The Difference Between Christianity and Religion

I’m a picky person -it’s part of my personality. Some things other people might simply accept can become thoughts for me to ponder, ideas for me to categorize, or concepts for me to more deeply understand. Since Jesus changed my heart and I became a Christian, I’ve struggled with some concepts. One of those is religion.

I recall conversations in the past where we discussed how Christianity wasn’t a religion, and I agreed. But then later I’d ask myself why wasn’t it a religion? Why was Christianity different than religion? I googled and read things and talked to people about it. Today I was thinking about it again and a simple example of the difference between following Jesus (Christianity) and religion came to me…

RELIGION: Religion is like being part of an organization, like the Coast Guard or Fire Department. There are rules guiding your behavior, and you get reviewed on your job performance. So, religion is very formal and you need to perform well in order to advance – and keep your job!

CHRISTIANITY: Christianity is more like a good relationship with a parent. There aren’t really any formal rules, although people can and do come up with them. You really shouldn’t have to prove anything to a parent, they should just love you. The things you do in your relationship with your parents might be viewed by others as if you were following rules and you might even feel like you get performance reviews, but those parents who are real pearls don’t judge you like that. They just love you the way you are and that’s that.

You might or might not have that kind of parent, but you should. And no parent can always measure up to the desire we have for that kind of relationship. God designed us to desire that relationship and the love that comes from it, and only he can fill it. The good news is that you can have that relationship with Jesus Christ. Now and forever. God is the perfect father and he sent Jesus into this world at the right time to die for our sins so that we might be brought into a relationship with him again. Jesus took care of it for us! Jesus fixed it! Jesus paid for that sin in our lives, the sin we live out regularly … he paid for it on the cross!

You may have heard this before, a promise for those who will trust their lives to him and confess their sin, and all of us have sin:

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
– John 3:16

What does Jesus want from you?

So let’s start with that question. What does Jesus want from you? I think there are a lot of believers and non-believers out there that approach the subject of following Jesus this way, but I think a better question is What does Jesus want for you?

This entire post will be very small in scope. The question is simply about a way of thinking, a way of moving forward and asking the right question when so many of us may ask the wrong question.

So let’s go to scripture, and here’s one verse that leads me to this point-of-view of asking what Jesus wants for us, and there are certainly many more:

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” – ESV, Jer 29:11

I think when we focus on what Jesus Christ wants from us it puts us on the defensive and we feel the need to justify and improve, in some cases before we move forward, before we start attending worship services or visiting a church. Can you imagine that point-of-view for a non-Christian who has just heard the Word of God, whose heart has been softened by God and possibly this person is thinking, “What does Jesus want from me?” Wow! Imagine some of the thoughts this poor person may have – can I approach the God of the universe as I am ? Maybe I need to improve. Before I go to church I need to clean my life up.

And that’s not it, just some ideas off the top of my head. Now imagine the questions a follower of Christ may have thinking in this way, and I’d imagine you get much the same effect. Questions of self worth, doubt, performance.

So let’s get back to that scripture reference up there. The end of the verse says God, almighty creator of the universe has plans for welfare and to give you a future and a hope. I ask you – what kind of welfare do you receive if you are not doing enough? What kind of future do you have if you never find yourself worthy enough to approach the Throne of Grace? How do you experience hope if you are trying to measure up to some rules?

What does Jesus want for you?

I’m not saying you should ignore totally doing the right thing or observing God’s law or trying to improve. But I think between these two lines of thought, the question “What does Jesus want for you?” encourages you to think of His grace toward you, and realizing that you will never be perfect, and never be “good enough” and never earn your way into His presence, I think that encourages you because you are focusing on the fact that Jesus Christ has died for your sins specifically because you were not and could not be good enough. Only Jesus could be and that’s recognizing His grace toward you. In fact you could not even pray to God without the propitiation of Jesus. If you cannot even pray to God without the work of Jesus on the cross on your behalf, then how can you ever hope to meet His expectations without realizing that its through Jesus’ work, not yours, that you can approach God.

Clean up your life before coming to church? No, your life will never be clean on its own to go. Trust in Jesus and look to Him. Move forward after you’ve improved? No, you need to move forward with Jesus’ help so you can improve.

