Watch Out For "Religion"

Is “religion” good or bad? Is true Christianity a “religion”?
Both the Reader’s Digest Great Encyclopedic Dictionary and Webster’s New World Dictionary Third College Edition give as the etymology of the word religion: re=back plus ligare=bind, hence to bind back or re-connect.
You might ask, “Isn’t humankind suffering the consequences of not being bound (connected) to our creator? Isn’t the break (breach) produced by sin in the Garden of Eden precisely what the work of Christianity is intended to repair? (Isaiah. 58:12).
The word ligament has the same root source and no part of the body which moves to accomplish work can do so without being connected (bound) to the source of power, the muscle. Humankind has no greater need than to be re-connected to spiritual muscle. For this reason you might say, “The church does not need to be without religion. The church needs the religion of Christ, pure and undefiled (James 1:27). By this definition we don’t need Christianity without religion. We need Christianity that accomplishes religion.”
But Jesus did not save and rescue us by refining and modifying religion. Jesus did not die on the cross for a religious cause. It was religion that put Him on the cross – Jesus died to save us from religion.
Religion, from the day of Jesus’ birth to the day of His resurrection, was hostile to Jesus. Religion killed Jesus then, and it continues to war against Christianity today (John 15:18-19; 16:2). From the birth of the body of Christ, religion has attempted to eliminate Christianity by either killing believers or by misrepresenting and counterfeiting the teachings of Jesus Christ.
All religion, in any form, including religion that clothes itself with God’s name, asserts the fundamental importance of human deeds, works and performance.
Religion is any system of belief and practice that assures us that our performance can gain us a higher standing with God than we would have otherwise enjoyed. That hypothesis is the polar opposite of the gospel and the enemy of the cross of Christ.
Religion is a pre-Christian innovation, a system of behaviors and practices that promises divine blessing in return for human obedience and fidelity.
Religion existed long before the birth of our Lord and was in large part the reason He came. He came to signal the end of religion and the beginning of a new life, a life He brings to all of us, without cost. Christianity is thus not a religion at all, but a way of life that is opposed to religion and all of its potions and prescriptions.
The history of religion is filled with egocentric appeals persuading us that we are the center of reality. Religion, at its core, is humanistic. Religion is attractive because it places humans in the driver’s seat, seemingly able to control their destiny, able to determine what God will think of them.
Religion, under any label or banner, enslaves its followers, addicting them to the idea that what they do can please and appease God. Religion, in the name of Jesus Christ, offers to improve upon what Jesus has done, to modify and even counterfeit Him and thereby offering a false gospel and a bogus salvation.
An improved and modified Jesus is no Jesus at all. As C.S. Lewis once said, “No clever arrangement of bad eggs will make a good omelet.”
True Christianity comes from Jesus’ victory by the cross and His resurrection – and it is given to us.
Religion that exists and even thrives within Christianity diminishes the importance of the life, death and resurrection of Christ, as opposed to authentic Christianity which insists that Jesus Christ is the ground zero of our lives.
Religion serves an intoxicating and heady brew that bewitches humans (Galatians 3:1) into believing that human effort, performance and works are in the spotlight, at center stage of our relationship with God. True Christianity points to the work of Jesus Christ alone as the only source of our salvation. Jesus alone, the Light of the world, is worthy to occupy the spotlight. Faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone. It’s all about Him, not about us!
Jesus rescues us from a world that is groaning under the heavy burden of oppressive religion. Jesus’ glorious resurrection from the dead is also our glory, by God’s grace. Jesus’ victory is our own, by God’s grace. By grace, Jesus’ life is the life we now live (Galatians 2:20). He is the center of our lives. We belong to Him by God’s grace, not on the basis of our goodness, but on the basis of God’s goodness.
So as you look around you at Christianity, you will see many forms of working to please God to obtain salvation.
When you see a church that says:
a) Christianity is simple
b) You can’t earn your salvation by working to please God
c) Salvation is totally a one time gift which you just have to accept
d) When salvation is accepted, you have a change of nature right within your human spirit to the nature of Jesus Christ who comes to dwell within you in a living union
e) The life of a Christian after salvation becomes a life of growing in understanding of who you are in Christ, developing a personal relationship with Him, learning to trust Him for guidance and leadership, and demonstrating Him to others around you
f) As this growth occurs, you receive correction when you slip backwards and sin in different areas. But you learn from your mistakes and gradually eliminate human self-centeredness and daily become more Christ-centered.
When you find such a church without all the imposed ritualism and imposed human works, grab on to that church because THAT IS TRUE CHRISTIANITY AND IS NOT “RELIGION”!

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