The Tradition We Followed Before Salvation, Can It Be Done To Please God By Faith From Our Heart After We Are Saved?
Question: Believing and trusting God through Jesus Christ, having the living faith of the reality of God keeps His Spirit dwell in us and guide our life, our minds to do what pleases Him. Things done before due to traditions is now done for His glory. I believe whatever we do in righteousness for His glory in mind and heart, I believe God accepts and won't refuse. What we do now is not only because of tradition and practices, it is now done all because of Jesus. With His Spirit's dwelling in man's heart it lightens the mind to do what pleases and glorifies Him. Nothing is wrong. What is you take on it?
Answer: Greetings in Jesus wonderful name!
“Commandment,” in the present context, has to do with divine revelation. It is further designated as “the word of God” (Matt. 15:6; cf. Mark 7:13). Some Greek manuscripts have “law” in Matthew 15:6. “Commandment” is the equivalent of law (see Luke 23:56). These terms represent an obligation imposed by God, to which human beings are responsible to willingly accept the suggestion and fulfill it in obedience because of their love towards Him. Violation thereof constitutes “sin” (1 John 3:4).
The term “tradition” renders a Greek word that signifies “instruction that has been handed down.” (Danker, p. 763). The expression may be used in a good sense, equivalent to divine commandment (1 Cor. 11:2; 2 Thes. 2:15; 3:6). In other contexts, it can denote hurtful, human traditions that are condemned (Matt. 15:3; Col. 2:8).
In this latter case, common practices, embalmed by time, become accepted as “the voice of God.” Such “traditions” may become “burdens” (cf. Matt. 23:4), unnecessarily levied upon people, robbing them of legitimate freedom in serving Christ (Acts 15:10-11; Matt 23:4-5).
For example according to Roman Catholicism, “tradition” must assume its rightful place as a source of religious authority, along side of, and actually superior to, the Scriptures.
Here is what the Scripture says regarding this issue, "8 Don't let others spoil your faith and joy with their philosophies [of tradition], their wrong and shallow answers built on men's thoughts and ideas, instead of on what Christ has said. 9 For in Christ there is all of God in a human body; 10 so you have everything when you have Christ, and you are filled with God through your union with Christ. He is the highest Ruler, with authority over every other power. 11 When you came to Christ, he set you free from your evil desires, not by a bodily operation of circumcision but by a spiritual operation, the baptism of your souls. 12 For in baptism you see how your old, evil nature died with him and was buried with him; and then you came up out of death with him into a new life because you trusted the Word of the mighty God who raised Christ from the dead. 13 You were dead in sins, and your sinful desires were not yet cut away. Then he gave you a share in the very life of Christ, for he forgave all your sins, 14 and blotted out the charges proved against you, the list of his commandments which you had not obeyed. He took this list of sins and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ's cross. 15 In this way God took away Satan's power to accuse you of sin, and God openly displayed to the whole world Christ's triumph at the cross where your sins were all taken away." (Col 2:8-15, LB).
Understand the basics of faith, tradition and faith cannot go together because traditions actually nullifies the power of the Word of God which gives us faith (Mark 7:9-13). You should choose to throw away the dead works of tradition in order to really grow spiritually and please God in the finished work of Christ (Heb 6:1), God is pleased only by the works which you do by faith which He has prepared beforehand for you to do after your salvation which you received by believing in Jesus (Eph 2:10; Heb 11:6). Jesus did in his earthly life, works which pleased the Father God in heaven, even though most of the works that he did was not the ministry work which He did only for 3 years, but before that for 30 long years he pleased the father perfectly (Matt 3:17). Many of these works were simple reading of the Word of God (Luke 4:16-21), meditating upon it (Luke 2:46-47), praying to the Father and doing his daily household chores of day to day life and obedience to his earthly father and mother even though he was the Creator of all mankind (Luke 2:49, 51-52). The works of ministry which he did was only three and half years, yet the miracles, signs and wonders of God revealed through Him were innumerable (Acts 10:38; John 14:11; 21:25). Likewise God is more concerned about who we are in our faith than what we do for Him.
