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RELIGION OR REVELATION
Religion is outward observance or devotion
to a deity, idea or set of religious beliefs. Religion is man reaching
upward to God. Job's friend Zophar asked:
“Canst thou by searching find out God?”
(Job 11:7). He answered his question in the negative. God is limitless while
man is finite. God cannot be put under a microscope or in a test tube and
subjected to experimentation. Man cannot
“find out God.”
Much “Christianity” is mere man-made
religion. Hidden away there are genuine followers of the Lamb of God, but
not many. God's people are always a minority commanded to be separate from
religion. Man made religions are always works-oriented. They all teach that
by doing something human beings can gain God's favor. Religion teaches that
sinners are saved by works or that they are kept saved by works. The idea of
God saving individuals as a gift – by grace – is foreign to human reasoning.
But the Bible says, “...David also
describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute
sin,” (Romans 4:6-8). God saves people
“without works.” He credits righteousness to sinners by grace because of the
finished work of Christ. He forgives the sins of those for whom Christ died.
He goes further than that: He does not credit them with sin at all. That is
grace! Grace is foreign to human thinking! Grace is contrary to man made
religion! |