A Clean Forehead

The season of Lent kicks off tomorrow with the celebration of Ash Wednesday. According to the Encyclopedia of Catholicism:

"Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. On this day ashes are blessed and applied to the foreheads of the faithful as a sign of penance... The traditional formula for the placing of ashes on the forehead is, "Remember you are dust and will return to dust." The formula "Turn from sin and live the gospel" is frequently used today."

A friend of mine recalled that when he asked a Catholic coworker of his why she received ashes on her forehead she replied, "I was raised this way." In other words, her participation in Ash Wednesday is a tradition, a habit. She could offer no biblical support for the practice it is just something she has done all her life. This tradition is a "sign of penance" and a reminder to "turn from sin and live the gospel." This sounds good and religious, but is totally incorrect. When I read something like this I can't help, but be reminded of the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. "Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that (Mark 7:13)."

How many traditions are there within the so-called Body of Christ that "nullify the word of God?" When it comes to the subject of forgiveness, which is what is at the heart of the tradition of Ash Wednesday, there are countless traditions that nullify the finished work of Jesus Christ. According to NewAdvent.org, penance is defined as a "sacrament of the New Law instituted by Christ in which forgiveness of sins committed after baptism is granted through the priest's absolution to those who with true sorrow confess their sins and promise to satisfy for the same." I barely understand this much less agree with what it says. Sins committed after baptism? Forgiveness granted through the priest's absolution? True sorrow? Promise to satisfy? None of this is biblical! All of it focuses everything on the believer to try and perform sacrifices for their sins and puts the granting of forgiveness in the hands of man. This, dare I say, is heretical. In order to accomplish all these requirements you have to develop a program designed to help a person fulfill the requirements. And that, my friends, is putting yourself back under the law in an effort to achieve through self-effort that which Christ has already done for us.

"Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds."Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin." Hebrews 10:11-18

When Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of the world, "he sat down at the right hand of God." Why did He sit down? He sat down because, as he proclaimed from the cross, "it is finished (John 19:30)." His work, on our behalf, was complete. Jesus did for us what we could not and cannot do for ourselves. Scripture is clear that the daily sacrifices of priests to absolve sins can never take those sins away. Too many Christians forget that God already had a sacrificial system in place to deal with the sins of the people, the Law. But, if "it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (Hebrews 10:4)," why do we think confessing our sins to priests is somehow sufficient to satisfy God? The fact is that our sacrifices are not acceptable to God as sufficient to obtain forgiveness of sins nor are they required by Him. By Christ's one sacrifice for sin God was satisfied for all eternity and remembers our sins no more. There is no sacrifice for sins! Confessing to priests, keeping short accounts, answering altar calls, putting ashes on our foreheads and, even, sacrificing bulls and goats will not do for us what only Christ could do. I don't think Christians mean God any harm when they participate in these activities, but you could be guilty of disrespecting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ when you take part in them.

"If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?" Hebrews 10:26-29

A relative of mine once said that she asks God to forgive her because "it makes her feel good." While understandable, it definitely is evidence that she doesn't believe Jesus has taken away her sins. Furthermore, it could be construed as insulting the Spirit of grace. The knowledge of truth that Christians deliberately sin against is that Christ's sacrifice was once, final, for all and for eternity. Every time you ask God to forgive your sins, regardless of the procedure involved, you are telling Him that the death of Jesus was not enough. That shouldn't make you feel good. I say all this not to condemn Catholics, but to use Ash Wednesday as an opportunity to tell all Christians that God no longer holds our sins against us. This is not my attempt to encourage people to sin, but to enlighten you to the fact that something greater exists for you. We usually ask God to forgive us because we feel that our sins have separated us from Him. However, because of Christ's once for all sacrifice for sins, the forgiveness we have in Him frees us to approach God in order to receive His love, mercy, kindness and instruction. It is only when we accept that we have been set free from the penalty of death our sins deserve, that we can use that freedom to serve each other in love by allowing the Holy Spirit of God to live the Gospel through us.