Anti-Religious.

“So, you’re a religious guy?” is the question that I often get when people ask me what I do for a living. Since I serve at a church full-time, people often ask me a lot of questions about my beliefs. I love these questions because it allows me talk to people about my belief in Jesus and how He has radically changed my life. Not only do I like to answer questions from others, but I also love asking people about what they believe. Often, people respond to questions I ask them with the following answer: “Sorry, I am not a religious person.” From there is when the conversation gets interesting because I ALWAYS respond back with the same exact answer: “Sorry, I am not a religious person either.”

The look on the faces of people who hear me give the same answer as they just gave me is priceless. I love it! They are confused, yet extremely interested because I told them that I love Jesus with a passion, but I agreed with them that I am not religious. Am I being condescending? Can this actually be true? Let me briefly explain.

Religion from my perspective is a bunch of rules that one must obey in order to follow God. It is irrelevant, legalistic, and dry. In religion, one must continue to try harder and harder to please God, yet the results of one’s efforts are both unfulfilling and empty. Religion says, “look at me and what I have done and accomplished” and ultimately leaves God out of the picture. And finally, religion weighs down a person with the pressure to perform for God while never really knowing if the performance is good enough or not.

There’s more than religion…far more that we can being to wrap our minds around…

Christianity destroys religion. It isn’t about following the rules in order to have a relationship with God-it’s MUCH more than this. Christianity is having a relationship with the living God through sheer grace, which is found in Jesus Christ. It is not works- based, but rather faith-based saturated in grace (Ephesians 3:5-6). We are unconditionally loved (John 3:16), guaranteed a place in Heaven (1 Peter 1:4), and are children of the living God (1 John 5:1). We have been saved from an empty life (1 Peter 1:18), freed from the powers of this world (Colossians 2:20), and a new creation, starting fresh in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

I can go on and on about what Jesus has done to free us from religion. Hopefully as you read this, you get a taste, a sample of what Christ can do when He transforms your life.

It’s freedom…from religion…