 

Imagine Your Life

Imagine for a moment if when a child was still an embryo it had the intelligence of an 18 year old. Now imagine the conversation that child would have with its mother. Mom would tell the child about what life would be like after he was born and begin trying to explain things like clothing, food, school, learning, a home, personal property, their crib, etc.

About 2 weeks later the baby would now be a fetus and with an 18 year old’s intelligence boredom would probably have set in. Later as the baby grew things would seem smaller and before birth the baby would probably be complaining about how cramped things were now and how there was less room to move around.

“Mom, I want to be born now, its not comfortable any more.”

“No, its not time yet.”

“Why not, its so uncomfortable in here, it used to be so much better when  I had more room.  I want to be born now. We talked about medicine so I know you can make that happen.”

“Its not time yet”

“You’re mean, I hate you. You could make me comfortable and you refuse to!”

Mom would be thinking how much better things will be after her little boy grows and finishes developing completely before being born. A couple of weeks later as birth started, there would be a new conversation starting.

“Ouch! This hurt! Stop! Stop! I don’t want to be born, I was just sleeping and you woke me up!”

“Its time, its meant to be like this. I’ll be holding you soon.”

“Ouch! Stop, you don’t understand how much this hurts! I hate you!”

Then hours later in mother’s arms, “Its so darn bright in here and I am freezing! What were you thinking? This is not better! I’m cold and blinded by all of these stupid lights. I don’t know why you ever thought I would enjoy this. I want to be unborn again, put me back. You are a crazy woman!”

“It was time, it is meant to be like this. You will learn to enjoy your life now that you are born. Its just a shock right now because its fresh in your mind, but you will forget the pain and love your new life.”

“No, no! You are a crazy woman! I want to go back home, back where I came from! Crazy, crazy woman! Obviously you’ve never been born!”

“Of course I was born, just like you, I know what you are going through and you will not feel this way in a short time.”

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Now, compare that story to yours, but change things up a bit. The baby is you. Hearing from your mother explain things like clothing, food, school, learning, a home, personal property, your crib and other things is learning from Jesus about your reality here as a stranger who will inherit an eternal life in the presence of God forever.

Hear the baby’s uninformed complaints about a life that has been explained to him, but a life he cannot possibly fully understand yet, and know that this is your understanding of your eternal life. You only have an academic understanding of an eternal life without pain, depression, hunger or any bad feelings of any sort, but you have never experienced anything like that. You have never been in the actual presence of Jesus Christ and can only imagine what it may actually be like.

Remember when things get you down, when you are in pain, when someone important in your life passes on that God does understand like the mother in this story and that you, like the baby, have no understanding beyond what little could be explained to you without any actual experience. Explaining taste and smell to someone who can neither smell nor taste would be an exercise in academics – ie, it would tell someone what it would or should be like, but does not grant them that experience.

We do not yet have a life of perfection created by God. We have a physical body and we have the Holy Spirit living within us, and our body can be wracked by pain and sorrow and hunger and all sorts of earthly experiences that we will no longer have to endure in our eternal lives with our Holy Father, our Creator. When you think you have all of the answers and wonder why God does this or that, remember that a baby – an embryo, fetus or even newborn – has no comparable understanding compared to its mother. And remember that even this example fails to show the great gap in knowledge and perfection between us and the God who loved us and sent His Son to the cross for our sins. Not only could He understand from the beginning of time, but in addition to that Jesus Christ actually lived out a physical experience as a man – though fully human and fully divine.

Also, like the baby, our immediate life will crowd and blur our thinking, partially erasing what we know to be true, what we have been taught. Things like the goodness of God and His perfection. We will question Him and His decisions as we experience things we dislike that cause pain, discomfort and inconvenience. We will ask why, when the Creator of everything could repair (whatever situation), then why would He not? The answer?

Its not time, or its not meant to be that way, that’s why.

The Wind Reminds One of God

I was sitting inside the other day looking outside watching the wind stirring around some leaves and dirt in a parking area outside of a window and it occurred to me that the wind is similar in a way to God. You can’t see the wind, but if you pay careful attention, you can see what it does.

But how often do you actually pay attention to the wind and watch what its doing? I’d guess many of us many times just give it a passing glance, and don’t notice what the wind is doing. I think also in that way the wind is like God as well, because sometimes we just aren’t paying enough attention to what God is doing all around us.

