Attending religious services
Enrolling children in religious schools
Showing acts of kindness
Avoiding immorality
Believing in God
Having religious affiliation
Being baptized
Receiving communion
Studying doctrine
Reading the Scriptures
Offering prayers.
Celebrating religious events
Teaching religious classes
Giving aid to the poor
Christ is Someone to know and trust:
Someone who is very near
Someone who has authority to help us
Someone who can forgive us
Someone who can declare us righteous
Someone who can set us apart for God
Someone who can bring God to us
Someone who can bring us to God
Someone who can include us in His will
Someone who can guide us
Someone who can teach us
Someone who can be our example
Someone who never leaves us all alone
Someone who can be trusted
Someone who can defend us
Someone who can intercede for us
Someone who can enable us
Someone who can respond to our emotions
Someone who can feel our pain
Someone who can give us joy
Someone who can give us peace
Someone who can give us hope
Someone who can give us love
Someone who has proven His love for us
Someone who has died for us
Someone who rose from the dead for us
Someone who can live His life through us
Someone who can take us all the way Home Someone who can assure us of heaven
WHY IT MAKES SENSE TO KEEP OUR FOCUS ON CHRIST
In exchange for our trust in Him, Christ does many things for us that religion cannot do. For example:
· He loves us (John 15:13; Rom. 8:35).
· He brings us to God (1 Tim. 2:5).
· He brings God to us (Col. 1:15).
· He bought us for God (Eph. 1:7).
· He defends us before God (1 John 2:1).
· He declares us "not guilty" (Rom. 3:24; 5:1).
· He reconciles us to God (2 Cor. 5:19).
· He sets us apart for God (1 Cor. 1:30).
· He gives us peace with God (Rom. 5:1).
· He makes us acceptable to God (Eph. 1:6).
· He forgives us (Eph. 1:7).
· He frees us from bondage (Rom. 8;2).
· He qualifies us for adoption (Eph. 1:5).
· He makes us heirs of God (Eph. 1:11).
· He gives us His Spirit (John 14:16-17).
· He gives us a new focus (Col. 3:1-2).
· He lives within us (Col. 1:27).
· He brings us into God's family (John 1:12).
· He intercedes for us (Rom. 8:34).
· He rescues us from Satan's power (Col. 1:13).
· He places us into God's kingdom (Col. 1:13).
· He gives us eternal life (Rom. 6:23).
· He shows us how to live (1 John 2:6).
A STUDY IN CONTRASTS
There are two sides to many issues in Scripture. This is true of the subject of religion. In order to keep a balanced view, it is important for us to live with the tension that holds two seemingly contradictory ideas in place.
Religion is important. The Bible is full of religious practices that either (1) point us to God or (2) provide a channel for expressing our relationship to God. Both Old and New Testaments are full of religious law, principle, belief, and ritual. If we think of religion as action or conduct indicating belief in, reverence for, and a desire to please God, then it is clear that this religion provides:
· a pattern of doctrine and belief (Titus 2:1)
· shared experience (Acts 2:37-47; Heb. 10:25).
· outward show of inner faith (1 John 3:17-18).
Religion is worthless. It is worthless if we depend on any external actions to make us right with God. Whether before salvation or after, no amount of religious knowledge or action can save us. Knowledge or action can only give us a way of expressing our personal faith in Christ. In that sense we must avoid:
· attempts to earn salvation (Eph. 2:8-10).
· any thought of perfecting ourselves (Gal. 3:1-3).
· anything that displaces Christ (Col. 2:6-8).
Religion is dangerous, not because it is bad but because it is often good enough to turn our trust away from Christ. Our tendency is to reject confidence in what Christ can do and replace it with something that we can do for ourselves.
Imagine that you are making application for heaven. What would you list as your qualifications?
· I have always believed in God.
· I'm thought of as a religious person.
· I have tried to live a good life.
· I have been baptized.
· I go to church.
· I haven't done anything really bad.
· I have friends who will vouch for me.
I hope by now you realize that if you were to list any of those qualifications on an application for heaven, it would indicate that you don't yet understand the worthlessness of religion.
The only application that would be accepted by heaven would be one on which you listed your qualifications as follows:
· I can cite no merit of my own.
· I have been a sinner from birth.
· I am coming not in my name but in Christ's.
· I believe He is the Son of God and my Savior.
· I have accepted His sacrifice for my sins.
· I believe He rose from the dead.
· I have put my trust in Him to save me.
(from a tract of the same name. RBC Ministries)
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