Religion vs. Relationship

Last week as part of their coverage of the Middle East crisis, TIME magazine interviewed a 29 year old Palestinian man whose name is Jaffar. Jaffar is a member of Hamas—a radical religious group that is fighting for Palestinian independence. Jaffar has taken an active personal role in the street fighting between Palestinians and Israelis.

Jaffar is not a rock thrower: he carries an AK-47 assault rifle and he has used it to devastating effect. I would like you to hear what Jaffar has to say about what he is doing and why he is doing it.

• Before I start shooting, I start to concentrate on reading verses of the Koran because the Koran gives me the courage to fight the Israelis. The Koranic verses make me less afraid of death, and when I finish my job, I feel comfort and strength.

• My gun is very dear to me. Through my gun, I protect my people and my holy places. In the past two weeks I have succeeded in wounding three Israeli soldiers.

• I don’t think in terms of happiness when I kill an Israeli or wound him. I think in terms of carrying out my religious obligations. I am asked by my God to fight the enemies until the last spot of blood.

This is what religion produces in people: hatred, animosity, conflict, and death. Jaffar happens to be a Muslim, but his words could have been echoed by a Protestant radical in Northern Ireland, a militant Hindu in Calcutta, or an ultra-orthodox Jew in Tel Aviv. All of them would act in a similar way in the name of their religion.

Religion is the greatest blind alley that man has ever taken in his search for spiritual reality. You wouldn’t think that the devil would want us to become religious, but he does. Because when we do, we do his work for him.

In Genesis 4, the first murder in human history was committed for religious reasons and the pages of human history ever since are literally dripping with the blood of relgious conflicts.

When Jesus came to earth, who opposed him most bitterly? It was the religious people—the scribes, the Pharisees, the chief priests, the teachers of the Law.

The Apostle Paul was one of them—a fanatical Pharisee—before he met Jesus. And during that time, he made it his business to persecute and even execute Christians in the name of religion.

One of the first religious endeavors in human history is recorded for us in Genesis 11, where the people tried to build the Tower of Babel. They said “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves”

They wanted to reach God, they wanted to find spiritual reality, they wanted, according to the Led Zeppelin school of theology, to literally climb a stairway to heaven, so that having done so, they could make a name for themselves. And that is the essence of religion. Religion is when we try to reach God on our own terms, through our own understanding, by means of our own efforts.

But the Bible says it can’t be done—it’s a blind alley. Religion, which promises to lead us to God, in fact leads us away from God. And it bears bitter fruit. Religion creates division and dischord between us and our fellow man so that in the end we come to the place where we are willing to shoot and kill each other, either literally or verbally, in the name of our God.

But the good news of Jesus Christ is that, in contrast to religion, God offers us relationship. The Gospel is not about us reaching God on our terms; it is about God reaching us on His terms. In religion, we are the active party; in the Gospel, God is the active party and we are the recipients and the beneficiaries of his activity.

Religion offers us a system—a do-it-yourself project for reaching spiritual reality. The Gospel is where God steps in and says “You can’t do it yourself, so I’m going to do it for you.”

We come today to a passage in the book of Colossians where Paul warns us not to substitute religion for relationship. The specific situation he was dealing with was that the Colossian believers—having accepted the Gospel message and having placed their trust in Jesus Christ—were now being pressured to adopt a religious way of life.

There were many religious teachers in Colosse in the first century A.D., just as there are today—teachers who wanted to add something to the Gospel. They wanted to add an elaborate system of religious rules, regulations, and rituals that were supposed to make people more spiritual. And Paul says here in effect “If you buy into that—if you go back to religion as the way to spiritual reality—you won’t be going forward spiritually, you’ll be going backwards. Don’t abandon your relationship with Christ in favor of religious rules and rituals.”

So Paul draws a sharp contrast between the religion they were being tempted to adopt and the relationship with Jesus that they already had. And that’s why I’ve called this section of Colossians “Religion vs. Relationship”.

Paul begins by talking about their relationship with Jesus. Look at 2:13

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Paul says that we receive three things when we become followers of Jesus Christ—three things that are absolutely crucial in our relationship with God—and we get these because of what Jesus did on the cross.

What are these three things? Spiritual Life, Forgiveness of Sin, and Spiritual Freedom.

1. Spiritual life - v. 13

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.

The Bible says that prior to God’s work in our lives through Jesus Christ, we are dead spiritually. That is our spiritual condition. We are not spiritual seekers, we are not pilgrims on a spiritual journey, it doesn’t matter how religious we are—without Jesus, we are dead. Period.