Others may have a fascination with the wind and each time it kicks up they watch with rapt attention, watching the different things it blows to and fro. Watching each and every little thing blowing around and trying to discern the “shape” of the wind. I also think there are some that have a similar fascination with God’s work and they watch with rapt attention, just waiting to see what He will do next. Watching in their daily lives for the “fingerprints” that are evidence of the work of our Lord.

Then again there are others who may have an interest in what the wind does, but they seldom remember to pay attention, and when they do its just not because they were looking for it, but maybe something unusual is blowing around like a bunch of balloons or a strong wind is blowing several trees around making a noise, or maybe its a whirlwind or storm. Some of us are like that, too. we see God when something spectacular happens, and though we want to see what God’s doing, “life happens” and we get all wrapped up in it and forget to look at the works of our Creator in and around our lives.

The wind I was watching out of my window on this particular day reminded me of my heavenly Father, and I was very grateful for that reminder.

Gospel-centered Videos

Grerat gospel-centered videos by Alan Hirsch on the DNA of Gospel Movements.

In these 7 videos, Alan Hirsch explains and articulates the DNA of Gospel Movements, the dynamics that lead to the rapid, indigenous multiplication of the gospel.  The explanation for the DNA of Movements forms the basis of his book, The Forgotten Ways, in which Hirsch defines the different elements of a movement, how they interact, and how we in the West can recover these elements in our context.

– Ripped off of Verge Missional Community Conference 2010’s Video by Alan Hirsch: The DNA of Gospel Movements

I listened to the first one in this series, and there are more videos in the Verge Missional Community Conference 2010 featured video series at the link below including Francis Chan, Matt Carter, Dave Ferguson and more… http://www.vergenetwork.org

Church and Work

Oasis’ Core Value #6 is Sanctification is all of life. This means that you will continually be sanctified through the working of God in your life through Christ Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, in a progressive work that lasts until your last breath.

Having said that, tonight I was thinking about Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) and realized this pattern in my life that I am progressing through, and which I believe all followers of Christ have the opportunity to go through as well. This is a paradigm shift, a change in my way of thinking, my way of perceiving life…

Step 1. Start going to church after work

Step 2. Start going to work after church

Step 3.  All of life is “church”

Hmmm…

Jesus, Sovereignty & Free Will

Its an interesting thought that Jesus during His earthly ministry, both fully man & fully deity, was a model of the co-existence of the the sovereignty of God and man’s free will. Just as the sovereignty of God is a fact, and man having free will is a fact, its also a fact that Jesus, while on earth, was fully man AND fully deity. The implications of fully deity may be obvious, but the implications of being fully man just tonight hit me. While fully a deified son of God He also was able to sin.

In the past, when I thought about it (not very deeply considering tonight’s realization), I thought “Well of course He was perfect, He was the son of God!”. However, that thought, that statement fails to recognize the fact that Jesus was as fully tempted to sin as you or I. The devil’s temptations were not simply exercises in vain – God really put Jesus to the test, he was surely tempted as one could be who had His faith. It was not as if Jesus got an “automatic pass” simply because He was the son of God on earth… Satan wouldn’t have wasted his time if he Jesus was not subject to temptation and could not sin.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
– Matt 5:1 ESV

Now, if the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (according to the word of our Lord) then he MUST have been subject to temptation.

Jesus’ Offices of Prophet, Priest and King – Triperspectivalism in Scripture

I was listening to a David Fairchild audio on Triperspectivalism when a thought struck me, but let me back up.

First, I am strong King, I am very detail-oriented, and just today my employer commented on my need for details, details, details (which I find very humorous because its true). I try to exercise Prophet as well and I try to evaluate new information about God through the lense of the bible  – I believe very strongly in the concept of sola scriptura.

Early on when I was introduced to Triperspectivalism I began wondering where it was found in scripture and remembered reading through Hebrews about Jesus holding the offices of Prophet, Priest and King. Triperspectivalism is like the Trinity, you will not find the word Trinity, Triune God, or Triperspectivalism in the bible because they are concepts introduced that we give labels to in order to better understand God and study them.  In this way they are similar to science – us trying to grasp, define and measure what God has created.

Here is an over-simplified expression of my (early) understanding of Prophet, Priest and King:

Prophet – God’s truth

Priest – Loving people

King – Organizing things

Back to my first comment here is what struck me today while listening to David Fairchild’s audio on Triperspectivalism… We know that God is a God of truth, love and order, and doesn’t that neatly match the Triperspectival view of things?