Christ died for nothing!
24. Mar, 2011 
5 Comments
Life is full of choices. You can have your cake or you can eat it. You can’t choose to do both. Too often we stretch ourselves and our resources so that we can have our cake and eat it too. But it simply cannot work.
Some of us have Jesus. Some of us have Religion. Some have neither and are wondering if they come as a package deal or if we can have one without the other. Too often Jesus and Religion are viewed synonymously and that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Religion says: build a ladder of good behaviour and activities and God will be so impressed that he will want to be in relationship with you.
Jesus & the Gospel says: In Jesus, God came to earth so that he can obey perfectly in your place and forgive you and accept you freely.
There were some people in the book of Galatians that were saying you can – no, you must! – have both. Paul says if that’s true – Christ died for nothing! So… Did Christ die for nothing?
Check out this podcast to find out.
Hey Martin,
Thanks for interacting with us on here & that is a great question.
Before anything else, you are right in saying that Jesus came to earth to not only die the death that we deserve but to also live the perfect life that we could not live — that being a life that was fully defined by love for God and neighbour.
So why does Jesus give us this injunction to be perfect, if he is perfect in our place?
I believe, in order for this to make sense, we need to read this in context of the entire Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and see what Jesus was trying to do as he preached about the Kingdom of God.
Jesus knew (we know as we read the entire sermon and in fact the entire gospel) that we would never be able to live up to those standards (of perfection) on our own and that that would drive us to seek him as our righteousness — as the one who is perfect just as the Father in perfect. With that said, as the Holy Spirit continues to sanctify us, making us more and more like Jesus, we are enabled more and more to be more and more like the perfect Father who is in heaven.
Thank you again for interacting with us on here!
If Jesus came to earth to perfectly obey in our place, why did he say in Matt 5:48 that we are to be perfect, as our heavenly father is perfect?
Jaycee, thank you so much for taking the time out and engaging with us on this very important topic. I want to say a couple of things in reply;
1) I think both you and dictionary.com are totally correct in your definition of the word ‘religion’ and I agree and I would say to some degree James does also when he says that “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27)
2) Where I part with your assessment is in our motivation to distance ourselves from the word ‘religion’.
The reality of words is that they are dynamic rather than static so words evolve with time and climate and culture. We feel that in our cultural climate the word ‘religion’ imports negative ideas and can often evoke hurt or pain due to bad experiences with either the church or particular christians. We want to hold onto true religion as James states but do so in such a way that will allow us to dialogue with those who may have been seriously injured by the church. Pitting religion (as our culture defines it) against Christianity is something that doesn’t originate with us but something Jesus actually did throughout the gospels.
So finally we want to reclaim true religion and shed the negative connotations that the word itself carries and we believe the best way to do that is to distinguish the cultural understanding of religion and the gospel of Jesus.
Hope this sheds light on the conversations and thank you again for discussing.
And you wonder why people call Christians hypocrites…
I hate to be the one to have to keep telling you guys this, but by most people’s definition of the word Religion, Christianity fits the bill.
Let me head you off at the pass: it’s not because it does or does not require its adherents to follow Old Testament Law.
From dictionary.com:
Religion:
1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
2. a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.
By both of those definitions, Christianity is a religion. I know WHY you want to distance yourselves from the word: more and more people are saying things these days like “well I’m not religious, but I am spiritual” and you want to reach out to those people.
I gotta tell you though, from an outsider’s perspective (well, former insider I suppose) it really just comes across as disingenuous and mildly insulting to the intelligence of your intended audience.