It Is Not About Religion

Reflections for this date are based on the following scripture passages:
Romans 7	Romans 8	Romans 9	Leviticus 1	Leviticus 2	Psalms 39

One of the biggest hindrances to people in their efforts to reach out to God is religion. Either a person bumps into the reality that religion won't do it and turns away, or they become satisfied by their religious efforts that they are doing what they need to do and never really come to understand what God truly desires from them. Those in this category find some comfort in the rituals of their religion but never question that there might be more to connecting with God than mere rituals.

Paul, in chapters 7-9 of Romans lays out the argument that being acceptable to God is not about religion and a system of works but about responding to God on His terms through faith. No other system will achieve acceptance by God: not good works, not any effort of atonement on our part, and not our family lineage. The Old Testament records for us the failure in all these ways to bring man to God. God appointed the man Abraham through whom to give His promise of Salvation through his descendants. But Paul points out in Romans that the true descendants of Abraham are not those in his bloodline but those who have his faith.

Using Abraham's descendants to be His models, God established a religious system for them to observe that illustrated through their efforts that man cannot be made right with God through a religious system. Paul, in his argument in Romans, explains why a religious system will not work, for it does nothing to fix our sin problem. He says, "For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it." (Romans 7:18) Our religious rituals express our desire to agree with God, but they do not give us the ability to overcome sin in our lives.

So what is the solution? Paul tells us in Romans 8:1-2, "Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit's law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." Through Christ's victory over sin and death, we are no longer prisoners to the law of sin, but are set free.