The other night Bryan and I were in Louisville having dinner with my parents when "religion" came up. I have been earnestly praying for my mother's salvation for the entire 5 or so years of my Christian walk. Each year I see God's faithfulness as he brings Christians in her life and gently softens the hard places in her heart. It really is amazing to watch and know that only God is responsible for such a remarkable transformation, previously thought impossible by myself countless times before. 'Forgive my disbelief', I continue to say.
Mom, like many other people think that being a good person is enough for God to find favor in us and save us. "As long as I live a good life and do my best to be a good person God will accept that...right?" She asks. Well its not quite that easy (or hard, bc that way is much harder). However, this thought has been entertained for thousands of years as "religion" and the world continue to collide.
For instance Hinduism teaches a religion based on the idea that karma and good works is not enough for the soul to reach spiritual "enlightenment". They believe it takes about 6.8 million rotations through reincarnation for the good and evil to balance out...and thus we achieve nirvana; the ultimate level of spiritual enlightenment.
In other areas of the world we see religious festivals where men insert several metal hooks into their backs and pull a large load full of rocks through streets in hopes of gaining forgiveness from their sins. In Mexico, the devout crawl miles upon miles on their knees in pilgrimage towards God and forgiveness of sins.
This is the problem. So many people believe we must do several things in order to gain favor in Gods eyes. Religion teaches obey, obey and obey therefore I am accepted. How many times do we obey, obey before we are accepted??
This is the truth. Christianity teaches I am accepted therefore I obey because of the JOY of MY SALVATION.
A friend of mine use to use this analogy to explain this paradigm.
When we go to take a shower we do not take a bath first. We go to the shower as we are to get clean. There is no need to take a bath first to become clean and therefore "ready" to take a shower. The same is with Christ. We come to him dirty and ready for the cleansing of our sins. Because no matter how many ceremonial "baths" we take it will never be enough to take away our sins. Only the power of Christs death can wash away our sins.
But yet we see people everyday adding to this idea that I must be good enough to come to God. This is what my Mom believed. Slowly this belief began to crumble as Bryan and I explained that "There is no one righteous, not even one" Romans 3:10.
When we continue to do good for God to gain his favor we are making sacrifices to idols and not God. (See 1 Cor. 10:20) God implores us to not take part in such activities. Christians and non-Christians fall prey to this mindset everyday.
There is little we can do, but much we can believe: "Yet we know that a person is NOT JUSTIFIED by the WORKS of the law but through FAITH in JESUS CHRIST, so we also have BELIEVED in CHRIST JESUS, in order to be JUSTIFIED by FAITH in Christ and NOT by WORKS of the law, because by WORKS of the law NO ONE WILL BE JUSTIFIED." Galatians 2:16. Clearly we learn we cannot add to our salvation or earn it; we are justified alone by what Christ has done on our behalf.
This problem may seem sad to Christians, but I rejoice as I see the spirit of God move so many people to conviction of their sins. This conviction causes many of us to do things to gain salvation. However, we must learn that we can put thousands of "hooks" in our backs and "crawl a thousand miles" to get to God, but until we see the hooks in our Savior's back and the miles that were already trudged out by a perfect God we will toil and toil and get no where.
Christ received the penalty on our behalf, we must come to the understanding that we are accepted and thus we must obey by loving and worshiping the King who has paved the way for our salvation.
Mom, like many other people think that being a good person is enough for God to find favor in us and save us. "As long as I live a good life and do my best to be a good person God will accept that...right?" She asks. Well its not quite that easy (or hard, bc that way is much harder). However, this thought has been entertained for thousands of years as "religion" and the world continue to collide.
For instance Hinduism teaches a religion based on the idea that karma and good works is not enough for the soul to reach spiritual "enlightenment". They believe it takes about 6.8 million rotations through reincarnation for the good and evil to balance out...and thus we achieve nirvana; the ultimate level of spiritual enlightenment.
In other areas of the world we see religious festivals where men insert several metal hooks into their backs and pull a large load full of rocks through streets in hopes of gaining forgiveness from their sins. In Mexico, the devout crawl miles upon miles on their knees in pilgrimage towards God and forgiveness of sins.
This is the problem. So many people believe we must do several things in order to gain favor in Gods eyes. Religion teaches obey, obey and obey therefore I am accepted. How many times do we obey, obey before we are accepted??
This is the truth. Christianity teaches I am accepted therefore I obey because of the JOY of MY SALVATION.
A friend of mine use to use this analogy to explain this paradigm.
When we go to take a shower we do not take a bath first. We go to the shower as we are to get clean. There is no need to take a bath first to become clean and therefore "ready" to take a shower. The same is with Christ. We come to him dirty and ready for the cleansing of our sins. Because no matter how many ceremonial "baths" we take it will never be enough to take away our sins. Only the power of Christs death can wash away our sins.
But yet we see people everyday adding to this idea that I must be good enough to come to God. This is what my Mom believed. Slowly this belief began to crumble as Bryan and I explained that "There is no one righteous, not even one" Romans 3:10.
When we continue to do good for God to gain his favor we are making sacrifices to idols and not God. (See 1 Cor. 10:20) God implores us to not take part in such activities. Christians and non-Christians fall prey to this mindset everyday.
There is little we can do, but much we can believe: "Yet we know that a person is NOT JUSTIFIED by the WORKS of the law but through FAITH in JESUS CHRIST, so we also have BELIEVED in CHRIST JESUS, in order to be JUSTIFIED by FAITH in Christ and NOT by WORKS of the law, because by WORKS of the law NO ONE WILL BE JUSTIFIED." Galatians 2:16. Clearly we learn we cannot add to our salvation or earn it; we are justified alone by what Christ has done on our behalf.
This problem may seem sad to Christians, but I rejoice as I see the spirit of God move so many people to conviction of their sins. This conviction causes many of us to do things to gain salvation. However, we must learn that we can put thousands of "hooks" in our backs and "crawl a thousand miles" to get to God, but until we see the hooks in our Savior's back and the miles that were already trudged out by a perfect God we will toil and toil and get no where.
Christ received the penalty on our behalf, we must come to the understanding that we are accepted and thus we must obey by loving and worshiping the King who has paved the way for our salvation.
