We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. Hebrews 13:10
I was directed to a link to download a Bible storybook for children. Hoping it might be of interest to my grandchildren, I downloaded the book, then opened it to check it out. It had lovely hand-drawn illustrations of many Bible scenes. It also had fairly accurate accounts of many of the events of the Old Testament, and of the events in the Gospels, including the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, never once did it mention why He came to die. In its concluding section, the book called on the children to love the Lord and to obey Him in order to qualify for a home in Heaven. I deleted the book because it is useless. And, no, I am not going to share the link to it with you.
Urging children to Love the Lord Jesus and to obey Him is to encourage them to serve the tabernacle. Children, and adults either, cannot love the Lord Jesus until they come to appreciate why He came into the world and died on the cross. They cannot obey Him until the Holy Spirit dwells within when they experience the new birth. Until conversion, we have neither the ability nor the desire to love and obey Him; encouraging the unsaved to do so is encouraging them to follow a religion, not to live out a salvation. Even if appealing to sinners to love the Lord Jesus and to obey him could work, the sinner would never know whether they had loved or obeyed enough, and such a religion would offer no certainty or peace. Thank God, those of us who are saved – and that includes all the boys and girls who have trusted Christ – can rest in peace and safety on the love and obedience of the Lord Jesus for us, not on the love and obedience of us for Him.
What could those who trust their own love and obedience bring to the altar to worship our Lord? Nothing but the attitudes of an unredeemed heart and the works of dirty hands! Their so-called worship would be filled with pride in their own works and their glory would be in themselves. Like Cain, they would offer to God only the misguided efforts of their own religion, and the fruits of a cursed earth. These have no place at the altar where we worship. They know nothing of the value of God’s great remedy for the helplessness and hopelessness of lost and rebellions sinners. They cannot grasp the focus that must rest on Christ alone.
Yes, we must love and obey the Lord Jesus, but we do so because we are saved, not in order to be saved. –Jim MacIntosh