Religion Versus Salvation in the Philippines
In the Philippines I have seen many examples of religious expression: writings on Jeepneys that say, TO GOD BE THE GLORY, A NATION NOT FORSAKEN, and even JESUS I BELIEVE IN YOU; people say God bless you, and before deplaning after a domestic flight the attendant said to us, "Have a blessed day." Pictures intended to represent Jesus, Mary, and saints abound.
On the one hand I am reminded of the apostle Paul in Athens, when he waited in the city and saw all the shrines and monuments to various gods that the people worshiped, and also one to THE UNKNOWN GOD. Paul said to the philosophers of that city, "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you" (Acts 17:23).
On the other hand I am reminded again of Paul but speaking of his fellow Israelites, also religious but not knowing God's righteousness unto salvation because they have not received Jesus Christ (John 16:3). "I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge" (Rom 10:2). They were very religious and yet they didn't really know the God who was supposedly at the head of their religion!
What an amazing thought! That religious people should not know God!
And yet, Jesus spoke about this. He said that some have been taught an (illegitimate) fear of God by a man-made system of commandments instead of coming to fear God by drawing near to Him through faith. They walk in man-made religion instead of God's Spirit (see Isaiah 29:13 as referenced by Jesus in Matt 15:8-9, Mark 7:6-7). This is why the religion of the Greeks, which Paul observed in Athens, he called "idolatry" and "superstition" (Acts 17:16, 22).
Ezekiel 33:31-32,
"And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.
And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not."
So what this teaches us is that there is a form of religion, made by men, that goes aside from the truth so that men may live for themselves and their own gain instead of living for God through Jesus Christ in the KNOWLEDGE of Him (2 Tim 3:5).
But the cost of following this false way is that it does not lead to life. Jesus said, "And this is life eternal, that they might KNOW THEE the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). God gives us eternal life so that we can know Him. Do you think God will give eternal life to those who follow a form of religion that was designed to allow men to continue living for themselves and avoid knowing God? The religion itself becomes the god.
And there are many people who love it this way. Because this false god, this idol, allows men to live after their lusts, their desires, their cravings, under cover of a form of godliness. Jeremiah 5:28-31 speaks precisely of this sort of false religion:
"They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?"
Compare the first verse above with the definition of pure religion and undefiled in James 1:27.
The forerunner of Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, preached, and said, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt 4:17). And then Jesus, from the beginning of His ministry, preached the gospel of the kingdom of God, and said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:14-15).
Repentance is to become willing to turn from living for yourself and what you think to be your own gain, and to know and live for God instead.
And friends, if you have not come to this place then you do not have eternal life and you do not truly believe in Jesus Christ. Because this attitude of mind, this repentance, is the position in which to receive true faith in Jesus Christ. Now that you know how important it is, I will say it again: Repentance is to become willing to turn from living for yourself and what you consider to be your own gain, to knowing and living for God instead.
But repentance, while necessary, is not enough. For Joshua said to the people of Israel,
"Ye cannot serve the LORD; for He is an holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins" (Joshua 24:19).
What this means is that the sin which is in our flesh, that is, our fallen human nature, prevents us from serving God. Though any man might be willing to serve and live for God, as those Israelites were, when temptation comes, he will be drawn away from God by his own lusts. Those lusts conceive and bring forth sin, and when sin is finished, it brings forth death (James 1:14-15). This means that every time you want to serve God, sin overcomes you and results in separation from God (death) so that you are prevented from serving Him.
This is the trap of prison that all men are naturally in owing to our sinful nature that goes all the way back to our first father, Adam (Isaiah 43:27). But, thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, there is a great deliverance from this prison!
Remember, Jesus said, "Repent ye, and believe the gospel."
If repentance is the willingness to turn to God and live for Him, then belief of the Gospel is the channel through which the power and knowledge to do it comes.
The Gospel is that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, the just for the unjust; He shed His Blood, the Blood of the only sinless life, as an atoning offering to God, in order to wash us in that same Blood from our sins. He was buried, and He rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. We who believe are buried with Him in baptism into death, in which we are risen again through the faith of the operation of God. We who believe are identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.
So Christ changes us, the body with its sin dies when we call on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and becomes the soil (Gen 3:19) in which a new life as planted as the incorruptible seed of God (1 Peter 1:23), which begins to grow. This is being born again, and the new life is Christ in you! This life is lived by faith. This is the life that serves God and knows God. This is eternal life. Now as you walk in the light believing God's Word, you share in the very nature of God (2 Peter 1:4).
This is the life that overcomes the world and cannot sin because it is the life that is born of God (1 John 3:9, 1 John 5:4-5). This is why a Christian must be born again to be a true Christian and to have eternal life.
The natural born man is in captivity to sin and so cannot serve God because every time he tries, sin in his body overcomes him and kills him. But the spiritually born man has died with Christ and been raised again with Him, and so can walk in the new and incorruptible life of Christ by believing what God has taught and promised. And thus he overcomes sin and begins to fruitfully serve God.
So the message is really very simple. Repent: turn to God willing to live for Him instead of for your own lusts from now on, and Believe the Gospel: of Christ's atoning death for your sins, His burial, and His resurrection from the dead. Call upon the Name of the Lord and you shall be saved (Rom 10:13)!
