"Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness" (Romans 4:4-5).
"For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law" (Romans 3:28).
Many people mistakenly think that the Golden Rule is the essence of Christianity, au contraire, that would make it a performance-based religion. You can take Buddha out of Buddhism, and Mohammad out of Islam, and you basically have the religions still intact, but you cannot do so with Christianity--Christianity IS Christ! (You must know Him!) You must, first of all, be right about Him and His work: i.e., He is the incarnation of God or God in the flesh and He paid the price for our redemption from sin, by dying on the cross to do this and show His love for us, and rose from the dead as ultimate proof of the Father's acceptance to give us hope and reason for believing in life after death--a resurrection. Believing Christ lived and died is history, believing He did it for you is salvation!
It is a proven fact of psychology that religious people are happier than those who profess none. Paul complimented the philosophers of Athens on Mars Hill for being "very religious" meaning they were open to speculation and accepting of religious ideas, giving him the open door to preach. But Julian Huxley wrote Religion Without Revelation, in which he said you don't need God to know right from wrong--this is where Secular Humanism leads us. John Dewey wrote A Common Faith to say that you can be religious without a religion (Secular Humanism is a religion without God!). True religion is to walk in the Spirit of God and be led by Him as you live in faith and are faithful to your calling in life--in other words knowing Jesus and having a relationship with Him.
To say someone got religion is an insult to a Christian: " I tried religion," the pastor said, "and it didn't work." His friend asked him, "What then, you're a pastor?" He replied: "Then I tried Christ and a relationship with Him and it worked!"" As they say: The proof of the pudding is in the eating! I've heard of people saying that if that's what Christ can do for someone they want Him too--this is the power of one's testimony and witness for Christ to make Him known. Many people today don't really hold anything against Christ, but against religion, especially organized religion and the church, as an institution. Jesus plainly said that eternal life is "knowing" Him, and this means more than knowing about Him. It is some kind of fellowship of the heart and love affair that no religion can match.
Religion has historically believed in making "sacrifices" to appease" or mollify and humor the gods who may be angry and cause bad luck, as it were, but in religion it is always the individual or society making the sacrifice (such as their children or a lamb), and in Christianity it is God Himself who makes the sacrifice because He is capable of paying a debt we couldn't pay and we owed to Him for offending Him in our sin and rebellion, and His sacrifice is infinite and cannot be measured, and therefore capable of saving mankind if they accept His work on their behalf--that is precisely what Christ did by paying the price of His blood shed for us so we wouldn't have to pay it in hell, and this is a free gift of salvation offered to all if they only exercise faith in Him.
Religion is defined as doing something "religious" or of displaying "religiosity." Secular Humanists believe you can be religious without having religion and they are gaining ascendancy with their ethical religion without God. It's a faith to live by and has a creed to believe. That is precisely what evil is: Being good without God or getting along without Him in the equation. Man's problem today is whether he can get along without the God he has left out of the picture, according to Will Durant. You can be a Christian without being religious, in fact, this is the normal Christian way of life--a walk of faith. The righteous shall live by faith according to Romans 1:17. "[W]e walk by faith, and not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7, ESV).
Knowing about God will not satisfy the needs of the heart of man, but having a relationship with the personal God and knowing His will. Blaise Pascal, a French philosopher, said there is a "God-shaped vacuum" in our heart that only God can fill. St. Augustine said that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God. We are made to worship God and if we don't we will worship something or someone else. Christ promised a more abundant and fulfilling life in knowing Him, which is rewarding and worth it. "... [I] came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10b, ESV).
Man strives to please God by his merits and works of the flesh (morality, philosophy, good deeds, ritual, etc.). Religion is also man's attempt to reach out to God, while God has taken the initiative and reached down in condescending to man--we are incapable of finding God through the doorway of religion! Man is incurably addicted to doing something for his salvation and the Jews asked Jesus what they could do: He replied that the "work of God" is believing on Him whom God sent. Salvation is a free gift of grace that cannot be earned, paid back, and is not deserved or merited. Christianity is not a list of dos and don'ts, but following Christ in fellowship and love.
Christ paid the price on a debt we couldn't pay and owed for our sins to the Holy Father. It was an infinite price that only God could pay with His blood--He suffered to the max on our behalf. The crucifixion is the measure of His love because He didn't have to die, He volunteered and willingly went to the cross. Religion lays down what man is obliged to do, while the gospel reveals to us what God has done for us. There are a plethora of religions based on human achievement; however, Christianity is based on divine accomplishment, not human achievement or work.
