Religion! Who would have it?

This article was published in Oct 2012 in Braehills publication 'Braehill Beacon:

First of all at the outset I want to say that I don’t ‘do religion’. Religion appears to be something that is very divisive and many are fed up with it. Strange as it may seem we at Braehill also have the same thought. You might well find that strange and say ‘surely you are involved in religion by just being a church’.

Of course it depends on what you believe that religion is.  Collins dictionary defines religion as this: ‘belief in, worship of or obedience to a supernatural power or powers considered to be Divine or to have control of human destiny’.
As regards a human view on religion this is a reasonably fair definition, however why does religion then cause so much controversy in our wee country and most of the world?
I would suggest to you that it is mankind’s general application of religion that causes grief in so many areas of life. I have asked many people the question ‘Do you believe in God? Many answer  ‘yes’. I then ask do you believe what He says through His Word which we call ‘The Bible’?  Many again answer ‘yes’.   Yet when pushed many disregard the Bible and say well I do my best when it comes to God.
When we see God’s Word as just a set rules to obey that’s when many become religious in their outlook on life.
Many feel they are required to give money, attend services, be at communion, sing hymns, give to the poor, endure listening to the preacher and many other activities which they feel satisfy God in some way.
Nothing could be further from the truth. God does not want anyone to be religiously following rules and regulations in the belief that it will gain them entry into heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ stated in the Gospel of John chapter 14 verse 6 : I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

So what stops men, women and children from having access to God? It is a thing called sin. Sin can be defined ‘as missing the mark’. What mark?

God has a standard that He has shown us through His Law – you might know of it as the ‘Ten Commandments’ or ‘The Law’. These are said by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians as being mankind’s schoolmaster:  
 Gal 3:24 - Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

There is no way that we come up to God’s standard or even come near it. When we look at the sin in the world and truthfully even in our own lives we see that we miss the mark completely. The question is: Is there a price to be paid?

As with all failures yes there is. God says:
Romans 6:23a - For the wages of sin is death;
God knew this and this is why He sent His Son the Lord Jesus Christ to pay those wages because He knew that you and I could not pay them . 
All we need to have is that repentance (being sorry for our sin and turning around to God) in faith in the one who has paid the debt for us and that’s the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s that simple. He loved you and stood in your place of punishment.   
We don’t need to be religiously living a life of dos and don’ts. It’s a life of all do’s – do have your sins forgiven, do have eternal life, do be sure of a God who loves you, do be saved for eternity.
There are so many more do’s.

Trust in the Saviour who paid the debt of sin for you, by dying, shedding His blood and rising again.
He is that surety of sins forgiven through repentance and your place with Him for evermore.

Peter Skillen
www.braehillbaptist.org