I think most of my life I have heard people emphasize that knowing Jesus is about having relationship with him, and not about religion. I understood this concept mostly, having had definite experiences where God spoke to my heart clearly through the scriptures or a life circumstance. It's obvious that the main difference between religion and relationship is that religion emphasizes performing certain ceremonies to obtain God's pleasure or feel accepted, while relationship emphasizes the fact that we relate to God more as a dear friend who presently interacts and speaks with us. When someone is attempting to please or obey God through all manner of religious ceremonies, we might say that they are being influenced by a "Religious Spirit". That is, that in their minds they have been tricked into believing that if they perform the right ceremonies, they will be pleasing to God and have salvation.
The religious spirit has great influence among Christians today. Its purpose is to cause us to focus on performing the "ceremonies" correctly and often enough to "feel" saved. There are telltale signs that someone is being influenced by this religious spirit. Feelings of condemnation when we don't read the Bible enough, don't pray enough, or "insert spiritual failure" enough, are clear signs that we are trying to work for our salvation and the approval of God. The truth is that God already loves and approves of us because of Jesus' sacrifice for our sins when he died on the cross.
Another clear sign that you are affected by a religious spirit is if the previous statement I made caused a severe disagreement with you as you read it. The religious spirit makes us crave to be in control of the spiritual lives of other people. This is acted out when we make the judgment that other people are not reading the Bible enough or praying enough, etc... When we dictate what others should be doing to reach our spiritual standards, we have unconsciously believed that we know how hard they should be working to obtain God's pleasure. These 2 signs often come packaged together, but it is possible that we just believe one or the other.
The religious spirit tricks many people into believing they are okay with God. They reason if they go to church on Sunday and help enough old ladies across the street, that God will be pleased with them. But the scriptures are clear that our good works DO NOT qualify us for God's acceptance. His acceptance comes only by the sacrifice of Jesus. Good works are not payment to get into heaven, but only the spiritual by-product of people who are learning to love God and love their neighbor. But how many people will go to church this weekend thinking that the mere act of walking through the doors makes them a Christian? As the old adage says, "Just because you're in McDonalds, it doesn't mean that you're a Big Mac." I don't have time to mention the many notable men who had graduated seminary and were in the profession of preaching the gospel message, only to discover that they still had not received forgiveness for their own sins. Among them are the famous John Wesley (founder of the Methodist Church) and Martin Luther, the great church reformer. That is another article by itself.
As with many spiritual things, it is easier to see at the effects of relationship vs religion than to talk about them directly. In order to keep these entries a little shorter, I will wrap this topic up in Part 2 where I will give a few examples that demonstrate the necessity of relationship over religion.
Grace and Peace...
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