Religion is a do-it-yourself proposition of lifting yourself up by your own bootstraps and trying to earn your way in, hoping your good deeds outweigh your bad ones at the Judgment. Christians don't do good because they have to, but because they want to. Works are a "therefore" not an "in order to" you might say. We don't have to, we get to! Viva la difference! Religion is performance-based and doesn't solve the problem of guilt that we all incur by our sin. In Christianity salvation is a done deal and complete, while in religion the key word is "do" and is never done--all you can do is hope and you will never be assured of heaven or salvation. You just can't ever know in a works religion. When you say that works bring salvation, that is pure religion, and when you mix works and faith that is legalism. "[H]e saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5, ESV).
Christianity says that faith alone saves and works just naturally follow out of gratitude and a changed life (the Reformers said we are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone--no fruit means no faith). You don't come to God with a changed life or a resolution to improve but come to God for a changed life. He doesn't put a new suit on the man, but a new man in the suit. Millions of lives have been transformed and renewed by Christ, and this is not the case with other religions, because the problem we have is sin, not ignorance and Jesus came to save us from our sins. There is no other Savior in the world and no one else by whom we are commanded to call upon for salvation by a leap of faith to believe in our regenerated and renewed hearts.
Good works do have a place in Christianity, but they give us no merit before God. We are saved "unto good works," which means that we are not saved by them, but so we can do them--only believers have the power to do good works in God's eyes. Good deeds give us purpose and meaning in life as we cheerfully serve our Savior out of gratitude. The works we do are actually ordained or predetermined for us to "walk in them" (cf. Eph. 2:10). Note that Christ didn't die to make bad men good, but to make dead people alive! He came to bring life and life more abundantly (cf. John 10:10).
If we have no good works our faith is dead and dead faith cannot save! Without the evidence of good works, our faith is suspect because the true believer wants to do them. Sin doesn't show our freedom, but our slavery and Christ came to save us from our sins, which are the issue and problem we have. Religion is the best man can do, it has been said, but Christianity is the best God can do. This means we don't earn salvation, we receive it! Purpose of good deeds in perspective is vital to know: James says, "I'll show you my faith by my good works;" and Paul would say, "I'll show you my good works by my faith." They go hand in hand and you can only distinguish them, but not separate them--they are no substitute for faith, but only evidence that it is real.
RELIGION EQUAL KNOWING OR CONFESSING A CODE OR CREED; CHRISTIANITY MEANS KNOWING A PERSON AND HAVING LIFE WITH HIM, PERIOD. SOLI DEO GLORIA!
"For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law" (Romans 3:28).
Many people mistakenly think that the Golden Rule is the essence of Christianity, au contraire, that would make it a performance-based religion. You can take Buddha out of Buddhism, and Mohammad out of Islam, and you basically have the religions still intact, but you cannot do so with Christianity--Christianity IS Christ! (You must know Him!) You must, first of all, be right about Him and His work: i.e., He is the incarnation of God or God in the flesh and He paid the price for our redemption from sin, by dying on the cross to do this and show His love for us, and rose from the dead as ultimate proof of the Father's acceptance to give us hope and reason for believing in life after death--a resurrection. Believing Christ lived and died is history, believing He did it for you is salvation!
It is a proven fact of psychology that religious people are happier than those who profess none. Paul complimented the philosophers of Athens on Mars Hill for being "very religious" meaning they were open to speculation and accepting of religious ideas, giving him the open door to preach. But Julian Huxley wrote Religion Without Revelation, in which he said you don't need God to know right from wrong--this is where Secular Humanism leads us. John Dewey wrote A Common Faith to say that you can be religious without a religion (Secular Humanism is a religion without God!). True religion is to walk in the Spirit of God and be led by Him as you live in faith and are faithful to your calling in life--in other words knowing Jesus and having a relationship with Him.
To say someone got religion is an insult to a Christian: " I tried religion," the pastor said, "and it didn't work." His friend asked him, "What then, you're a pastor?" He replied: "Then I tried Christ and a relationship with Him and it worked!"" As they say: The proof of the pudding is in the eating! I've heard of people saying that if that's what Christ can do for someone they want Him too--this is the power of one's testimony and witness for Christ to make Him known. Many people today don't really hold anything against Christ, but against religion, especially organized religion and the church, as an institution. Jesus plainly said that eternal life is "knowing" Him, and this means more than knowing about Him. It is some kind of fellowship of the heart and love affair that no religion can match.
Religion has historically believed in making "sacrifices" to appease" or mollify and humor the gods who may be angry and cause bad luck, as it were, but in religion it is always the individual or society making the sacrifice (such as their children or a lamb), and in Christianity it is God Himself who makes the sacrifice because He is capable of paying a debt we couldn't pay and we owed to Him for offending Him in our sin and rebellion, and His sacrifice is infinite and cannot be measured, and therefore capable of saving mankind if they accept His work on their behalf--that is precisely what Christ did by paying the price of His blood shed for us so we wouldn't have to pay it in hell, and this is a free gift of salvation offered to all if they only exercise faith in Him.