When’s the last time you were in a cemetery? How much activity was going on in that cemetery? None! Because all the people in a cemetery are dead.

The Bible says that because of sin, planet earth is a spiritual cemetery, except that God has stepped in and has done something about it. He has brought us life in the person of Jesus Christ. And when we put our trust in Jesus to be our Savior, God brings us to life spiritually—he makes us alive.

2. Forgiveness of my sins - v. 13

He forgave us all our sins

When we sin, we are not only violating God’s standard of holiness, we are acting in a way that is personally offensive to God. Perhaps this illustration will help.

Suppose you are driving along a main road and you come to a traffic signal. The light is green in your favor, so you proceed because you have the right of way. But suddenly, from the side street, a car runs the red light and smashes into you. The driver of that car has clearly committed a traffic offense—he has run a red light. He is objectively guilty before the law, and now he is liable for your damages. And he will also receive a traffic ticket.

Now it’s bad enough that he has smashed into your car, and it would be nice if he would apologize. But suppose he gets out of his car and starts cursing and swearing at you for being in the intersection in the first place for him to run into. Suppose he starts accusing you of being a lousy driver rather than him. Now he has done more than just broken the law—now he’s acting like a jerk!

And resolving that situation and bringing about reconciliation between the two of you is going to involve more than his insurance paying your damages, and him paying a fine for running the red light. It’s going to have to involve your being willing to forgive him for his wrong attitude and his offensive behavior.

This is somewhat similar to the situation that exists between God and ourselves. Our sin not only puts us on the wrong side of God’s law in an objective sense, it also puts us on the wrong side of God’s approval in a personal sense. There is a breach between us personally. From God’s perspective, we’re not only guilty, we’re acting like jerks.

Now the Bible says that Jesus came to pay the penalty for our sins, and he did that by dying on the cross. That takes care of the legal problem. But the only way that the personal breach can be repaired is if the offended party—God—chooses to forgive. And that is what he has done. He has forgiven all our sins.

You’ve probably heard about this pedophile who has been released from prison and has tried to find a place to live here in the GTA. People don’t want him in their neighborhoods. He has paid his debt in a legal sense—he has served his time. But people haven’t been willing to forgive him in a personal sense for what he did.

Have you ever experienced what it means to be truly forgiven by God for all the wrong you have ever done? The relief, the freedom that that brings! Karl Menninger, the famous psychiatrist, once said that if he could convince the patients in his psychiatric hospital that their sins were forgiven, 75% of them would be healed in a day.

In Christ, we have life, forgiveness, and…

3. Freedom from:

- the legal code that condemned me - v. 14

…having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

This describes the legal side of our spiritual problem. As sinners, we have broken God’s law. And we stand under the penalty that the Law calls for, which is death—separation from God. But when Jesus died on the cross, he took on himself our penalty.

So that means that the Law no longer has anything to say against us. We are no longer under its condemnation. The penalty has been paid. Justice has been satisfied, and we have been set free. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, it is as though the Law was nailed there too.

3. Freedom from:

- the spiritual powers that controlled me - v. 15

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

This is a picture that would have been familiar to anyone living in the Roman Empire. Whenever a Roman general fought and won a great victory against the barbarians on the frontiers of the Empire, the government would hold a triumphal procession in his honor.

The general would lead that parade sitting astride a white horse. Next would come his soldiers, marching proudly, under their banners and standards. Then would come the spoils of battle, valuable objects and trophies that had been captured from the enemy. Finally, bringing up the rear, would come the prisoners of war in chains—a public spectacle, humiliated, and defeated.

This is what Jesus Christ did to Satan and his dark powers when he died on the cross. The moment of Satan’s greatest triumph actually turned out to be the time of his greatest defeat, as Christ broke his power and publicly exposed him and showed him to be powerless. And we have been set free from his power in Christ.

So Paul shows us that in Christ, we have Spiritual Life, Forgiveness from all our sins, and Freedom—freedom from the law and freedom from the devil. This is what we have because of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Now, what’s the first word in verse 16? THEREFORE. That’s an important word. It means that everything that follows is going to refer back to what he’s already told us.

“In light of what you have in your relationship with Christ, therefore, don’t go back to the way of RELIGION. Don’t go back to thinking that your standing with God depends on anything other than what Jesus has done for you.”

Now he talks about three varieties of religious thinking that were current in the first century: These religious teachers were “bugging” the Colossians.

