Religion vs. Faith

     Religion requires rules. Faith features fellowship. Both involve doctrine, the fundamental beliefs that participants acknowledge. The difference between religion and faith is how that doctrine is demonstrated in one’s lifestyle. Human nature tends to gravitate toward routines and formula. As long as we go through the motions and follow the prescribed formulas, that is all that matters. That is legalism. It depends upon our human effort to fulfill our obligations.
       Faith, on the other hand, is a personal trust relationship. Unlike the religions we encounter in this world, Christianity does not demand that we fix ourselves before we dare come to God. Instead, God the Father sent Jesus into our world to make it possible for mankind to come to Him and have a personal relationship with God Almighty.
      This difference between religion and faith quickly became a sticking point for the 1st Century Church when the Gospel message expanded to the Gentiles. Some Jewish Christians, known as Judaizers, insisted that the Gentile believers also convert to Judaism. The Gentile Christians rejected the laws of the Jewish religion under the Old Covenant because they had been fulfilled by the New Covenant established through Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ was seen as the only requirement for salvation. This controversy led to the first Church Council held in Jerusalem, and recorded in Acts 15. The stickler for the Gentiles was the religious practice of circumcision. Can you blame them?
         Peter, fresh from his experience in Joppa, summarized the issue. “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they” (Acts 15:6-11).
        After hearing the many accounts of miracles and wonders God worked through them among the Gentiles, the council could not ignore the confirmation of the Gospel that Jesus included in the great commission. They agreed to write a letter to be circulated to all the churches, declaring that circumcision was not necessary for salvation. The Gentile Christians did not have to conform to the Jewish practices.
       The Chronos Lesson: Paul, the major doctrinal teacher of our faith as recorded in the New Testament, stated the issue this way: “Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant [of Jewish believers] according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work” (Rom. 11:5-6). In fact, the book of Romans features the doctrine of grace, and not of works, for it is the free gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
        Unfortunately, even though we are commanded to walk by faith alone, many Christians preach a form of legalism that is based on works to prove one is truly a Christian. Paul’s response to this? “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3). Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage...you have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith” (Gal. 5:1, 3-4). In short, if your relationship with Christ begins by grace, the remainder of your life in Christ is based on grace.
       Much of what the world rejects of Christianity is actually the religious, legalistic, better-than-thou hypocritical mindset. Believers still fall short of the standard of Christ, and will continue to do so until we are perfected at the rapture. This is why Jesus warned us not to judge others when we ourselves fall short.
      True Christian faith is centered on our relationship with the Godhead—God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son of Man, and the Holy Spirit abiding within us. The more we tap into this vital relationship, the more we are changed into the likeness of Christ—what Scripture calls godliness.
       The process is called sanctification. Our spirit is made new when we accept Jesus; it is completely sanctified and sealed so that it cannot be contaminated by the fallen world. Our soul and body, however, are not yet glorified. That happens at the rapture. It is the hope of our calling in Christ.
            In the meantime, our journey with Christ until that Day is what is called progressive sanctification in terms of our soul and body—the process of learning how to think and act as Jesus did on the earth. Paul explained it this way: “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the Day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:3-6).
        By the way, this same controversy between works and grace has manifested in our own time under the mantra of “easy grace” or “cheap grace.” Some leaders preach against the message of grace because they contend it leads to people taking advantage of it. Paul faced the same possibility. But he refused to let it detract from the New Covenant reality of grace alone. It is also why many of the letters of the New Testament taught that true conversion by grace in the heart of a person eventually leads to changes in one’s outward actions.
       Paul called this “working out our salvation.” In this sense, the works are not the basis of our position in Christ and our relationship with God the Father, but the supernatural consequence of the person’s decision. That is why Paul also pointed out in Romans that the more we focus on the sin issue, the more sin abounds. Working out our salvation comes, instead, by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus through grace (Rom. 8:2).
        “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32).