This week we have been looking at a letter in our Bibles called the book of Galatians. Wednesday, we saw the Apostle Paul reveal for us another timeless reason that we are to vote no on religion because religion confines and can only guide us to see our need for Christ. Whether it the religion of legalism or the religion of license, every religious system can only confine us. Religion can only imprison us in the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God. Every religion that has ever been devised can guide us to see the desperate situation that we are in as a result of the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God. But that is all religion can do.
All religion can do is to confine us and lock us up under the destructive power of the selfishness and rebellion that resides within us. All religion can do is to guide us to the reality that there is nothing we can do for God in order to rescue us and make us right with God. All religion can do is guide us to see our need for a rescuer. But religion does not provide that rescuer that can deliver us from the destructive power of selfishness and rebellion that is within us. Only Jesus Christ can rescue us.
It is only when we place our confident trust in what God has done for us that we can be rescued from the destructive power of the selfishness and rebellion that resides within us and experience the forgiveness and relationship with God that we were created for. We see Paul unpack this reality for us in verse 27:
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Now when Paul uses the phrase baptized in Christ, he is not promoting that we need to be baptized in order to be saved. In verse 27, Paul is revealing the results of what occurs in the life of those who place their faith in Christ. Paul’s point here is that as a result of placing our confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel, we have received forgiveness and are now living in a right relationship with God as a follower of Jesus. As a follower of Jesus, we become a part of the body of Christ. And as we follow Jesus command to be baptized, that baptism is a public proclamation and a public identification with an inward reality that has occurred in our lives. We are now a new member of the community of faith that the Bible refers to as the body of Christ as followers of Jesus.
And as part of the community of faith called the body of Christ, Paul explains that followers of Jesus have clothed yourselves with Christ. But what does Paul mean when he says that we have clothed yourselves with Christ? Now Paul is not talking about going to the mall the buy some Jesus clothes. Instead, Paul is using a metaphor to reveal the reality that as a result of placing our confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel, followers of Jesus will begin to take on the characteristics of Jesus as they live in a right relationship with Him.
As a result of placing our confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel, followers of Jesus experience God’s transformational activity in their lives as they begin to reveal and reflect Christ in their character and conduct as part of the community of faith called the body of Christ. And the access to experience God’s transformational activity as part of the community of faith called the body of Christ is the same for all of humanity. We see Paul reveal this reality as he concludes this section of his letter in verse 28:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.
In these verses, we see Paul reveal for us the reality that regardless of one’s cultural background; regardless of one’s socioeconomic background; regardless of one’s gender; we all become reconciled and restored to the relationship with God that they were created for as part of the family of God the same way. Regardless of one’s cultural background; regardless of one’s socioeconomic background; regardless of one’s gender; we all receive the opportunity to experience forgiveness and the fulfillment of God’s promise to humanity the same way. And that way is not through religion or religious activity. That way is by placing our confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader. And because of that reality we are to vote no on religion because religion confines and can only guide us to see our need for Christ.
So are you exhausted as a result of trying to escape the prison of selfishness and rebellion through religion? Because, as we have seen today, religion can only imprison us in the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God. Every religion that has ever been devised can guide us to see the desperate situation that we are in as a result of the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God. But that is all religion can do. All religion can do is to guide us to the reality that there is nothing we can do for God in order to rescue us and make us right with God. All religion can do is guide us to see our need for a rescuer. But religion does not provide that rescuer that can deliver us from the destructive power of selfishness and rebellion that is within us.
Only Jesus Christ can rescue us. It is only when we place our confident trust in what God has done for us that we can be rescued from the destructive power of the selfishness and rebellion that resides within us and experience the forgiveness and relationship with God that we were created for.
So, how have you been casting your ballot? How have you been voting?
No comments:
Post a Comment