So empty philosophies and tradition especially the one which I point to like what Roman Catholic churches and others like it promote against the Word of God cannot bring more faith, but only more disobedience, blindness and deceit upon the soul of all those who follow it, and as a result more darkness comes to the life of those who do not choose to positively stand against the traditions of men. But those who choose to stand with the Word of God to throw away the traditions no matter what it costs will be blessed at the end of it all. God is calling you to come out of tradition and worship Him in spirit and in truth, the kind of worshipers He is seeking for (Rev 18:4; John 4:23-24). Those who are saved and remain within those churches against the will of God will not lose their salvation which has come to them not by their works of any kind, but by the faith God has given them through hearing the Word of God from their heart which released his heavenly grace upon their soul to save them from sin (Eph 2:4-9).
But Satan will destroy the soul-life of those who follow men's tradition in a earthly way, and he will keep them in bondage to sin and slavery through his evil power to afflict them (1 Peter 2:11-12), to make them lose the eternal reward and be miserable enough to let go of the great riches of God's abundant life in this earthly life which in turn becomes a investment in to the eternal riches of heaven which makes them rich in the life to come (Rev 3:11; Col 2:18).
God will never force his will upon those who choose otherwise thinking that they are wiser than God, it is a cowardliness of heart which is engineered by Satan and his demons that makes them allow the thoughts of tradition to fill their minds rather than taking them captive to the obedience of Christ according to the instruction given in the Word of God (Rev 21:8; 2 Cor 10:4-5). The obedience that is willing and voluntary to God and His Word is what pleases God and makes the sacrifice of ours acceptable to God (Rom 12:1-2). Tradition cannot please God instead it makes God angry because it makes his children to waste their time to do dead works instead of the ordained work which He has pre-planned for every one of them beforehand (Heb 9:14). One has to repudiate his “dead works” and count them “loss” to find salvation in Christ first and thereafter find their reward in Christ through faith after their salvation (Php 3:4-9).
Dead works are not only unacceptable to God, but an evil substitute for the faith He desires to grow day by day until their training school of the Spirit ends in this life, so that they can come before God on the day of Bema Judgment of Christ and receive the reward for the good works done in this life (Heb 11:6; Rom 14:10; 1 Cor 3:12-15; 2 Cor 5:9-11). The good works of the unbeliever becomes a filthy rags of worthless dead works that cannot be able to save his soul (Psa 49:7-8; Isa 57:12; 64:6), as well as the good works of the believers apart from Christ's own works which He initiates in them to turn them to His own likeness becomes a dead works with no reward for now and for eternity (Rom 8:28-30; Php 2:13).
So tradition in itself is neither evil nor good but can be a deception of Satan to keep people's focus away from God and His will on earth (Matt 6:9-13), as it is a waste of time and has no spiritual value to benefit a human being in the light of eternity.
Every mind of people which is set on human tradition is against the Word of God, and without doubt they are on the pathway of decay spiritually day by day. Our living God never accepts whatever we do for Him with or without our heart, instead he blesses only those who keep His commandments with all their heart without any tradition added to it, so that our sacrifice we do is not outside of His will but rather in His will and in His prescribed way of faith (Rom 14:23). The best sacrifice we can make in our New Testament times is to give our body as a living sacrifice by denying our self, taking up our cross and following Jesus day after day which is holy, acceptable to God as a reasonable service we do for His infinite love, mercy and grace shown towards us in Christ Jesus (Luke 9:23-26; Rom 12:1-2; 8:31-32).
I pray God help you to overcome all deception and come out of traditions and concentrate on the Word of God and prayer to God directly by faith in Jesus name for Him to fulfill His pre-planned work for you in your life for the Glory of God, so that you will be peaceful and joyful for the rest of your eternity. Man's religion is not worth a dime or paisa, if not for the relationship with God that comes to be the main focus of it in the way He requires through faith which comes through the Word of God. Praise the Lord!
Much Blessings.....
"Many people feel so pressured by the expectations of others that it causes them to be frustrated, miserable and confused about what they should do. But there is a way to live a simple, joy-filled, peaceful life, and the key is learning how to be led by the Holy Spirit, not the traditions or expectations of man." — Joyce Meyer
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