“I
am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Gal2:20
True Christianity is not a religion. Religion has to
do with intellectual beliefs, fulfilment of obligations, behavioral
modification, external practices, obedience to laws, offering of sacrifices and
so forth to appease an angry God or to buy His favor.
In
the beginning God created man in His own image, and man returned the favor.
Religion is when men define and relate to God
according to their perspective, their desires and their expectations.
Exodus
32
1
And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the
people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us
gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us
up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
2
And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears
of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
3
And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and
brought them unto Aaron.
4
And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after
he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
5
And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation,
and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.
6
And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought
peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to
play.
In religion, we develop an imagination or idea of God,
who He is, what He wants, what He expects etc. we then spiritualize our idea of
God and begin to worship based on that.
Religion creates God in the image of man so that we
serve and worship a God who we have made and who serves us. This is what the
Israelites did in the wilderness and this is what present day
Christianity is
all about.
A God that we have made and who exists to fulfill our needs and meet
our expectations and fulfill our imaginations of who God should be and what He
should do.
Religion introduces man and his resources where God
has already given His Son.
CHRISTIANITY IS LIFE
Colossians
1
25
Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is
given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
26
Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is
made manifest to his saints:
27
To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
28
Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that
we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus
Christianity is the life of God given to man. It is
the life that God gives us in Christ. Christianity is Christ living in you the
hope of glory.
Our
definition of life;
Naturally, we gather together our experiences,
emotions, purposes, family, people, places, environment, identity and call that
our life.
We then attempt to bring God into that environment. We
call it inviting Jesus into our ‘life’.
We try to make Him come and add value and benefit to
our life through religion. We want Him to improve our relationships, our
health, our families, prosper our purposes and plans, make us healthy and well,
fulfill our emotional needs and so forth.
In exchange, we offer to live a holy life, to behave
well, to tithe and give, to pray and fast, to go to church regularly, to serve
in the ministry, to do many things so that He will be pleased and work in our
lives.
What we don’t know however, is that as natural human
beings we don’t possess or understand what God calls life.
What we have is what the bible calls death.
John6
53
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the
flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
54
Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will
raise him up at the last day.
55
For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56
He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
57
As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth
me, even he shall live by me.
58
This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat
manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live forever.
63
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I
speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Matthew8
21
And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and
bury my father.
22
But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
Ephesians2
1
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
2
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience:
3
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others.
4
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by
grace ye are saved;)
This who we all are naturally. No amount of learning,
effort or discipline can transform death into life. flesh gives birth to flesh.
All our devotions and works of the flesh will never produce life or
righteousness. They are death.
True life is something that humans don’t possess
naturally. What we have is existence but not life. We lost life when Adam
sinned in the garden and disconnected us from God. Since that time all that has
worked in us is death.
Our bodies, minds, emotions and even our world tend
towards death. We disintegrate, we fall sick, we die etc. death works in the
natural man naturally. It works in our mortal bodies and it works in our soul.
The good news is that death no longer works in the
Christian because we have a brand new spirit that is alive.
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