Religion is defined as doing something "religious" or of displaying "religiosity." Secular Humanists believe you can be religious without having religion and they are gaining ascendancy with their ethical religion without God. It's a faith to live by and has a creed to believe. That is precisely what evil is: Being good without God or getting along without Him in the equation. Man's problem today is whether he can get along without the God he has left out of the picture, according to Will Durant. You can be a Christian without being religious, in fact, this is the normal Christian way of life--a walk of faith. The righteous shall live by faith according to Romans 1:17. "[W]e walk by faith, and not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7, ESV).
Knowing about God will not satisfy the needs of the heart of man, but having a relationship with the personal God and knowing His will. Blaise Pascal, a French philosopher, said there is a "God-shaped vacuum" in our heart that only God can fill. St. Augustine said that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God. We are made to worship God and if we don't we will worship something or someone else. Christ promised a more abundant and fulfilling life in knowing Him, which is rewarding and worth it. "... [I] came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10b, ESV).
Man strives to please God by his merits and works of the flesh (morality, philosophy, good deeds, ritual, etc.). Religion is also man's attempt to reach out to God, while God has taken the initiative and reached down in condescending to man--we are incapable of finding God through the doorway of religion! Man is incurably addicted to doing something for his salvation and the Jews asked Jesus what they could do: He replied that the "work of God" is believing on Him whom God sent. Salvation is a free gift of grace that cannot be earned, paid back, and is not deserved or merited. Christianity is not a list of dos and don'ts, but following Christ in fellowship and love.
Christ paid the price on a debt we couldn't pay and owed for our sins to the Holy Father. It was an infinite price that only God could pay with His blood--He suffered to the max on our behalf. The crucifixion is the measure of His love because He didn't have to die, He volunteered and willingly went to the cross. Religion lays down what man is obliged to do, while the gospel reveals to us what God has done for us. There are a plethora of religions based on human achievement; however, Christianity is based on divine accomplishment, not human achievement or work.
Religion is a do-it-yourself proposition of lifting yourself up by your own bootstraps and trying to earn your way in, hoping your good deeds outweigh your bad ones at the Judgment. Christians don't do good because they have to, but because they want to. Works are a "therefore" not an "in order to" you might say. We don't have to, we get to! Viva la difference! Religion is performance-based and doesn't solve the problem of guilt that we all incur by our sin. In Christianity salvation is a done deal and complete, while in religion the key word is "do" and is never done--all you can do is hope and you will never be assured of heaven or salvation. You just can't ever know in a works religion. When you say that works bring salvation, that is pure religion, and when you mix works and faith that is legalism. "[H]e saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5, ESV).
Christianity says that faith alone saves and works just naturally follow out of gratitude and a changed life (the Reformers said we are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone--no fruit means no faith). You don't come to God with a changed life or a resolution to improve but come to God for a changed life. He doesn't put a new suit on the man, but a new man in the suit. Millions of lives have been transformed and renewed by Christ, and this is not the case with other religions, because the problem we have is sin, not ignorance and Jesus came to save us from our sins. There is no other Savior in the world and no one else by whom we are commanded to call upon for salvation by a leap of faith to believe in our regenerated and renewed hearts.
Good works do have a place in Christianity, but they give us no merit before God. We are saved "unto good works," which means that we are not saved by them, but so we can do them--only believers have the power to do good works in God's eyes. Good deeds give us purpose and meaning in life as we cheerfully serve our Savior out of gratitude. The works we do are actually ordained or predetermined for us to "walk in them" (cf. Eph. 2:10). Note that Christ didn't die to make bad men good, but to make dead people alive! He came to bring life and life more abundantly (cf. John 10:10).
If we have no good works our faith is dead and dead faith cannot save! Without the evidence of good works, our faith is suspect because the true believer wants to do them. Sin doesn't show our freedom, but our slavery and Christ came to save us from our sins, which are the issue and problem we have. Religion is the best man can do, it has been said, but Christianity is the best God can do. This means we don't earn salvation, we receive it! Purpose of good deeds in perspective is vital to know: James says, "I'll show you my faith by my good works;" and Paul would say, "I'll show you my good works by my faith." They go hand in hand and you can only distinguish them, but not separate them--they are no substitute for faith, but only evidence that it is real.
RELIGION EQUAL KNOWING OR CONFESSING A CODE OR CREED; CHRISTIANITY MEANS KNOWING A PERSON AND HAVING LIFE WITH HIM, PERIOD. SOLI DEO GLORIA!
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