One of the biggest antagonists to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is RELIGION. What do I mean when I say religion? This system of seeking after self-righteousness under the guise of pleasing God. It is keeping ordinances, traditions, and a lot of self effort to stay in the good graces of God. Religion is the veil that hides Jesus from the masses. It is a false sense of security that makes the guilty party feel better about themselves. Religion attempts to ease the discomfort of the deep-seeded guilt, and when it fails it brings the victim to a state of self loathing and hatred for never reaching the desired level of righteousness. It is an itch that when scratched continues to itch more and more without ever reaching the desired satisfaction. Religion never does satisfy fully. Just like sin, it might be pleasurable for a season, but in the end it always leaves the victim life empty, meaningless and his soul condemned. Often the true gospel message is preached, but is made impotent and powerless by the onslaught of "do's and don't's" that reverberate through the hearers mind. Especially among "church goers" that have never come to the knowledge of the truth and found that release. Also there are internal voices that say, "It can't be that easy," or , "That just sounds too good to be true". It is almost too good to be true that God could call us guilty, hell-deserving sinners, completely righteous, and do it as a free gift. How could a just and righteous God do that? Because he called and treated His Son as if He were all the guilty sinners in the world and took out His wrath on Him.
2Co 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Believing the gospel of Jesus Christ forces us to acknowledge that we have nothing to offer God, we have nothing we can do, we are completely helpless hell-trodden sinners, who are without hope and have only Jesus who can save us. We are shipwrecked in the middle of the ocean and Jesus is the only one within a million miles, and the only one with the means to save. You believe that and you're saved. There is no self effort in the Gospel. It is His works, His righteousness, His power, His glory, His Blood. Nothing for us to do here. All God's doings. All Jesus and His righteousness. No room for self effort here. Makes a person feel a completely helpless in himself. But when that release comes when a person lets go of his own righteousness as a means to save himself, and clings only to Christ, it is a wonderful thing. What a relief when one finally lets go and just believes! This is why religion is so pointless. It continues on from here and says, "Just continue on with your self effort to please God and go to heaven". And God is saying that He is sick of all our religion and self effort. The whole point to the salvation is so that we could once again be rightly related to God (not by something we do, but something He did) and fellowship with Him in a walk of faith, believing God moment to moment. Just imagine a man who is continuously running around buying things and dressing himself up to show his wife that he loves her. Imagine a man who is always working to make a better living, striving to make more money so his wife will see that he adores her. Wouldn't she soon tell him to stop and just look at her? Perhaps go for a walk together and enjoy each others company? You see, all God wants is us. All God wants is to walk with us in the cool of the day again, like He did with Adam in the garden. God is lonely for our company. Jesus is lonely for our company. Cast off your empty religion. Jesus is all you need.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
What Really Matters
A person is not a Christian because one goes to "church". A person is not a Christian because one goes to a certain denomination. A person is not a Christian because he/she is baptized. A person is not a Christian because He/She professed to be a Christian. A person is not a Christian because he/she said a prayer and really meant it. A person is not a Christian because he or she confessed their sins. A person is not a Christian because he/she is spiritual. A person is not a Christian because he/she is broken and contrite. A person is not a Christian because he/she does devotions daily. A person is not a Christian because he/she fasts and prays a lot. A person is not a Christian because he/she has read the bible all the way through. A person is not a Christian because of some position they hold. A person is not a Christian because they memorized scripture. A person is not a Christian because he/she wears modest clothes. A person is not a Christian because they are a better at being a Christian than the next person. So what constitutes a Christian? What if all of those "religious duties" were taken away? What if your bible were taken away? What if there was no more church meetings? What if all your rules were taken away. What if all of your "Christian friends", went away, leaving you no one to compare yourself with? What if all your Sunday clothes were burned in a fire? What if you were paralyzed from the neck down, stranded on an island, without your "daily bread", or your bible, incapable of any religious efforts? Would you still be "Christian"?
All these self efforts and traditions, will no more make a person a Christian then standing in a garage will make a person into a car. God calls our righteousness filth. The apostle Paul calls it dung. Why? Because we sinned and fell short of the glory of God. It doesn't matter that one has a real good Christian spirit. We fall short. Doesn't matter that all our life we have gone to "church". We fall short. It doesn't matter that at one time we said a prayer. It doesn't matter that at one time we repented. It means less then nothing to God. It doesn't matter that when you were twelve you got baptized. We fell short. So what matters to God?
