Troublesome Topic: JESUS DID NOT COME TO ESTABLISH A RELIGION

If Jesus had wanted to establish a new religion, he would have given his followers the standard type of things that characterize all religions. By this I mean things like traditions, procedures for various situations, hoops to jump through, leadership structures, and consequences for not following the right method, etc. And of course there would be the promise of salvation, happiness, heaven or some other motivation.

But Jesus didn’t do any of those things. In fact he removed certain aspects of the Law of the old Testament.

This brings up an interesting point. God did establish a religion with most of its characteristic traits – He established the Law for the Jews of the Old Testament era. Prior to that, God had allowed individuals to seek Him in personal ways, but there were apparently few who did so – Enoch, Noah, Job and Abram come to mind. So God established the Law as a teaching tool to guide people into the principles and ways of living that He desired for them.

But Jesus came to fulfill the former covenant and in doing so he stripped away some of the regulations in order to leave behind nothing but the principles.

In the Former Covenant (the Old Testament) and in the New Covenant, it was always about the heart and about living out God’s principles. It was never about the externals that make up a religion. It is always about a relationship that God established with His people. A covenant relationship was the method God chose to connect with His creation.

TODAY

The Christian life is not about the Christian religion. Christianity, or the Christian religion, is man’s idea, man’s effort and man’s creation, not something that Jesus established.

As a religion, Christianity has some problems just like other religions do, even though Christianity has much better foundations. The problems are with us, and things we do in an attempt to solidify and maintain what we have established. When people complain about and attack Christianity, it is usually the man-made things that they are attacking, or possibly parts of the Bible that they do not understand.

There is a mixture of relationship and religion in what we call Christianity. When someone calls himself a Christian, he may have a genuine relationship with God or he may be focusing only the external, religious aspects of things. The sad thing is that both types of people assume they will receive the eternal reward, but in reality, only one of them will. Christianity as a religion can connect us to the relationship with God that should be our focus. At the same time, there is a danger here because even Christianity can be something that temps us to ignore God, to substitute religious activity in the place of an intimate relationship with our Creator.

We naturally seek the external trappings of a religion. These have their place and can be helpful, but we absolutely must seek them along with a close relationship with God, never apart from such a relationship.

The only traditions that Jesus left with us are baptism and communion. Yet I would argue that these are more than just traditions, more than hoops to jump through to get to heaven. These are teaching tools as well as demonstrations of our commitment to God. They don’t get us to heaven because anyone can do them. But they help our heart grow closer to God, and that kind of heart is what gets us to heaven.

I find it unfortunate that so many believers in Jesus confuse the Christian religion with a relationship with God. I think the modern church, at least in America, is quite fuzzy on the difference. A relationship will look different for each person but will possess some of the same important qualities; a religion is mostly the same for everyone. A relationship is personal, with an emphasis on what is on the inside, while a religion is impersonal and emphasizes the external.

An accompanying reality is that there are people who practice the traditions and habits of other religions but they do have a genuine relationship with the Creator God. Just like Job and Abram had a relationship with God without a religion, there are people today who have sought the forgiveness available through Jesus Christ and have committed themselves to live for God, and yet the external aspects of their life make them look like they are not Christians at all. Let me say it another way, these people are not Christians in a religious sense, but they are Christ-followers. There have been some Muslims who have turned from following the Allah (the God) that is described in the Quran, to following the God which they still call Allah (which means God) as described in the Bible, yet they continue going to the Mosque and dressing and eating like Muslims. The inner part of them has changed dramatically, but the external parts look much the same. Notwithstanding the externals, these people are willing to give their lives for the belief and commitment they now carry in their hearts.

Let’s seek a relationship, not a religion. Let’s tell others about a relationship with Jesus Christ, not about the Christian religion.