The problem with tradition....

"knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19. but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

I Peter 1:17-19 (NKJV)

Peter is referring to the practice of redeeming someone who had been taken into bondage. A price had to be paid so that they could be set free. What set us free was more precious than gold or silver. The blood of Jesus Christ was the payment God accepted to set us free. We have been set free from the bondage of sin and the curse of the law, but that’s not all.

Peter was also telling his readers that they had been set free from the pointless lives they had lived as a result of the traditions their fathers taught them. That had special significance for the original readers of Peter’s letter. The way of life handed down to them by their forefathers had been empty, binding, and ineffective in meeting God’s standard for holiness and obedience. But God had set them free from such a pointless life of trying to please Him by keeping rules. They had been redeemed from such a life and they were now free to honor God by depending on His indwelling Holy Spirit to live through them.

My favorite quote is one from Dr. Steve McVey of GraceWalk Ministries. He says, "Tell a man who he is in Christ and he can't be stopped from godly activity. Try to control him through rules and you set him up for spiritual ruin." I am convinced that when a person comes to an understanding that God has made them holy, and that they can live out of that holiness, then they will be constrained by the power of that understanding to live holy lives. But when religious leaders try to control the behavior of church members by pounding them with rules and traditions, the lives of those church members will usually reflect everything but holiness. What you usually get from that sort of teaching is "holier than thou-ness" that covers secret rebellion and unholy attitudes.

Christians shouldn't have to be constrained by the rules. Peter is teaching us truth in the appropriate order by which we should live it. First, God has made us holy and we can live out of that holiness. Next, he taught us that we have been empowered by the life of Christ within, Who will work through us and then reward us as if we had done the work ourselves. And now, Peter is giving us one more holy motivation for living holy lives. A HUGE price was paid for our salvation. We were not redeemed with gold or silver or anything worldly. We were purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ.

When Peter spoke of lambs, he was referring back to a foreshadowing picture of Christ in the sacrificial lamb that had been offered up in temple sacrifices. All of Peter’s readers would have recognized the requirements of perfection those animals had to meet. And Jesus fulfilled all the requirements of the Ultimate Sacrificial Lamb that would accomplish everything the lambs could never fully accomplish, thus redeeming us and ending the need for temple sacrifices forever.

So Peter said, "Knowing all this truth should be enough to motivate us to holy lives." Knowing the power that resides within us and knowing the price that was paid to save us should constrain us to live holy lives. Rules will never constrain us to such lives. But the knowledge of God's transformation will. Tradition won't do it, but truth ALWAYS will.