There are two kinds of religion in this world. In the first kind, individuals must save themselves and in the second, God must save each individual. The religion that says people save themselves always falls short of salvation. For “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy rags” and “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (cf Isa 64:6, Rom 3:23).
Pick a religion. How do people in that particular faith come to a right standing before God? Think for a moment about Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism, or any other ‘isms’. They have laundry lists of things that a person must do. Tim Keller argues that in almost all religions people essentially build a bridge to get from one side to the other. They build their bridge to salvation brick by brick, following certain rules and doing certain deeds.
I once asked a devout Muslim: “How do I become a Muslim?” He said to me: “Declare there is no God but Allah, and follow the Five Pillars. Then you will be Muslim.” To be a Muslim that’s all you have to do. Merely follow a set of rules. What about Buddhism? Their central tenet is that a person achieves enlightenment by following the 8-fold path. In all of these religions, it’s always about you and your ability to achieve your way to God or some inner peace.
I do concede though that religions have differences between them. But at the same time, all those religions fundamentally espouse rules and rituals that people must do to save themselves. People are “saved” by following that system, whether it is Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, etc.
How then is Biblical Christianity any different from the rest? Fundamentally, it says that you can’t save yourself. No matter how hard you try, your best isn’t good enough. The ‘you’ on your best day still fails God’s perfect standard. Jesus must save you! The Bible says humanity has been separated from God because sin has infected us all. His holy nature cannot allow sin to go unpunished. These axioms are antithetical to what the majority of religions proclaim.
In Biblical Christianity, God saves humanity because they can’t save themselves. Why did Jesus have to die? To save wretched sinners separated from a holy God. If men and women could save themselves then Christ died for nothing (cf. Gal 2:21). A Christian then is one who always stands before God purely on Christ’s finished work (cf. Heb 10:14). He or she looks to Jesus, the spotless lamb and trusts in Him alone for salvation (cf. Jn 5:24). To quote the classic hymn, ‘Rock of Ages’:
nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling
foul I to the fountain fly;
wash me Savior or I die.
Religion is always of two kinds: either humanity tries to save themselves, or God saves humanity. The faith that saves is always the one in which God saves us and reconciles us to Himself “for salvation comes from the Lord” (cf Jon 2:9).
Shining Our Light 
True. Religion is the problem of the world. As a matter of fact Christianity is not a religion it’s about a kingdom. That’s why Jesus always say it’s about my father’s kingdom and never joined any group of people. Truth is that since man fell through adam. They have been finding a way to fill the vacuum left by their separation from God and Religion is man best idea/plan of getting back to God.
God master plan is to build one family (God talk about one migty nation from Abraham seed and Jesus re emphasize One body, one spirit, one faith, one God, one father of all….Eph 4:4-6) but religion is the author of separation which is contrary to God.
Our foundation for our prayer for the world is found in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4. “Which Is to destroy what the God of this world has used to blind the eyes of the people from seeing the light of the Gospel.)
Just because Christianity has a kingdom theme it doesn’t negate the reality that it’s also a religion. Those two ideas are not mutually exclusive. Why does the kingdom theme found in Scripture preclude Christianity from being a considered a religion? The word “religion” is used by the world to describe humanity’s relationship to God. That’s the sense in which I use the term.
I do agree with you though that the word “religion” doesn’t fully capture the meaning of Christianity. Since it’s a common term people associate it with all faiths. That’s probably the reason the word “religion” is understood differently by people. In the post, I tried to explain how Christianity is a completely different kind of religion and clarify some of the confusion.
The link below has a great article written by a brother in Christ. He explains the false antithetical relationship people make between religion and the Gospel. I think you’ll find it to be interesting.
Thanks for engaging with my blogpost! I appreciate your comment.
http://gcdiscipleship.com/gospel-centered-religion/
We are truly blessed……….
I agree completely :)! I like the list F. E. Marsh made as he thought about his position in Christ. The list isn’t exhaustive… Through our relationship with Jesus Christ we have:
Wonderful piece! Eph 2:8 came to mind reading it. Bold, brilliant writing, truth not compromised. Thumbs up!.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post and comment! I really do appreciate it. I hope you get a chance to read my other posts as well 🙂
You’re welcome. Sure