One time I tried to help a disillusioned young man who was working on my house with a construction crew. He’d broken up with his girlfriend, quit his job, started drinking and (of all things) had begun smoking cigarettes. He’d moved to the Florida Keys (which is about as far south as someone who is trying to escape their problems can go and still remain in the United States) and was all alone. He was very clean cut and seemed out of place with the other workers and looked as if he should be working on Wall Street instead of on a construction site.
As the project continued day after day, I developed a liking for this young man, and when I found out he didn’t have a significant other I tried to fix him up with a very nice young lady that I knew at our church who headed up the singles ministry. I invited her over to our house and I introduced them, and it looked very promising.
The next day however, he told me that he’d called her the previous night, and it looked like the relationship wouldn’t go anywhere. Although this gal was very pretty and had a great personality, he’d decided she wasn’t for him. Then he said that he wasn’t a religious man and she was a very “religious” person and he didn’t feel it would be honest to hide his belief system from her.
Apparently he’d endured a bad experience with a “religious” person, and it had adversely affected him throughout his entire young life. What he failed to understand is that there is a big difference between being “religious” and being a Christian. It can be described with a “do” or a “done.
Religious people, in their religiosity philosophy must always “do” something to receive favor from God. There are many rules that must be followed to the exact letter and those that struggle with meeting God’s high standards of perfection to the letter invariably get discouraged and fail. Ironic isn’t it; Jesus offered hope, love, mercy, forgiveness, and encouragement through what was “done” by Him on the cross.
One would think that those who claim to represent Him would follow Him in that regard. Instead, these religious, “holier than thou” self-righteous hypocrites point fingers at everyone but themselves (and their own black sins) and it’s resulted in turning many people away from Christ. No small wonder Jesus held them in such low esteem.
Believers must rely upon their faith in what Christ has “done” for us on the cross, realizing that our best efforts are but filthy rags in a holy and perfect God’s sight. True believers realize that they cannot please God through their own “works” because of sin and thus must put their faith in Jesus.
God because of His holy nature takes sin seriously and demands a flawless, perfect sacrifice for sin. Jesus was that sacrifice, and it was through His blood and his blood alone that we are cleansed and purified enough to be in His presence. Afterwards God views us as being like snow white lambs, pure as a mountain spring without a trace of sin remaining upon us, washed clean as a whistle through the blood of Christ.
It’s called grace.
My young friend’s bad experience with religious people early in his young life adversely affected him so much that no amount of talk from me was able to dissuade him from his twisted line of thinking; I shudder to think that he just might remain that way all his life.
Christians should be cautious about displaying “holier than thou” attitudes, touting the rules and placing “impossible demands” upon unbelievers. Jesus had some of His strongest words against the Pharisees whose religious demands drove people away from God rather than to Him.
Unfortunately, God gets the blame because of men who twist the message of grace. It is our faith in God’s grace that saves humanity, not following the law to the letter; however if we really love our Savior, we’ll will try our utmost to “walk the walk”, because we know that there are consequences for breaking God’s laws, not the least of which is disappointing the One who paid such a heavy price in order for us to live.
This brings me to an important question can you point to anything in your life today that you do that would let anyone other than yourself know that you are a believer and follower of Christ? If not, would it be fair to question whether you are truly a believer? Once we are saved our light should shine like a welcome lighthouse leading others to Christ. If our light is out, or faintly dim, perhaps we should turn it on and/or generate some new power to make it shine brightly . . .
Ephesians 2:8
For by grace you have been
saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves; it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest anyone should boast.
For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand
that we should walk in them.