Religion Is Not Christianity
RELIGION IS NOT CHRISTIANITY
1 Cor. 15:3
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” (1 Cor. 15:1-4 ESV)
INTRODUCTION:
I hope you are not here this morning because you are religious!
Furthermore, I don’t want you to be religious!
And, Jesus Christ does not you to be religious!
Hopefully, I now have your attention and your interest.
Christianity is not religion, and religion is not Christianity! On the surface those may seem to be absurd statements to make especially in a church, especially by a pastor. Only in the very broadest sense of the word can Christianity be considered religion. But once you begin to define the most basic assumptions of religion and Christianity then the differences between the two become very clear and very pronounced.
My goal this morning is to draw a very clear contrast between religion and Christianity, to draw a very pointed contrast between religion and the Gospel.
This is more than just an academic discussion. What we are going to delve into this morning has to do with your life. What you believe about religion and what you believe about Christianity has a direct impact on not just your life but the lives of others as well. What you believe about religion and what you believe about Christianity directly impacts how you view yourself and how you view others.
Let me start this morning by laying my cards on the table. Let me start by defining the two terms, which define two ways of looking at life and looking at the world.
There is an underlying assumption, a foundational principal that both religion and Christianity rests upon. In other words both religion and Christianity start with the same premise, they both start in the same place.
The underlying assumption of both religion and Christianity is that we are all in need of salvation. Religion and Christianity both build upon the premise that we all need to be saved. Granted, there is a wide range of opinion as to what we need to be saved from. Nevertheless there is agreement between religion and Christianity that we all stand in need of salvation.
Some religions teach that we need to be saved from ourselves, while Christianity teaches that I need to be saved from a Holy God who hates sin and has gone to great lengths to bring the salvation that I need to me. Both religion and Christianity assume that we are in need of some type of salvation. But how our salvation is achieved is where the difference between religion and Christianity becomes clear.
Religion teaches that salvation is through moral effort.
Christianity teaches that salvation is through grace.
Religion operates on the principle of “I obey – therefore I am accepted by God.”
Christianity operates on the principle of “I am accepted by God through what Jesus Christ has done – therefore I obey.”
It is based upon that last statement that I say that Jesus doesn’t want you to be religious.
The goal of all religions is to seek some sort of salvation. There may be a huge difference of opinion among the different religions as to what we actually need salvation from. Christianity teaches that our main problem is sin.
There was a survey released this week that you may have read in USA Today. The survey showed that something like 87% of Americans still believe in sin. In other words the vast majority of people believe that some things are wrong, and we all have an innate sense of justice that knows that wrongs, that sin must be dealt with in some way.
If you are here this morning and you fall into the 13% that don’t believe in sin, for the sake of argument I would like to ask you to accept the premise of Christianity that sin is our main problem.
If we come to some kind of agreement that sin is our main problem, then we have to deal with this question. Why must the solution to our major problem be Jesus and Christianity? Why can’t some other religion do just as well? Why isn’t my own personal faith in God enough?
The answer to that question is that there is as Timothy Keller says “a profound and fundamental difference between the way that other religions tell us to seek salvation and the way described in the gospel of Jesus.”
Other religions, the teachers of other religions all try and teach us, to show us the way to salvation, while Jesus Christ says I am the way of salvation.
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
How many of you have read the book Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? How many have watched a movie based upon the book? My favorite movie version is the one done by Abbott and Costello.
Regardless of whether or not you have read the book or seen the movie you have a point of identification with the book. In the book Dr. Jekyll comes to realize that he is “an incongruous compound of good and evil.” His bad nature is holding back his good nature. He desires to do good things, but he can never seem to follow through on those good desires. What is his solution? If you remember the movie he concocts some potion that will separate out his two natures. He hopes that his good self, which will come out during the day will be free from the influence of evil and then he will be able to realize his goal of doing good. However when he takes the potion one night and his bad side comes out he is much more evil than he ever dreamed he could be.
Dr. Jekyll’s alter ego is named Edward Hyde. Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote the book chose the name not just because what Dr. Jekyll turns into is hideous, he chose the name because the evil Edward Hyde is hidden. Why did Dr. Jekyll want Edward Hyde to be hidden? Edward Hyde thought only of himself, he didn’t care who he had to hurt in order to gratify himself, in order to get what he wants. He even goes so far as to kill if someone gets in his way. What Robert Louis Stevenson was saying is that even the best people try and hide from themselves what is within. Even the best people try and hide the enormous capacity for egotism, for self-absorption and regard for our interest over the interest of others.
