~ Need Religion ~
People Think
~ Religion is good for the
masses.
The Bible Says
~ Consider what Jesus Christ—The
Messiah—had to say about the religious leaders of His time on earth. “When he saw many
of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, ‘Brood of vipers!’” (Matthew
3:7a).
Jesus said, “Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against
men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering
to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a
pretense make long prayers. Therefore
you will receive greater condemnation. … Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and
cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy
and faith. These you ought to have done,
without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and
swallow a camel! Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and
dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind
Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed
tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead
men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so
you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build
the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say,
‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers
with them in the blood of the prophets’” (Matthew 23:13-14, 23-30).
The Significance ~ Religion is based on rules and regulations, do’s and do not’s! The solution is a relationship with the very Son of God—Jesus Christ.
Comment
~ No person is capable of meeting
the righteous required of a righteous God.
“For I [Jesus] say to you, that unless your
righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees [who kept
the rules], you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
The Good News
is that repentant sinners can be viewed by God as covered by the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. Listen to what He said:
“And
Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life.
He who comes to Me shall never
hunger, and he who believes in Me shall
never thirst. But I said to you that
you have seen Me and yet do not believe.
All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to
Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do
My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
This is the will of the Father who
sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up at the last day. And this is the
will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will
raise him up at the last day’” (John 6:35-40).
~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW
NOTES:
(1)
The
current
TOP 10 ALN posts are listed at the very
bottom of this home page.
(2)
There
is an INDEX of all ALN posts accessed by scrolling down the
left column.
(3)
You
may LINK to any ALN posts on your own blog or website.
(4)
You
may COPY any ALN post, but please credit ALN as the source by
prominently displaying the following statement: Reprinted from “Abundant Life Now,” a free
blog which offers inspiring moments, thought-provoking comments, and solid
Biblical insight at http://RobertLloydRussell.blogspot.com/
.
