Studies in the Gospel Message
THE subject of the Sabbath-school lesson for Sabbath, July 19, is The Curse of Formalism. The curse of formalism is a worse thing than “the curse of the law.” In reality it is the curse of the law concealed under the cloak of pharisaism. Here is what the Saviour said of formalism as he found it revealed in his time, and it is just as applicable to our time: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. . . . Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” Formalists profess to be righteous. They “outwardly appear righteous unto men,” but they appear very differently in the Lord’s sight; “for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” In profession, formalists are servants of the Lord whose lives are devoted to the doing of his will; in practice, they serve themselves, following the dictates of their own will; and in order to hide this mockery from men (themselves included) they weave a thick garment of self-righteousness, which they cast about them with the utmost self-complacency. Prayer, which was intended to be the voluntary opening of the heart to God, they use as a cloak with which to cover the heart from men, and they lengthen it out unduly in order that the real purposes of the heart may be concealed in a multitude of words. Putting on the outward signs of life and purity, they “are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.” They “receive the greater damnation” than those who do not add hypocrisy to their other sins. It is more difficult to reach formalists with the simple gospel of repentance and salvation than to reach other ordinary sinners. They have substituted mental assent to a creed for a personal faith in Christ as a Saviour from sin; they have substituted orthodoxy for a righteous character; they have sought to cleanse and mend their own garments that they may “outwardly appear righteous unto men,” instead of acknowledging that their righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and accepting “the garments of salvation” and “the robe of righteousness.” To the deceitfulness of sin they have added the deceitfulness of self-righteousness, and only some mighty convulsion in their lives can break the spell. Centuries of experience testify to the blighting effects of formalism and the difficulty of saving those who have once come under its curse. It was formalism which brought the downfall of Jerusalem and the captivity in Babylon. For many years before that experience the Lord warned and instructed his people, seeking to renew the spirit of their minds. Listen to his words: “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord. . . . Bring no more vain oblations. . . . When ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red6like crimson, they shall be as wool.” These were the Pharisees of old. Though they made “many prayers,” yet their sins were “as scarlet.” Again the Lord said through the same prophet, “Forasmuch as this people draw nigh unto me, and with their mouth and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which hath been learned by rote: therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.” Here is the very essence of formalism: mouth service, lip service, the heart far from God, the substitution of the commandments of men for the commandments of God, and the whole thing performed by rote. What a contrast between this and the genuine manifestation of the life of Jesus in this mortal body. When the overthrow of Jerusalem was so near that it would be accomplished during the time of the generation then living, the Lord plainly declared what his dealing with his people would be in view of their long-continued formalism and their refusal to listen to his repeated warnings: “Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. . . . They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.” The prophet Daniel summed up the whole matter when he confessed in behalf of the people: “Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. . . . For under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.” The curse of formalism brought upon that people not simply the usual result of transgression, but the usual result multiplied many times over. Nations and cities had been overthrown for their iniquities, but there had been nothing like the punishment which had come upon God’s professed people. “For under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.” It would seem as though this lesson might have forever saved people from the curse of formalism, but “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” The same spirit of formalism which brought destruction upon Jerusalem in Daniel’s time, led to the rejection of the Messiah, and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Jesus applied the same prophecy of Isaiah to the Pharisees of his time. “Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” The Pharisees said, “If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.” And so they put him to death to prevent any more men from believing on him, and to save their place and nation; and in this very act they furnished the basis of belief on him to all men, and lost their place and nation. And yet these same people paid “tithe of mint and anise and cummin.” Such is the curse of formalism. The same danger threatens us to-day. This warning has been given to us: “For years a degree of pharisaism has been springing up among us, which has separated some from the Bible standard. If the preconceived ideas of those actuated by this spirit are crossed, they immediately assume a controversial, combative attitude, as a man puts on armor when preparing for battle. Much pride and loftiness, and a spirit which desires to rule, has been manifested; but very little of the spirit which leads men to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn of him, has been shown.” The form of godliness without its power is one of the perils of the last days. It is not sufficient to have “the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.” We must possess “the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ.” This is the righteousness which is revealed in the gospel as its power. This is the power of the endless life. And this is the only salvation from the curse of formalism. Will God’s people, who are being called out of Babylon to-day, learn this lesson in time, or will they follow in the track of the other denominations from which they have outwardly separated themselves? The Lord’s call at the last General Conference, repeated so many times since, is his invitation to them to get wholly free from this curse of formalism, and to receive the Spirit’s power for the work before them. Then the message of Christ’s righteousness can be quickly given in every land, and thus the way of the Lord can be prepared. “Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock. . . . Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts. . . . Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up forever.”