Once Jekyll realizes that he has capacity for evil acts, he decides to do everything that he can to clamp down on his terrible self-centeredness, and pride. In a sense he gets “religion”. He decides that he will never take the potion again and he devotes himself to charity and all kinds of good works. He does this partially to atone for what Hyde has done and partially to smother his selfish nature with all kinds of acts of unselfishness.
But what does Jekyll ultimately discover? One day he is sitting on a park bench thinking about all the good he has done and how much better a man he was despite his dark side, despite Edward Hyde, how much better he was than the majority of people. Let me read what Dr. Jekyll ultimately discovered.
“I resolved in my future to redeem the past; and I can say with honesty that my resolve was fruitful of some good. You know how earnestly, in the last month of the last year, I labored to relieve suffering, you know that much was done for others…{But as} I smiled, comparing myself with other men, comparing my active goodwill with the lazy cruelty of their neglect ... at the very moment of that vain glorious thought, a qualm came over me, a horrid nausea and the most dreadful shuddering… I looked down…I was once more Edward Hyde.”
For the first time Dr. Jekyll becomes Hyde and he was powerless to stop it. Since he is no longer able to control his transformations he kills himself.
Why would Jekyll become Hyde without taking the potion? Like so many people Jekyll knows that he is a sinner, so he desperately tries to cover his sin with great piles of good works, yet his efforts do not actually shrivel his pride and his self-centeredness they actually aggravate it. His good works lead him to superiority, self-righteousness, and pride and suddenly look! Jekyll becomes Hyde! Get this, not in spite of his goodness but because of his goodness!
Dr. Jekyll ultimately came to realize that despite all of his efforts and his good intentions and his good works that he could not save himself. He couldn’t be his own savior.
TWO WAYS TO BE YOUR OWN SAVIOR
The first one is to say “I’m going to live my life the way I want”
The second way is by trying to avoid sin and live a good moral life so that God will have to bless you and save you. Please listen carefully, in this case you may be looking to Jesus as a teacher, as a model, and even as some kind of a helper but whether you realize it or not you are avoiding him as Savior. Trusting in your own goodness rather than trusting in Christ for your standing with God, again please listen carefully, you are trying to save yourself by following Jesus not trusting in Jesus.
Unwittingly, those who follow this path are actually rejecting the gospel of Jesus. They have succeeded in creating a “Christianized” form of religion. It is possible to avoid Jesus as Savior as much as by keeping all the biblical rules as by breaking them.
The Bible has a word for those who avoid Jesus as Savior even as they keep all the rules. Pharisee! Tim Keller says “The devil, if anything prefers Pharisees, men and women who try and save themselves. Pharisees do a lot more spiritual damage.”
A Pharisee builds their sense of worth on their moral and spiritual performance and then they try and present that as some kind of resume to God and the world.
Churches that are filled with self-righteous, exclusive, angry, moralistic people are extremely unattractive. Many people who were raised in or near these kinds of churches reject Christianity at an early age or in college because of their experiences with these kinds of churches. If you are a person who had been disillusioned by such churches, anytime anyone recommends Christianity to you, you assume they are calling you to adopt religion. Pharisees and their and unattractive lives leave many people confused about the real nature of Christianity.
THE DIFFERENCE OF GRACE
What then is the Christian alternative to religion? It’s grace. There is a great gulf between the understanding that God accepts us because of our efforts and the understanding that God accepts us because of what Jesus has done.
Remember that religion operates on the principle “I obey – therefore I am accepted by God”. Christianity operates on the principle “I am accepted by God through what Jesus Christ has done – therefore I obey.”
Let me illustrate by describing two different people seated side by side in a church this morning, maybe even this church. They both pray, give money generously to the church; they are loyal and faithful to their families and the church. But here is the difference. Each of their actions flows from two entirely different motivations, from two radically different spiritual identities. The result is two radically different kinds of lives. It is grace that makes all the difference in our lives.
