Why I Don't Believe in Religion

I don't believe in religion. Yes, I'm a Fundamentalist. But, no, I still don't think much of religion, for the most part. I know of only one place in the whole Bible where the term "religion" is used positively, and it has nothing to do with how a person gets to God or has a home in heaven or receives eternal life.

Why would I be generally opposed to religion? Because religion, at its core, gets the most important thing wrong. Religion is man's efforts to please God. It's usually all wrapped up in what you do and how you do it. Often it brings in rituals and rites, observances and sacrifice. It's usually rooted in morality, and it often has some fine things to say about the duty of man. But when you come right down to it, religion is man trying to make himself good enough to please God. Or it is man trying to find the right levers to pull to make God happy enough to accept him. It is man trying to work his way to God.

That's backwards. Man can't ever, on his own, be good enough to please God. Romans 1-3 systematically proves that no one, not even the most religious, is good enough to please God through his works. And the clincher is that truly, none of us seek after God. Lots of people call themselves seekers - but they are usually trying to find their own way to God, to blaze a path of their own devising.

Religion has it all wrong. Man can't work his way to God. God came to man.

Religion has it backwards. Men don't seek until they find God. God isn't lost, needing us to find Him. WE are lost, needing Him to find us. Jesus Christ came to this world to seek and to save that which was lost.

I don't really have a religion. I have a relationship with God, based on the work of Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for me. I'm not some poor searcher standing at the door of heaven, frantically pulling at levers on a cosmic board, hoping to find the combination that makes God happy and convinces Him to let me in. I've already been brought into the household of the King. It wasn't because of anything I did or any good that I am. It was all because of what He did. He sought me and He saved me. All I did was believe in Him to receive that gift of salvation.

So don't call me religious, please. I'm trying to please God, sure, but it's not so that He'll let me in. Instead, call me a child of God, trying to please Him because I am in.

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us."