What matters to God is His Son Jesus Christ. That is what matters. Apart from all of Jesus Christ's right doing here on earth, His life and His dying, His blood, and His resurrection, His righteousness, nothing pleases God. NOTHING! We are filthy, ungodly heathen sinners worthy of the fires of hell and nothing else. Without the blood of Jesus to cover and pay for our sins, and His righteousness imputed to our account, we could never, ever come into God's presence (heaven). The most pleasing thing a person could do to make it right (for all of our sin and rebellion) with God apart from Christ on the cross, is to take a knife and slit our own throats so that the blood runs to the ground and people and animals trample all over it and our lifeless bodies. I am not kidding. Even that would be insufficient. Our blood is too polluted to be worth much. Knowing this, to even dare think that by doing the right thing one can climb his way into God's good graces and inherit eternal life, is absurd. That is why religion is so disgusting to God. Thinking that we by going through religious motions can fool God! Thinking that tithing ten percent and attending the one true denomination will make it right with God! Thinking that coming to "church" and confessing our sins and then going out and continuing to live in sin will cut it with God. Thinking that by having devotions, fasting and praying will make all the times we sinned and broke God`s law, just go away. All the while breathing God's good clean air and thinking that we got away with it! Just thinking that if we tell God we are sorry, He will forgive us. How could God be righteous and just if he just forgave sin whenever someone said sorry? Absolutely delusional!
The cross was a statement by God of His rejection and condemnation of the whole human race with all of our religion and self effort. God was sick and tired of man`s empty religion that tried to cover for their evil deeds.
God requires blood to be shed to pay for sin. God used the blood of animals in the old covenant to cover the sins of those Jews that offered them up as a sacrifice. But the blood of animals was not sufficient to remove their sins. God in His long suffering, saved those old testament saints on credit til some real blood could be shed. The life and blood of an animal cannot substitute the life and blood of a human. If I had a friend who had never sinned and was perfectly righteous, that friend (if it pleased God) could take my place in hell so that I could take his place in heaven. But an animal is not worth the life of a human. God only used this as a picture of what was to come. When God's wrath poured out on His only Son, instead of us, and Christ's blood ran onto the ground at Calvary, it was the most profound act of love the world ever saw. Frankly, it is almost too good to be true. To think that the Creator of all the universe would come down and take upon Himself a body like ours and be tempted as we are, chastised, humiliated, beaten, whipped, nailed to a cross and take upon Himself our sin, is beyond words. Beyond human comprehension.
The only way we can go to heaven and be rightly related to God is to know that all our self effort and religion will forever be insufficient and just believe. There is nothing in our experience that we can do to be saved from eternity in the lake of fire. Salvation is not in our experience. Salvation is what Jesus did on the cross over two thousand years ago, and it is in believing that, that we are saved. Simply relying on nothing else, but that what Jesus did is sufficient for us to go to heaven. Trusting that the blood of Jesus was enough to pay for all your sins. A person must be brought to a point where he or she sees that there is no other way. Either Jesus took care of it, or it is eternal damnation for all of us. Either Jesus did it all and salvation really is a free gift, or we are all in big trouble. I don't know about the rest of you, but my faith is entirely on His works and not mine. All my hope is in His righteousness imputed to me and not mine. Religion and self effort which is my righteousness, is not the way, it is the anti-way. Religion is what makes the truths of Christianity so hard to get across. Religion is man doing things to please God. Religion is doing the things in the law to try to please God and justify oneself. True Christianity is God showing His GREAT LOVE toward us in that while we were still sinners DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS, Christ died for us.
So what is your motivating factor? Is it guilt? Do you do good deeds because you know you haven't lived right? Do you try to hide your sin and guilt in a shroud of religious activity? Or do you act out of joy and love for Jesus, believing what He did for you. Do you act out of knowing that all of your sins are paid for and your salvation is secure in Christ? If you don't, then you don't believe and you are still dead in your sins. What you ought to do is come to God in all your sin and believe that Jesus and not you, made it right with God. He took care of it. Stop striving to be saved and just believe. Then go and sin no more.
