My definition of religion
Religion is attaining a goal or goals by human effort to satisfy a higher power or a particular group, or to reach a higher level of existence, through adherence to a set of rules, procedures and/or standards.
Gary The Gospel Guy
Is religion a good thing or a bad thing?
All adherents to any religion seem to believe that their beliefs and activities will have positive affects on participants or the world at large.
Gary The Gospel Guy
This may surprise you, but I believe that religion is a bad thing – about the worst thing to ever hit humanity, actually.
“How can this be?” You may ask. “Haven’t the best things in life been accomplished due to religion?” Well, yes and no. Don’t forget that some of the worst things have been accomplished in the name of religion as well. But that isn’t the point, and the point of this message is to explain why.
There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.
Proverbs 14:12 & 16:25, ESV
I’m going to approach this topic from the standpoint of making ourselves “right with God”. After all, this is the most important aspect of life, is it not? Daily living, cosmology, relationships with other people and the like are all important subjects and definitely have their place in life, but I think that they all pale in light of this one goal – getting right with the Creator. In fact, I argue that until we are right with the Creator nothing else matters. Nothing.
Of first importance is realizing this one, simple fact:
We are all infected and impure with sin.
When we display our righteous deeds,
they are nothing but filthy [menstrual] rags.
Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall,
and our sins sweep us away like the wind.
Isaiah 64:6
While you and I can examine a person’s deeds and character and determine if that person is “good” or “bad”, we need to remember that we are not the Creator of life, and that His point of view or determination is going to be very different than ours. We also need to realize that our little opinions are of no value whatsoever when compared to what the Creator thinks.
In the above quote from the prophet Isaiah, we see that God’s opinion of our “goodness” is a bit shocking (life-shattering, actually). He talks about our righteous deeds (that is, the BEST we have to offer) being as filthy to God as a used tampon. If this is God’s view of us when we are on our absolute best behavior, what hope is there in satisfying Him and approaching Him based on our deeds? There is no hope at all. And what does this statement do to literally every religion known to man that relies on human effort to be “right with God”? It completely obliterates them all.
Perfection vs Imperfection
If we are being honest, each and every one of us must admit to being less than perfect. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (Romans 3:23, NLT) And what is God’s standard?
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48
But since we are not perfect, and never will be while living in these mortal bodies, where is the hope of getting right with God? How can we imperfect beings have the perfect relationship that our perfect Creator made us to have with Him? It’s all messed up. There is nothing that we can do to fix this problem.
But I’m guessing that you did not ask to be born. And I’m also guessing that you didn’t want to inherit an imperfect nature. I know that I didn’t. So what do we do? The short answer is we don’t “do” anything. We allow the Creator to “do” all of the “work” of fixing us – and our relationship with Him.
You see, the Creator is all-knowing (omniscient). He was not taken by surprise by the first people’s act of disobedience (which got us into this mess in the first place). He knew exactly how and when things would go wrong. But He allowed it anyway because He knew that He would be able to fix the problem later. So, really, the problem in our relationship with Him was always His to fix. And fix it He did.
The Solution
Ever since Adam and Eve first sinned against God and introduced this imperfect nature into the human race (what I call the Depraved Nature of Adam), which has been passed on to all people but one, we have all been totally incapable of escaping our imperfection. So God stepped into humanity and bailed us out.
Here’s how it works: God demands perfection because He is perfect. He cannot possibly have a perfect relationship with imperfect beings. So He is required (by Himself) in order to be true to Himself to “punish” His disobedient humans. So by becoming a human (a perfect, sinless human) and by taking the punishment that is due to us, He was able to satisfy His need for justice and at the same time satisfy His desire to have that perfect relationship with us. It’s a win-win situation. Of course, I’m referring to Jesus Christ, the God-man.
Because Jesus is God and without sin, He was able to take God’s punishment and get back up again. No other person would have been able to get back up again after experiencing God’s punishment. Not you. Not me. So now we are able to let His survival of God’s punishment apply to us. Since He satisfied God’s need for justice, we can have that apply to us exactly as if He had paid a fine that we owed to the court. The court doesn’t care who pays the fine, as long as it’s paid. Same thing here. Jesus paid your fine for being imperfect. And when Jesus returns again He will actually make you perfect, as He is perfect (but that’s another story).
Here’s what you need to realize (not “do”):
- Believe that there is a God who loves you.
- Know that Jesus is that God in bodily form.
- Realize that you are imperfect and in need of Jesus’ help.
- Know that what He did is sufficient to pay your fine.
- Ask that it apply to you.
After this, then you will be “Justified” before your Creator. That means that He no longer holds your imperfect condition against you and will look forward to Jesus making you whole when He returns to earth. There is no other way by which this relationship can be restored (and certainly not by human effort or human “righteousness”).
In the meantime, be grateful to Jesus for what He has done for you and give yourself over to Him in gratitude. Begin to live the relationship with Him that He wishes for and that you need.
Give yourself to Jesus and let Him work through you to lead others to Him. Then you can live out the only religion that God considers valid:
Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
James 1:27, NLT
But know that this comes AFTER being made “right” with God. It’s the result of salvation; not the means to it. And Christianity, if done right, is a relationship, not a religion.
Be blessed,
Gary
