What is Religion

What differentiates Christianity from every other world religion is this - Christianity is based on what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. Every other world religion is based on what we must do to earn God's favor and forgiveness. Every other world religion teaches that we must do certain things, and stop doing certain things - in order to earn God's love and mercy. Christianity, faith in Christ, teaches that we do certain things and stop doing certain things BECAUSE of what Christ has done for us.

It is imperative to note that every religion in the world is based on what we must do to earn God's favor and forgiveness. Even the Christian Religion when they believe you are saved by grace and then must obey the laws of God to keep your salvation.

2 Cor 1:20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God. 21 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

1 Jn 5:18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. 19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

2 Pet 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

2 Pet 1:5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.


Religion is anything we do to impress God in any way for an ulterior motive and not from a response to His love.

Am 5:21 "I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand your assemblies.

Am 5:22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them.

Am 5:23 Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.

Am 5:24 But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!

The Wilderness of Religion

The announcement that the gospel of grace includes the good news that God wants to deliver us from religion.

He has extended His grace for the purpose of rescuing us from religion. He has extended His grace for the purpose of rescuing us from a lifestyle of futile, feeble efforts to make ourselves acceptable to Him. The essence of religion is man’s attempt to somehow convince himself that he has jumped through enough hoops for God to give him the approving nod. It’s the way we try to validate our own self worth, but our acts of self righteousness actually separate us from the very goal we seek to achieve. Religion is poison because it kills the one opportunity we will ever have to to experience true intimacy with God. Religion offers the false hope that somehow there is something we can do to impress God enough to cause Him to accept us on the basis of our actions. In reality the person who doesn’t experience intimacy with God through Jesus Christ attempts to approach God through his religious acts, his deeds will be an affront to the perfectly righteous God who demands nothing less than perfection. Since none of us can possibly walk perfectly, we might as well stay off that road altogether.

God loves you too much to leave you in your tawdy affair with religion. He wants you completely for Himself.

Multitudes of Christians have abandoned the intimate, loving relationship they once enjoyed with Jesus Christ and have settled for a sleazy affair with religion. There was a time when they reveled in the union they share with Him, but gradually they took their eyes off Christ and began to focus on their religious performance. They have lost their “first love“

Many of us have been seduced and deceived. We have seduced by religion and been deceived into believing that as long as we do the right things, everything is O.K. spiritually.

Some Quotes about Religion

• Religion is poison.
  
  
• God is interested in living relationships not dead religion.
  
  
• In his grace God looks beyond a confused mind and recognises a sincere heart.
  
  
• The idea of religious performance is a wild plant which chokes and poisons the grace of God.
  
  
• Religion is a kind of poison that won’t kill you but is toxic enough to keep you sick for the rest of your life
  
  
• Religion is poison because it kills any opportunity one will have to experience genuine intimacy with God.
  
  
• God will either raise dead things or get as far as he can from them as He can get. He is interested in living relationships not dead religion.
  
  
• Religion is what rushes in to fill the vacuum created by the absence of a personal relationship with God.
  
  
• God wants to deliver us from religion. Religion is like a man having sex with a prostitute believing lies that it is love- while in his heart he knows better.
  
  
• God never gives the bare minimum – he generously lavishes gifts on those He loves.
  
  
• Doing our part is the toxic element in religion.
  
  
• God’s intention from the beginning is that you should enjoy your faith relationship with Him
  
  
• When we get grace right our activities will be animated by divine power and accompanied by a personal satisfaction that can only come from Him.
  
  
• Religion is exhausting!!!
  
  
• What happened to the kind of radical Christians who were filled with passion and gratitude and who every day were unable to get over the grace of God.
  
  
• It is not about religion….It is about Jesus!! He is all that really matters.
  
  
• The Bible is our map and Jesus is our destination**********
  
  
• The Bible is not a book that teaches us what to do- it is a book that tells us who God is and who we are.
  
  
• Christianity is the way to salvation.
  
  
• Grace does not come cheap.
  
  
• Obedience comes from faith.
  
  
• To renew your mind is to believe that because we have the indwelling of Christ we are righteous.
  
  
• I will not reject or trade the righteousness of God for my own righteousness.
  
  
• Repentance deals with what we start believing not what we stop doing. Repentance is evidence that we have believed the truth.