The Outside-Of-Us Stuff
If you are a Christian who has been faithfully engaging in the corporate worship of God, then hopefully, over the years, you have noticed that much of our religion, much of Christianity is external. The Spirit uses outside-of-us things to bring us into fellowship with Christ. Just think about the Gospel. It is a verbum ex auditu (an external word), that comes to us by another who is outside us, and it confronts and comforts us from the outside. As Paul says: “Faith comes by hearing; & hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10.17). Similarly, think of Baptism or the Lord’s Supper. They also are outside things that God pours out onto us as well. None of this is a mistake, meaningless, or useless ritualistic rigmarole. God intentionally, purposefully establishes creaturely things to aid and guide His human creatures. To disdain the physical, creaturely rites for some form of “superior spirituality” is to slide, whether subtly or seriously, into the anti-cosmic, anti-creation, anti-hi...