There were…

1. legalists - people who believed that you had to observe a big list of do’s and don’ts in order to please God. And if you didn’t do what the legalists said you should do, they would judge you for it—they would condemn you for not keeping the rules.

3. mystics - people who claimed to have had visions and dreams and special revelations from angels. And these folks wanted you to buy into their esoteric theology—and in order to do that you had to buy their books, go to their seminars, follow their teachings, and so on.

5. ascetics - people who believed that you could only achieve spiritual reality through self denial. And so these people taught that you needed to undergo all sorts of harsh discipline; they mistreated their own bodies in an attempt to achieve a more spiritual level of existence.

Now in verses 16–23, Paul warns the Colossians against all of these varieties of religious thought. Now I’m not going to exegete these verses. What I’d like to do, on the basis of these verses, is just make some observations about what religion does to us as human beings.

Look at verses 16-17

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

1. In religion, we become preoccupied with externals

Religion tells us that by doing certain things, by observing certain holidays, by eating certain foods, by keeping to a list of do’s and don’ts, we can improve our standing with God.

But that’s wrong—that’s a fallacy. Just because you are keeping certain days and eating certain foods doesn’t mean that your heart is right with God. Jesus spoke to that very subject in Matthew 15:11 where he said:

“What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.”

Because the words that come out of your mouth reveals what’s in your heart.

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were strict religious legalists. They were punctilious in keeping the law. But Jesus condemned them in Matthew 23 when he said…

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

Religion gets us preoccupied with externals and that leads to the second danger…

2. In religion, we become puffed up with pride - v. 18

Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.

Religion leads to self-righteousness. A legalist becomes self-righteous because he is proud of how well he is keeping the law. A mystic becomes self-righteous because he is proud of the insight he thinks he has gained into spiritual things—the visions, the dreams, the communication with angelic beings.

That religious person may seem very sincere and very humble. But Paul says that that is actually a false humility. Because that person believes that you can come to God in some other way than through Jesus Christ. And that is the height of spiritual arrogance.

3. In religion, we become disconnected from Jesus - v. 19

(Such a person) has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

It is so revealing that when Jesus came to earth from heaven, he did not hang out with the religious people. In fact, the religious people were the ones who hated him. Jesus hung out with sinners. He built relationships with sinners—people who knew their true condition before God.

Now if I, as a Christian, try to go back to the world of religion thinking that in doing so I am going to grow spiritually, I am just cutting myself off from the true spirit of Jesus. And the more religious I get, the less connected I am with him.

4. In religion, we become characterized by a negative spirit - v. 20-22

Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.

Religious people have a lot of hang ups. The religious people in Jesus’ day wouldn’t be caught dead doing certain things; they wouldn’t go certain places; they wouldn’t associate with certain people, they wouldn’t do certain things on certain days, because it might “taint” them—it might make them somehow less spiritual.

But when Jesus came along, he did go to those places, he did do those religiously forbidden things, he did associate with the wrong kind of people. His spirit was positive and warm and embracing and loving. He built bridges to people and communicated God’s love to them. And he never sinned in doing so!

It kills me to think that, as Christians, what we are noted for is our negativity. When people think of us, they immediately think about what we’re against. Maybe it’s because we’ve lost connection with our Head?

5. Religion doesn’t help us with our root problem: sin - v. 23

Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

Simon Styllites was a monk who lived back in the early years of the church. He decided that, in order to show his devotion to God, he would live for the rest of his life on a little platform on top of a 60 foot pillar—no sanitary facilities, no shelter, completely exposed to the elements. And he lived up there for 36 years.

Simon became world famous. People came from all over Christendom to hear him preach from the top of his pillar. They thought he was really spiritual because he had renounced all the comforts of life and willingly chosen to live such a harsh lifestyle.

But Paul says that this kind of religious self-denial doesn’t do you any spiritual good. Oh, it may look good from the outside—it may have the appearance of wisdom and humility. But it won’t make you any holier because it lacks the ability to change your heart. Religion cannot help us solve our root problem—our sinful human nature.

Haven’t you found it odd that some of the most religious places in the world are also some of the most wicked? It’s because religion can’t take away our tendency to sin.

Only the power of Christ in your life can help you deal with your sin, your wrong attitudes, your bad habits. In the next two chapters of the letter to the Colossians, Paul is going to explain to us how that works. But religion can’t do it.

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What is the foundation on which you are building your life? Is it a religious foundation? Or is it a relational foundation—a relationship with Jesus Christ?