1. Grace makes a difference in our motivation
When it comes to religion and Christianity, there is a huge difference in our motivation. In religion we try to obey God out of fear. We believe that if we don’t obey we are going to lose God’s blessings not only in this world but in the next as well. In the gospel, in Christianity the motivation is one of gratitude for the blessing we have already received because of Christ. In the one – the religious person is forced to obedience. The other – the gospel person rushes to obedience out of gratitude, not debt or obligation.
2. Grace makes a difference in how we view ourselves
Here is how this works. The religious person who feels like they are living up to their chosen religious standard begins to feel superior to others who are not “following the true path”. This can be true whether you are a religious liberal or a religious conservative. But what happens when you fail to live up to the standard you have set? Failing to live up to your standard will fill you with a sense of self loathing, and you will feel much more guilt than if you had stayed away from God and religion altogether.
Contrast that with the person who understands and embraces the gospel, who understands that in Christ they are accepted by grace not only despite my flaws, but because I was willing to admit that I actually do have flaws. The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. Let that sink in!
What is the result? The result is that I am deeply humbled, yet at the same time I am deeply confident. And I cannot feel superior to anyone, and at the same time I have nothing to prove to anyone. Do you know what I’ve just described? A mentally healthy well adjusted person whose identity is found in Christ.
Grace not only makes a difference in how I view myself, it makes a difference in how I view others.
2. Grace makes a difference in how I view others
Many times we define ourselves by pointing to those that we are not like. Why do we do that? We do that in an effort to bolster our own sense of worth by devaluing those who are different from us in some way.
But when my identity is rooted in the gospel, it provides us with a new basis for harmony and social justice. The worth of a Christian is created not by excluding people, but through Christ who was excluded for me!
What does this mean?
It means that I can’t despise those who don’t believe as I do. Why? Because once I realize that I am not saved by correct doctrine or correct practice I’ve lost my reason for disliking for hating others. Do we have people today who hate each other because of differing beliefs? Of course we do.
Not only can’t I despise those who don’t believe as I do, I don’t have to be intimidated by anyone. Why? Because my identity, my worth is to found in Christ. When we properly understand the gospel and embrace Christ it now becomes possible for me to escape from being oversensitive, and overly defensive and feel the need to criticize others.
I’m going to make a statement that you are going to have to go home and chew on and that is that the Christian faith, once you begin to think through the implications of Jesus Christ it simplifies everything!
THIS SOUNDS TOO EASY!
Hopefully I’ve drawn a clear enough distinction between religion and the gospel that you may be thinking that this all sounds too easy. You may be thinking well all I have to do is claim a personal relationship with God and then I can do anything that I want!
Those who think along those lines have never truly experienced grace. Those who have experienced God’s grace in this way understand that grace can be very threatening. Let me read you a quote from a lady who understood the “threatening nature of grace.”
“If I was saved by my good works then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with “rights” – I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if I am a sinner saved by sheer grace – then there’s nothing he cannot ask of me.”
She knew that if she was a sinner saved by grace, she was far more subject to the sovereign Lordship of God over her life. She knew that if Jesus had really done all this for her she would not be her own. She would gratefully belong to Jesus.
From the outside this may sound similar to being an indentured servant. But from the inside the motivation is all joy. I can illustrate this by reminding you of what happened when you fell in love. Your love makes you eager for acceptance from the one you love. How did you react the first time you asked that special someone to go out with you or to marry you and they said perhaps much to your surprise “yes”. Did you then turn around and say “Great now I’m in so I can do anything that I want?’ Of course not. Out of love you now don’t wait for the one you love to ask you to do anything for them, you anticipate their needs and you try and meet the need. You naturally want to do what pleases them because you love them. You are not coerced into doing it, and you don’t do it out of a sense of obligation, you do out of love for them. Your behavior, your heart has been radically changed by love.
The gospel makes it possible to have such radically different lives! Sadly many Christians fail to make use of the resources of the gospel to live the lives they are capable of in Christ.
What is the fundamental difference between the gospel and religion? The basic message of Christianity differs at the very root with the assumptions of traditional religion. The founders of every major religion essentially came as teachers not saviors. They all came to say: “Do this and you will find the divine”. Jesus came primarily as Savior rather than a teacher. Jesus says “I am the Divine come to you, to do what you could not do for ourselves.
Thus we end where we began.
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” (1 Cor. 15:1-4 ESV)
Christ died for us! The Christian message is that we are saved not by our record, but by the record of Christ.