"And Deliver Us From Religion"
By Ron Key
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Perhaps the greatest blight ever perpetrated on Christianity was its catalogued label "religion." Immediately the "Christian religion" was classified with the other man-originated religions. Consequently it has also been relegated to time-worn cliches, such as, "Man has always needed to worship some kind of a God." And, "religion is good and serves a good purpose." But the greatest wrong came when this subtle innuendo achieved acceptance and use by the Christian community itself. When Karl Marx classified religion as "the opiate of the
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Christianity has never been a religion. Religion was the snare which Jesus came to remove. Religion, seen against history's backdrop, is man's unceasing quest to find God, or to work his way to God. Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Hare Krishna--all ground themselves in this tenet. God did not see it that way. If that is religion, God hates it. He has constantly been in quest of establishing communion with man. Abram found that true in Ur when God called him. Moses discovered it in the palace in Egypt. God jealously guarded His communion with Israel against the Eastern religions. Finally, even Judaism became a religion of sorts--needless laws, ridiculous forms and statutes clouded the prophecies of the Messiah. God sent Jesus to establish eternal communion with His people. He crushed religion. He said that a time was coming when man would worship God in spirit and in truth.
Christianity is a way of life, a radical life-style and philosophy which cannot even be compared with other religions. Such classification has strangled the basic concepts of Jesus and suffocated many seeking secularists. I am beginning to think that such semantical terms are merely clever ways of sidestepping the gut-level issues of salvation, sanctification and holiness. Religion is always a spicy conversation piece, bantered about with politics and current events. But the mention of a personal relationship with Jesus brings harried glances and abrupt changes in mood. Even that evidences the spiritual polarization of Christianity and religion.
The apostle Paul bore this out when confronting the intellectuals and arrogant philosophers in Athens. He stated initially, looking at the diversified array of idols, "I perceive that you are very religious." That was a tongue-in-cheek statement since the word he used had the same connotation as superstitious. But perhaps religion and superstition are not such strange bedfellows. These seekers after the novel had assumed that Paul would relate to them the principle of another religion--a system to alleviate fear. He crossed them up and strongly exhorted them to a whole new life and attitude centered in Jesus, God's resurrected Son. They came expecting to do mental battle with a disciple of religion. Paul confronted them with Jesus and a completely different philosophy of life.
Religious arguments and political debates will constantly occur today as they did in Athens. Paul realized that religion was to these people a nicely packaged schedule of external practice. During his travels he spoke in synagogues and temples, and everyone, it seems, had a religion. But while each religion kept people busy, Paul saw emptiness and hopelessness. He did not argue religion, he presented a personal God who would reside in people. He presented a Savior to a world bound in religious red tape. It was refreshing, exciting, and the people responded.
Who could argue with a man holding Paul's credentials? The list enumerated in Philippians could compete with that of anyone. A Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee, of the tribe of Benjamin, Greek scholar, zealot. Yet, how he must have crushed the egotistical religious buffs when he stated, "I counted all of this as dung, just to know Jesus." And while all of the adherents of religion grasped their empty forms and crowded schedules, Paul had found the secret because God had found him. And each time he had a chance to speak, Paul could hardly refrain from sharing his personal testimony. He spoke of the heavenly vision at least five times. His religion had died on the Damascus Road. His new theme had become, "Christ in you the hope of glory."
This is the theme God intended for Christianity. He did not want to compete with religion. He brought the solution to it. This being true, we must look seriously at ourselves, our churches, and our outreach, to see if these are more religion-centered than Jesus-centered. Questions such as these deserve priority:
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We need to understand that acceptance of Christ and baptism are not merely to add ourselves to a church, or an organization, but to Christ. God adds to the church, we do not. More stress needs to be put on confrontation with a personal Savior and the vital union with him. We must win people to Jesus, and not to a religion of forms or rituals, or to a church organization.
We must speak and teach about this union with Christ. The excitement and joy of a Christ-centered life and how to achieve it, strikes response in hungry hearts. Too, more emphasis on personal involvement will help people to understand the Jesus-centered life. Personal testimony and sharing time should be a part of the worship experience. Paul did this in Acts and we need to do it today.
Again, we should look at our church calendar to see if there is any religious activity which merely ties up the saints and does not serve a spiritual purpose.
We must realize that church attendance does not necessarily make mature Christians. An examination of our vocabulary and thoughts will reveal much concerning our own personal relationship with Jesus. Is "Christ in us", truly our hope of glory, or do we merely glory that our names are inked into the church roster? Can we sincerely share a testimony of what Jesus has accomplished in our lives? If we cannot talk of Jesus, perhaps our Christian walk is more religious form than real experience with God's Son.
The early church experienced the influx of a flood of pagans who came in merely to "get in on a good thing." They took the early church down the road of apostasy until Jesus found himself outside knocking at the door in Revelation 3. These people were more interested in their community image, in making impressions, and in popularity than in commitment to Jesus. Let us not be so blind as to hold on to our religious schedules and duties, while the Savior knocks--outside. "Deliver us from religion, dear Jesus"!
Ron Key can be addressed at 3700 Valley View, Dallas, Texas 75234. He will be pleased to hear from you.