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I
walked
into a Religious Education classroom in a public school in
Australia and with tongue-in-cheek wrote in large letters
across the blackboard:
"I
hate religion"
"Man,
in this class, you'll get shot," gasped one student in amazement.
"But I'm sold on real Christianity," I responded.
"Well, what's the difference?" several chorused.
"Let me explain," I replied.
1.
God's Purpose
True,
Christianity is a religion, but people can be religious without
being Christians. Christ condemned the religious Pharisees
of his day because they hid their real selves behind a facade
of religion and external morality.
It
may sound odd, but God isn't into religion or external morality.
He's into relationships and reality. That is, he wants us
not only to have a right relationship with him, but also with
each other and with ourselves. And he wants us to be real—to
see and admit what we truly are so he can help us.
Neither
is it God's goal to make us good. It's to make us whole, for
only to the degree that we are made whole will our actions,
lifestyle, and relationships be wholesome!
Religion
tends to want to fix us from the outside in. God wants to
fix us from the inside out. The first can become an impossible
burden. The latter is what brings freedom. Christianity is
not a set of rules and regulations. It is experiencing divine
love, divine acceptance and divine forgiveness.
It
helps to realize that God isn't out to zap us for the wrongs
we've done. In fact, no matter what we have ever done or have
failed to do, he loves us with an everlasting love and has
a wonderful purpose for our lives—for this life as well
as the next! As Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that
he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life."1 And again,
"My purpose is to give life in all its fullness."2
2.
Man's Problem
On
the outside we may look like we are doing very well, but on
the inside everyone of us has a major issue. Seneca, the ancient
Roman philosopher, put it bluntly when he said, "We have all
sinned. Some more. Some less." God's Word, the Bible agrees.
It reads, "We have all sinned and fallen short of God's standard."3
Sin, however, is not only doing harmful acts. It is anything
that falls short of the standard of perfection that God envisioned
for us. This includes nursing grudges and other negative emotions,
pride, jealousy, mixed motives, etc. Most of us, too, are
guilty of sins of omission; that is, not doing what we know
we should and could do.4
Another
misconception about God is that he is out to get us or to
punish us for our sins. We bring sin's punishment on ourselves
because sin has its own natural consequences. If we try to
break the universal law of gravity, for instance, we can't.
It will break us. Neither can we break God's universal moral
law. When we do, it breaks us, and besides its painful effects
in this life—suffering, sorrow, sickness and spiritual
death—its ultimate and tragic consequence is eternal
death or separation from God.5
We
are like a burned out or "dead" electric light bulb
that cannot respond to its power source. And because we are
spiritually dead, we cannot respond to God's love and power
either, without his first "fixing" us. Furthermore, because
of our spiritual deadness, it is impossible for anyone to
save him or herself. Only God can do this. This is why all
the "good works" in the world cannot make us alive
to God. Only when we see and admit this, is God able to "fix"
us!
Continued
on Page Two
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