Exchange mere fleshly religion for God's righteous gift of salvation. Instead of just having a form or shape of godliness, receive the Lord Jesus Christ and He will give you the power to become genuinely godly. Instead of having a statue or a picture of a saint in your house, receive Jesus and He will transform you into a real and living one. That is God's will for you.
On the one hand I am reminded of the apostle Paul in Athens, when he waited in the city and saw all the shrines and monuments to various gods that the people worshiped, and also one to THE UNKNOWN GOD. Paul said to the philosophers of that city, "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you" (Acts 17:23).
On the other hand I am reminded again of Paul but speaking of his fellow Israelites, also religious but not knowing God's righteousness unto salvation because they have not received Jesus Christ (John 16:3). "I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge" (Rom 10:2). They were very religious and yet they didn't really know the God who was supposedly at the head of their religion!
What an amazing thought! That religious people should not know God!
And yet, Jesus spoke about this. He said that some have been taught an (illegitimate) fear of God by a man-made system of commandments instead of coming to fear God by drawing near to Him through faith. They walk in man-made religion instead of God's Spirit (see Isaiah 29:13 as referenced by Jesus in Matt 15:8-9, Mark 7:6-7). This is why the religion of the Greeks, which Paul observed in Athens, he called "idolatry" and "superstition" (Acts 17:16, 22).
Ezekiel 33:31-32,
"And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.
And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not."
So what this teaches us is that there is a form of religion, made by men, that goes aside from the truth so that men may live for themselves and their own gain instead of living for God through Jesus Christ in the KNOWLEDGE of Him (2 Tim 3:5).
But the cost of following this false way is that it does not lead to life. Jesus said, "And this is life eternal, that they might KNOW THEE the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). God gives us eternal life so that we can know Him. Do you think God will give eternal life to those who follow a form of religion that was designed to allow men to continue living for themselves and avoid knowing God? The religion itself becomes the god.
And there are many people who love it this way. Because this false god, this idol, allows men to live after their lusts, their desires, their cravings, under cover of a form of godliness. Jeremiah 5:28-31 speaks precisely of this sort of false religion:
"They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?"
Compare the first verse above with the definition of pure religion and undefiled in James 1:27.
The forerunner of Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, preached, and said, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt 4:17). And then Jesus, from the beginning of His ministry, preached the gospel of the kingdom of God, and said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:14-15).
Repentance is to become willing to turn from living for yourself and what you think to be your own gain, and to know and live for God instead.
And friends, if you have not come to this place then you do not have eternal life and you do not truly believe in Jesus Christ. Because this attitude of mind, this repentance, is the position in which to receive true faith in Jesus Christ. Now that you know how important it is, I will say it again: Repentance is to become willing to turn from living for yourself and what you consider to be your own gain, to knowing and living for God instead.
But repentance, while necessary, is not enough. For Joshua said to the people of Israel,
"Ye cannot serve the LORD; for He is an holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins" (Joshua 24:19).
What this means is that the sin which is in our flesh, that is, our fallen human nature, prevents us from serving God. Though any man might be willing to serve and live for God, as those Israelites were, when temptation comes, he will be drawn away from God by his own lusts. Those lusts conceive and bring forth sin, and when sin is finished, it brings forth death (James 1:14-15). This means that every time you want to serve God, sin overcomes you and results in separation from God (death) so that you are prevented from serving Him.
This is the trap of prison that all men are naturally in owing to our sinful nature that goes all the way back to our first father, Adam (Isaiah 43:27). But, thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, there is a great deliverance from this prison!
Remember, Jesus said, "Repent ye, and believe the gospel."
If repentance is the willingness to turn to God and live for Him, then belief of the Gospel is the channel through which the power and knowledge to do it comes.
The Gospel is that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, the just for the unjust; He shed His Blood, the Blood of the only sinless life, as an atoning offering to God, in order to wash us in that same Blood from our sins. He was buried, and He rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. We who believe are buried with Him in baptism into death, in which we are risen again through the faith of the operation of God. We who believe are identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.
So Christ changes us, the body with its sin dies when we call on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and becomes the soil (Gen 3:19) in which a new life as planted as the incorruptible seed of God (1 Peter 1:23), which begins to grow. This is being born again, and the new life is Christ in you! This life is lived by faith. This is the life that serves God and knows God. This is eternal life. Now as you walk in the light believing God's Word, you share in the very nature of God (2 Peter 1:4).
This is the life that overcomes the world and cannot sin because it is the life that is born of God (1 John 3:9, 1 John 5:4-5). This is why a Christian must be born again to be a true Christian and to have eternal life.
The natural born man is in captivity to sin and so cannot serve God because every time he tries, sin in his body overcomes him and kills him. But the spiritually born man has died with Christ and been raised again with Him, and so can walk in the new and incorruptible life of Christ by believing what God has taught and promised. And thus he overcomes sin and begins to fruitfully serve God.
So the message is really very simple. Repent: turn to God willing to live for Him instead of for your own lusts from now on, and Believe the Gospel: of Christ's atoning death for your sins, His burial, and His resurrection from the dead. Call upon the Name of the Lord and you shall be saved (Rom 10:13)!
Exchange mere fleshly religion for God's righteous gift of salvation. Instead of just having a form or shape of godliness, receive the Lord Jesus Christ and He will give you the power to become genuinely godly. Instead of having a statue or a picture of a saint in your house, receive Jesus and He will transform you into a real and living one. That is God's will for you.
