Is there a difference between a having a religion and having a relationship with Jesus? If so, what is the difference? Can people have one and not the other? Do people confuse the two? If so, how? Why? Is it religion or relationship that matters? why? Why do so many people who have a relationship with Jesus claim to hate religion?
What do you think?
Share your thoughts.
Preacherman,
ReplyDeleteI think it was Karl Barth who said that Christianity is not a religion. His idea was that all religions are attempts to ascend to God (as in the story of the Tower of Babel). The Christian faith, by contrast, is the result of God graciously coming down to us in the person of Jesus Christ. We receive God and his gift by faith. Salvation is not the result of our effort, but His mercy. That, for Barth, meant that Christianity is not a religion. And this distinction, he said, represents the uniqueness of the Christian faith.
For those into bumper sticker theology, the saying is perfect: "Christianity; it's a relationship, not a religion."
ReplyDeleteAs with all bumper sticker theology, there's enough truth to stop and make one think. The problem with bs theology is that it boils reality down to the trite. That said, we are all religious--at least about something. Religion becomes the trite that makes the bumper sticker. It is not the religion that makes Christianity Christianity (though many Christians are religious about being Christian), but it is the Christ who makes us Christian.
The difference between religion and having a relationship with Jesus:
ReplyDeleteReligion has nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Religion is a form of godliness and with their heart they are faaaaar from Jesus Christ the Lord.
Every spiritual organization or institution is a religion including Christianity, no matter whether they believe in Jesus or not.
Religions have 'Jesus' attached to their creed, and to them He is only one of three gods, or just a Son of the real God (whoever that real God might be).
How can religious people have a relationship with God, if He is three people? Wouldn't that be a harlot religion, having a relationship with three persons,(perhaps the whore of Babylon)
And how can they have a relationship with God whom they do not know?
If their 'Jesus' is not the Lord God the Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, then they certainly have a relationship with another Jesus (2Cor.11:4), other than the Lord Jesus we preach.
Paul
I think it is the relationship between you and the Lord. Religion is man made but your belief is your relationship with God. I hate religion and I am firmly against it!
ReplyDeleteI will do my best to tie some Bible verses together in a way which I think is fair to the text/context of the overall scripture and to your question and see what you think.
ReplyDeleteJames 1:27 "pure religion undefiled is to tend to the widows and orphans in their distress and..." (there is more to it, but this is the part that partains).
Matt. 25 (second half of chapt pretty much) "When you did it to the least of these... you did it to me."
Personally, I see a connection.
Shalom...
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