God’s love is often seen in His clarity. Yet, as we are wont to do, we sometimes attempt to add to that clarity in our effort to “feel God more.” Recently, many Christians observed Ash Wednesday—a day of prayer and fasting marked by ashes placed upon the forehead. For some, it serves as a reminder of repentance and of our frailty: “Remember that you are dust.” Yet whenever the church adopts practices not clearly commanded in Scripture, we should pause and ask whether we have gone beyond the bounds God Himself has set.
This concern lies behind what is known as the Regulative Principle of Worship: that we worship God only in the ways He has commanded. While practices such as Ash Wednesday or Lent may feel spiritually enriching, worship is ultimately for God, not for us. The question is not whether a practice moves us, but whether it has been appointed by Him. There is a deep beauty in knowing that when we gather before the Lord, we do so in the way He has prescribed—without binding consciences where He has not spoken, and without adding what He has not required.
Historically, the regulative principle has been grounded within the Second Commandment. While the First Commandment tells us whom we should worship, the Second informs how we should worship Him. The initial text of Exodus 20:4-6 speaks specifically about whether images are allowed in worship,1 but we see the theme of God ordaining specific precepts for worship in the Law. Deuteronomy states:
"When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, "take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' "You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. "Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.
Here we see God warning the Israelites not to worship Him the same way that the pagans worshiped their gods. Even if those practices were directed towards God, they were outside of His bounds. The issue God was dealing with was not one of sincerity, but one of divine authorization. We are not to add to His worship or take away from it. We see a startling confirmation of this in Leviticus when Nadab & Abihu—sons of Aaron— offer an incense that God had not commanded them.2 It wasn’t merely something banned or noted as evil by God, but something not explicitly allowed or commanded. God responded by smiting them with fire which devoured them. Scripture includes visible, immediate judgments3 of this sort that we don’t see today, but this sobering account reminds us that worship is not ours to invent. Worship is holy ground, and we do well to tread carefully where God has spoken clearly.
How does God deal with additional holy days added to our worship? Well, Paul calls them a shadow of the real substance in Colossians.4 In Galatians, Paul fears he has “labored in vain” for the spiritual health of those who observe days and seasons.5 While we aren’t certain of the specific feasts or holy days that Paul refers to in both of these passages, but we can see that calendar observance is tied to the structure of worship abrogated by Christ’s death. We see a warning here to not return to these patterns that Christ fulfilled. Those who do follow a calendar today with periods such as Lent are not trying to bring back the sacrifices of the Old Testament, but are unintentionally reversing the simple worship Christ established by reconstructing new sacred seasons. This is why Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth”6 Temples aren’t needed, Jerusalem isn’t needed, sacrifices aren’t needed, just the simple gathering of believers in worship on Sunday. Sunday is the only holy day we see instituted in scripture7; not because the New Covenant abolishes sacred time, but rather concentrates that time around the resurrection. Each time we go to church on Sunday, we are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a holiday that God provided for us, and we can take solace in the simplicity of that.
The Lord’s Day is what God has provided for us on a calendar to worship—because that weekly resurrection worship is sufficient for our needs. Self-made religion has an appearance of wisdom8 but lacks divine institution. This is especially relevant as this season of fasting and repentance are good things no doubt. But we must raise the question has Christ bound His church to this form? The freedom we have in Christ is one that does not bind consciences where God has not spoken. The richness provided by the simplicity of New Covenant worship is one where we don’t have to continually come up with new ways to placate God, to the contrary, we can rest in Him without having to worry about our performance. He tells us how to approach Him, and that prescribed worship protects us by knowing that we are approaching God in the way that he desires.
- See our article on this here: https://thoughtsinthelight.com/2026/02/16/seeing-christ-by-faith-not-by-images/ ↩︎
- Leviticus 10:1-5 ↩︎
- cf. 1 Samuel 6:19; 2 Samuel 6:1-11; Acts 5:1-16; 12:21-23 ↩︎
- Colossians 2:16-17 ↩︎
- Galatians 4:10-11 ↩︎
- John 4:21-24 ↩︎
- cf. Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2; Revelation 1:10 ↩︎
- cf. Colossians 2:20-23 ↩︎
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