November 6, 2016

Does God endorse religion?

If we look up the word religion it is said to mean “the belief in a god or group of gods OR and organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods.” In all other religions in the world today we see a system of beliefs or traditions that require man to work to earn God’s love.

If you do this thing, give this money, say the right prayer, go to the temple, etc….THEN God will love you or give you what you are seeking. However when we look to the God of the Bible this is not the case at all. In fact what we see is His desire to actually have a relationship with man.

You see in the Bible that God did give his followers a list of rules to obey called the Ten Commandments, but he knew that they could never live up to this set of rules. In fact it was given as a standard to show mankind that they will never be perfect.

Basically the goal was set, but it is clear that mankind would continue to miss the mark. This is what the bible calls sin. In Romans 3:23 we see that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Each one of us have fallen short of this standard God has set. Now if the story ended there it would be one without a happy ending, one without hope, BUT it doesn’t stop here! God knowing that we would fall short of His standards made a way of forgiveness and restoration.

This way is through His one and only son, Jesus. Jesus lived a life we could not live and died the death that we all deserve for our sins so that we could enjoy a right relationship with God. We see this clearly in Romans 6:23, “for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So to answer your question does God endorse religion I would say yes God does endorse a belief in him and a system of beliefs that point us to our need for a Savior. Ultimately however His goal is not that we would develop a long list of do’s and don’ts but His desire is for us to enjoy a relationship with him forever.

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