Religion vs Relationship with Christ
You may be new to the faith or you may just want to do some research or may like a lot of us be coming back from a long sabbatical; realizing that doing things your way will no longer work. Either way, it is important to understand that you can’t work your way into heaven. God loves us and knows that we are not perfect.
True salvation is by the Grace of God, through Jesus Christ alone by faith.
There are religious leaders that want you to believe salvation is something you must earn or gain. There is no ritual or offering or act of any kind that will deem us worthy of being heaven bound other than belief in Christ and repentance of our sins. We need God. God does not need us. As Jesus said in Matthew 3:9 “out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham”
Religion is only a series of man-made procedures that fool us into thinking that spiritual growth has taken place. Whereas a true relationship with Christ cultivates a thirst to know more about him and how to be more like him. Thereby invoking in us a renewal of Spirit and mind as we start to learn more and more about Christ. Religion is trusting in ourselves for salvation but when we have a relationship with Christ we trust in Christ for our salvation.
Looking at Christianity as a mere religion we can be prompted to put church leaders such as pastor or reverends and even the Pope on a pedestal. Though when we truly know Christ we learn that even the characters in the Bible are all just human and should not be worshipped or prayed to. Understand that all men are the same and equal. We are all ministers and are responsible for advancing the Kingdom. (2nd Corinthians 5:18-20)
Religion does not give the Holy Spirit room to speak into our lives. Every question we have is answered by a long series of rules made by men to control us. But in coming to know Christ we can truly know God who bestows on us His Spirit. The Holy Spirit is power and that power lives in us (Romans 8:11). When we need guidance and advice we can seek The Holy Spirit and He will give us the knowledge and wisdom we need.
Religion can simply be summed up in “Doing Something”, whereas a relationship with Christ can be summed up in “Done”. You see he has already won. He has already defeated the enemy by dying on the cross for our sins to save us. There is no longer anything we need to do but to believe that Christ is the son of God and that he died on the cross for you.
Christ also lives in us when we develop a relationship with him. He is our friend; our confidant, someone we trust and depend on. And like any relationship, we have to keep working at by staying in constant communication and proximity. Next, we talk about how we continually develop our relationship with Christ and get closer to Him.