MARCH 9, 2016
CHRISTIANITY -NOT A RELIGION 1
Memory Verse: John 3:14-16 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved”
A dear friend once said to me that his religion is the greatest and I told him I agreed with him. Christianity is not a religion! It is the reception of the life and nature of God into your spirit. It is a being. It is a birth into divinity.
A human being is a human being by birth. We don’t say our religion is being a human being. We are human by birth. So also you become a son of God by birth.
Christianity is son-ship with God.
Romans 8:14-17 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him”
We are sons by nature. We act in accordance to our new nature.
Christianity is the life and nature of God in a man.
1 Peter 1:23 “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever”
1 John 5:13 “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
The life in God is in us.
This is what Christianity is. God manifested in men!
It is a quickening to oneness with God.
A quickening from spiritual death.
Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 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”.
Ephesians 2:4-6 “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ”.
We are alive to God. We are seated together with Christ. The highest authority in all three realms belongs to the man in Christ.
Christianity is about righteousness by faith not works or deeds.
Romans 5:17 “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus”
It is life with God not a religion.
Now what is the biblical definition of religion?
The word “religion” is used 5 times in the New Testament.
James 1:26 “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world”.
The other places are Acts 26:5 “Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee” , Gal 1:13-14 “For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers”
The word “religion” in the originals means “external ceremonies of piety”. So religion primarily points to the external activities. Well, the external is not what Christianity is!
The external has to do with the flesh. Christianity first and foremost is of the spirit. It is a change of the inward man. It is a change that is instant by the new birth.
The change is instant in the spirit of the man who is born again .It is not gradual. What we see in the man’s external self is a demonstration of the internal change.
John 4:23-24 “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth”.
Philippians 3:3 “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh”.
So the Christian is a spiritual worshipper who has no confidence in religious activities.
So going to church, singing in the choir, ushering etc doesn’t make me a Christian. However, if I am born of God I will be about my God and fathers business.
Prayer is not religious as it is fellowship with my Father.
Worship in songs is not religious as it is celebrating and honoring my father and my Lord Jesus Christ.
Giving is not religious as it is honoring and worshipping my father with my material resources.
So the activities Christians do are the result of the life they have now received!
CONFESSION: I am a Christian! It is not a religion. It is a life that I have received. I am born of God! I serve my father faithfully.
FURTHER BIBLE READING: Colossians 5, 1 Kings 22,
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