‘Christianity is not a religion.’ You hear that often at church. We say that when we want to emphasise that our faith is different from other religions. But what about our faith is different? Our salvation comes from our faith in Christ, not from our actions. We didn’t find our Creator, but He came to us first. We also don’t live by a collection of human books of wisdom. Instead, the Bible has been gifted to us by God Himself. That distinguishes us and characterises us as Christians.
What about this phrase we use when we are criticising our faith at church? ‘Do not merely follow religious rules, that is not true faith’, ‘We need to rid ourselves of a religious mind!’ Why is it that we say things like these when we go to church and believe that we have been found by Christ, God and the Bible is His word?
If we want to understand this difference, we need to think about the difference between the early Christians and the Jews at a time before the New Testament was recorded. Of course the big difference is about believing or not believing in Jesus Christ. But both groups believed in God and followed Scripture as His word.
These past couple of years, I have been reflecting a lot on the differences between the law and the gospel and how these practically manifest themselves in our lives. I’ve seen many Christians suffer because of the gap that exists between the doctrines they believe in and their actual lives. These aren’t just Christians by name. All of them go to church faithfully and truly love Jesus Christ. Still, they suffer from feelings of guilt and a sense of defeat. How can we always be happy and thankful and live a truly Christian life?
Last week I met with one of our church members who is going back to Korea and had a meal with her. She had been going to our church for a couple of years and she told me what she liked about our life of faith in the congregation. During her time as a student, she had been going to a church that emphasised the Holy Spirit a lot and while praying, she received the gift of praying in tongues, meeting Jesus intensely. After that she started to learn through the Bible how you should live as a Christian. She tried to follow these ways but instead of knowing how she can apply them to her life, she only felt a heavy sense of responsibility and duty. She told me that it was at God’s Vision Church that she learnt how to focus on the grace of the Lord, who continuously supports me from within and helps me to live as a Christian. She realised how important it was to have a lasting personal relationship with God and although she is now returning to a workplace she felt burdened by before, she feels that she will be able to live differently.
As I listened to her confession, I realised how living a life in Christ who dwells in us constitutes the difference between a religious person and a Christian. For a long time, we have been telling ourselves to ‘know Jesus better’, ‘to become more like Jesus and keep Him close’. The more knowledge we collect over time, the gap between us and God might widen; what we must do is seek to be close to our God who has a personality and seek to build a relationship with Him everyday. If we don’t do that, no matter how long we have been believing in Jesus, we will still be a religious person only.
‘To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.’ (Colossians 1:29)
