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Do you think keeping a Bible under your pillow or hanging a cross on the wall will keep off demons? A cross from a folded palm leaf bring you blessing? Making a sign of the cross will keep you under God's protection? Putting a sticker on your car that says, "Jesus saves," hoping you won't have accidents? Walking around a house 'sprinkling the blood of Jesus' to ward off witchcraft? Buying 'anointed handkerchiefs or prayer shawls' to bring you blessing? Blowing the shofar over the city to bring revival? Worshipping God facing the east? Etc., etc. Do you imagine that doing things like these will make you a Christian or earn points with God? Superstitions and magic.

At one point, when Israel was fighting with the Philistines, someone had the idea that if they took the ark of the covenant with them into the battlefield, they would surely get the victory, since the ark was the place of God's presence with them. But what happened was that not only did they lose the battle, but the ark was taken away by the Philistines! So much for depending on things or certain actions to assure God's favour for us! But Israel may have learnt this from looking at what all the nations around them did, and it may be the same way that we Christians have picked up similar ideas, even though our ideas and practices are more Christianised! Nevertheless, no such thing can ever make us acceptable to God or find favour. The people who place their confidence in such things are totally mistaken if they assume that God must be mighty happy with them for doing them!

It is possible that these people who hold this kind of ideas have never really heard the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, or even if they have, they have not really understood it. In effect, they are still depending on things they do to find acceptance with God. That is the essence of every religion. But knowing that no one would ever be able to find their way to God like this, God Himself came down to us offering the way of grace for us – unmerited favour. His Son Jesus took the punishment for our sins in our place, and if we are willing to accept that we deserve that punishment, and we want to give up our earlier life of sin, God will forgive our sins, and Jesus will become our Saviour from sin (Ac.13:39).

This concept is contra-intuitive for man. We have almost an inborn idea in us that if God has to accept us, we will have to earn it by certain things we do, and different religions, including nominal Christianity, devise different ways for this. But the Gospel of grace is being offered to anyone and everyone who will recognise the impossibility of becoming pleasing to God by our own effort.

The idea that we have to earn favour from God by things we do sometimes continues even after we receive salvation through faith in Jesus. Isn't that why we attribute magical values to different practices to 'earn grace'? Why don't we begin to learn the way of faith to build our relationship with God?

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