Jesus Vs Religion

A wealthy business man died.At his funeral, many people came to his widow and the rest of his family to express their sympathies. Suddenly, a young man approached the widow with an unusual request. He said “Ma’am, I know you don’t know me, but I was wondering if I could get in on your husband’s inheritance.” The widow reacted, of course, with noticeable shock. The man saw this,and said “Ma’am,you don’t understand. I’m a really good person. I do lots of good things ,I’m very sincere, I even go to church sometimes. Doesn’t that entitle me to some of his inheritance?” “No,” the widow replied,”to be part of the inheritance, you must be part of the family.”

This little parable illustrates the attitude many people take toward God. Many ask;”But aren’t we all part of God’s family?Aren’t we all children of God?” The answer to these questions may surprise some, but the truth is, no, not everyone is a child of God. In John 8:44 Jesus tellssome very religious people “You are of your father the devil!” All people are CREATIONS of God, but not all are CHILDREN of God. In order to be part of God’s family, you must be adopted into it. That's what we'll be discussing in this message, which is called "Jesus vs Religion."

I don't know about you but I cringe when someone describes me as "religious." Don't hang that albatross around my neck!

James 1:27 ESV

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

This is the only time in the New Testament that the word "religion" is used in a positive way and, even then, it's telling us to keep it pure and undefiled. That's something to think about.

Culture today tends to think of religion in terms of preference rather than truth. One person likes chocolate ice cream, while another person likes strawberry ice cream. Similarly, one person says I get my truth from Jesus, while others say they get it from Buddha or Mohamed or someone else.

Now before we go any further, I want to give you something else to consider: Every major world religion, even ones that were around for thousands of years before Jesus Earthly life, still try to incorporate Him in. For example, a Hindu might call Jesus an avatar, an incarnation of one of their deities. A Buddhist might say that He was a bodhisattva, an enlightened person on their way to buddhahood. Islam came along 300 years later but Muslims would say that Jesus was a great prophet. The fact that all of these different religions acknowledge Jesus in some way really speaks to His impact on the world! At the same time, these are all very different and contradictory ideas about who Jesus is.

Have you ever heard someone say "All religions teach the same thing?" No they don't. I have been studying comparative religion for almost as long as I have studied the Bible. You can't homogenize all the different religions without stripping them of their core teachings. They simply can't all be true. To accept something as true automatically means to reject contrary ideas as false. Tim Keller put it well:

Every faith is "narrow." Even the faith that says all faiths are equal excludes those who disagree. Therefore, it's a mistake to assume some beliefs are more "open" than others. They all exclude those that disagree with them. The Christian faith though has Jesus dying for people who don't love or care for him. Placing him at the center of your life will allow you to do the same for those who don't love or care for you. That makes Christianity the most inclusive of all exclusive faiths.

Regardless, All religions do have a common theme and that's exactly what makes Christianity unique. What we call "religion" is our attempt to earn the favor of God, or whatever that religion sees as ultimate reality, through some moral code or set of rituals or things of that nature.

The problem with that should be obvious . Isaiah

64:6 tells us that

"...all our righteousness are as filthy rags" Please forgive the crudity of what I am about to tell you, but a literal translation of "filthy rags" is referring to a bloody menstrual cloth. That's how God sees our human religious efforts. He is totally disgusted by them.

Why is that? Think about being in court and trying to bribe the judge. How far will that get you?

Deuteronomy 10:17 New Living Translation (NLT)

“For the LORD your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great God, the mighty and awesome God, who shows no partiality and cannot be bribed.