus 3:5<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ritualism, or externalism, or traditionalism<\/strong><br \/>\nare all different forms of self-righteousness; man\u2019s<br \/>\nself-invented ways of pleasing or appeasing God,<br \/>\nor\u00a0<strong>paying for admittance into heaven<\/strong>. These<br \/>\nforms of self-righteousness are a human apparatus<br \/>\nfor procuring God\u2019s pardon. They are the means by<br \/>\nwhich the performer of them hopes to win God\u2019s<br \/>\nfavor\u2013perhaps, also, man\u2019s praise\u2013most certainly,<br \/>\nhis own esteem.<br \/>\nEvery act, or performance, or ceremony, which honors self,<br \/>\nexalts self, or gives prominence to self\u2013is an accursed thing.<br \/>\nIt is an abomination in the sight of God\u2013however religious,<br \/>\nor sacred, or solemn, or devout, it may seem to man.<br \/>\nIt is to self-righteousness in some form or other, that man<br \/>\nis always tending. Man attempts to make up for this badness,<br \/>\nor to cover it over, by works, and devotions, and ceremonies.<br \/>\nAll this is pure self-righteousness.<br \/>\nThe religion of self-righteousness in our day consists<br \/>\nof works, feelings, fancies, music, rites, festivals, fasts,<br \/>\ngestures, postures, garments. It is something which<br \/>\ngratifies self; which pleases the natural man; which<br \/>\nmakes a man think well of himself; which gives a<br \/>\nman something to\u00a0<strong>do <\/strong>or to\u00a0<strong>feel <\/strong>in order to earn<br \/>\npardon and merit heaven. Pride, religious pride, is<br \/>\nat the root. Ritualism is man\u2019s expression of rejection<br \/>\nof Christ. It was self-righteous religion which crucified<br \/>\nthe Son of God. All human rites and ceremonies are<br \/>\nman\u2019s ways of getting rid of Christ. What can all<br \/>\nthese things do? Can they save?<br \/>\nCan religious postures save?<br \/>\nCan religious garments save?<br \/>\nCan religious candles save?<br \/>\nCan religious music save?<br \/>\nCan religious architecture save?<br \/>\nCan religious cathedrals save?<br \/>\nNo! They lead away from Jesus! They make void<br \/>\nthe cross, and trample on His blood!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe saved us\u2013not by works of righteousness that<br \/>\nwe had done, but according to His mercy.\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/kjv1900\/Titus%203.5\">Titus 3:5<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paying for admittance into heaven (Horatius Bonar, \u201cBible Thoughts and Themes\u201d) \u201cHe saved us\u2013not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy.\u201d\u00a0Titus 3:5 Ritualism, or externalism, or traditionalism are all different forms of self-righteousness; man\u2019s self-invented ways of pleasing or appeasing God, or\u00a0paying for admittance into heaven. These forms of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,30,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-horatius-bonar","category-righteousness","category-false-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1016"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1019,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016\/revisions\/1019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}