All these self efforts and traditions, will no more make a person a Christian then standing in a garage will make a person into a car. God calls our righteousness filth. The apostle Paul calls it dung. Why? Because we sinned and fell short of the glory of God. It doesn't matter that one has a real good Christian spirit. We fall short. Doesn't matter that all our life we have gone to "church". We fall short. It doesn't matter that at one time we said a prayer. It doesn't matter that at one time we repented. It means less then nothing to God. It doesn't matter that when you were twelve you got baptized. We fell short. So what matters to God?
What matters to God is His Son Jesus Christ. That is what matters. Apart from all of Jesus Christ's right doing here on earth, His life and His dying, His blood, and His resurrection, His righteousness, nothing pleases God. NOTHING! We are filthy, ungodly heathen sinners worthy of the fires of hell and nothing else. Without the blood of Jesus to cover and pay for our sins, and His righteousness imputed to our account, we could never, ever come into God's presence (heaven). The most pleasing thing a person could do to make it right (for all of our sin and rebellion) with God apart from Christ on the cross, is to take a knife and slit our own throats so that the blood runs to the ground and people and animals trample all over it and our lifeless bodies. I am not kidding. Even that would be insufficient. Our blood is too polluted to be worth much. Knowing this, to even dare think that by doing the right thing one can climb his way into God's good graces and inherit eternal life, is absurd. That is why religion is so disgusting to God. Thinking that we by going through religious motions can fool God! Thinking that tithing ten percent and attending the one true denomination will make it right with God! Thinking that coming to "church" and confessing our sins and then going out and continuing to live in sin will cut it with God. Thinking that by having devotions, fasting and praying will make all the times we sinned and broke God`s law, just go away. All the while breathing God's good clean air and thinking that we got away with it! Just thinking that if we tell God we are sorry, He will forgive us. How could God be righteous and just if he just forgave sin whenever someone said sorry? Absolutely delusional!
The cross was a statement by God of His rejection and condemnation of the whole human race with all of our religion and self effort. God was sick and tired of man`s empty religion that tried to cover for their evil deeds.
God requires blood to be shed to pay for sin. God used the blood of animals in the old covenant to cover the sins of those Jews that offered them up as a sacrifice. But the blood of animals was not sufficient to remove their sins. God in His long suffering, saved those old testament saints on credit til some real blood could be shed. The life and blood of an animal cannot substitute the life and blood of a human. If I had a friend who had never sinned and was perfectly righteous, that friend (if it pleased God) could take my place in hell so that I could take his place in heaven. But an animal is not worth the life of a human. God only used this as a picture of what was to come. When God's wrath poured out on His only Son, instead of us, and Christ's blood ran onto the ground at Calvary, it was the most profound act of love the world ever saw. Frankly, it is almost too good to be true. To think that the Creator of all the universe would come down and take upon Himself a body like ours and be tempted as we are, chastised, humiliated, beaten, whipped, nailed to a cross and take upon Himself our sin, is beyond words. Beyond human comprehension.
The only way we can go to heaven and be rightly related to God is to know that all our self effort and religion will forever be insufficient and just believe. There is nothing in our experience that we can do to be saved from eternity in the lake of fire. Salvation is not in our experience. Salvation is what Jesus did on the cross over two thousand years ago, and it is in believing that, that we are saved. Simply relying on nothing else, but that what Jesus did is sufficient for us to go to heaven. Trusting that the blood of Jesus was enough to pay for all your sins. A person must be brought to a point where he or she sees that there is no other way. Either Jesus took care of it, or it is eternal damnation for all of us. Either Jesus did it all and salvation really is a free gift, or we are all in big trouble. I don't know about the rest of you, but my faith is entirely on His works and not mine. All my hope is in His righteousness imputed to me and not mine. Religion and self effort which is my righteousness, is not the way, it is the anti-way. Religion is what makes the truths of Christianity so hard to get across. Religion is man doing things to please God. Religion is doing the things in the law to try to please God and justify oneself. True Christianity is God showing His GREAT LOVE toward us in that while we were still sinners DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS, Christ died for us.
So what is your motivating factor? Is it guilt? Do you do good deeds because you know you haven't lived right? Do you try to hide your sin and guilt in a shroud of religious activity? Or do you act out of joy and love for Jesus, believing what He did for you. Do you act out of knowing that all of your sins are paid for and your salvation is secure in Christ? If you don't, then you don't believe and you are still dead in your sins. What you ought to do is come to God in all your sin and believe that Jesus and not you, made it right with God. He took care of it. Stop striving to be saved and just believe. Then go and sin no more.
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