What's the Point of Being Religious?

What’s The Point of Being Religious?
By: Dr. Danny Purvis

If you were to ask which people group is the hardest to reach with the Gospel, you would probably get many similar answers. They may be location focused like North Korea, Saudi Arabia, or China. They may be faith group related like Muslims, Buddhists, Atheists or Hindus. And make no mistake…these answers would not be incorrect. In fact, I’m not sure there is an incorrect answer to this question. And, of course, each of those people groups do pose their own challenges when it comes to presenting the Gospel. But the answer that tops my particular list does not include any of these already mentioned. In my experience, the most difficult people group to reach with the Gospel is the group that thinks they already have it.

The hardest person to reach with the Gospel is the person who errantly already believes themself to be a Christian. After all, if I believe myself to be a Christian, then why do I even need to give a second thought to the Gospel. After all, I already have it. Right? Tragically, all to often, the answer to that question is no.  And the older I get…the more exposure I get to people professing to be Believers…the more I have realized that this includes a humungous number of people. I pray I am wrong about that. I really do. But the evidence is hard to ignore. How many people sitting in churches all across this country are truly Believers or how many are, in fact, simply religious people attracted to the idea of Christianity but lacking in true faith?

There is no doubt that Scripture contains references to people who Believe themselves as having true faith, but do not (Matthew 7:21; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; Acts 16:16-18; John 6:66, Matthew 13:1-33). Every book in the New Testament except one (Philemon, I believe) warns against false teachers in the church as being something they are not. And as much as I wish this were not true, you do not have to look very hard for individuals (including pastors) who continuously spew a version of Christianity so removed from Scripture as to render it unrecognizable. I hope this is some grumpy form of cynicism speaking when I say that it is my belief that more than 50% of people sitting in pews across American are not truly Christians. They are religious…not Christians.

All true Believers are religious (depending on the usage of that word), not all religious people are Believers. As always, it depends on what you truly believe. Where your faith truly lay. Ligonier Ministries puts out a very helpful study every two years called the State of Theology. What separates this study from others is that the researchers don’t simply ask people who go to church or consider themselves religious…but people who are identified as evangelicals. You know, the ones that are supposed to know their stuff. When asked if God accepts the worship of all religions…56% of evangelicals said yes. Directly contradicting Scripture. When asked if Jesus was a great teacher but He was NOT God…43% of evangelicals said yes. When asked if everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God…65% of evangelicals said yes. When asked if the Bible is a helpful book but not literally true…26% of evangelicals said yes (up 6 points in 6 years). When asked if God learns and adapts to different circumstances…48% of evangelicals said yes. You get the point.

Of course, there is a unifying element to each one of those questions. Answering yes to them is to answer yes to heresy. Each of those questions represents a heretical representation of God…Jesus…the Holy Spirit. And these are basic, fundamental doctrines every single Christian should know. Which begs the obvious question: What Jesus do they believe in? Therein lay the problem for the religious person. They do not truly know God because they either do not know His Word, or (and this is much worse), they do not believe His Word. If you do not know His Word…if you do not believe His Word…you cannot be saved. This leads the religious person to rejoice at the parts they like: His love; forgiveness; heaven; steadfastness; grace; and mercy.

But, of course, those things are only for the ones who truly believe. Religious people then very quickly have disdain for the more unpleasant (to us anyway) aspects of Christianity which are equally necessary: God’s judgement; punishment; the reality of sin; the uniqueness of Jesus for salvation; and the reality of hell. So religious people are patrons at the Biblical buffet. They pick and choose the things they like, while leaving the equally necessary foods on the bar. And what does that force them to do? To create a Jesus that does not exist. To create a Gospel that does not exist. In Galatians Paul refers to this as a “different Gospel”. And no matter how much you put your faith in this different Jesus…in this different Gospel…it simply means you are still lost. But if you already believe yourself to be saved…well…you can see how these folks would be difficult to reach with the true Gospel.

One of Jesus’ more interesting interactions with a religious person is found in the third chapter of John. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. He was a member of the prestigious Sanhedrin. He was, in Jesus’ own words, “THE teacher of Israel”(John 3:10). He was respected as a holy man…making and enforcing religious laws. He was…a very religious man. He was also lost. We know that culture placed a premium on being born a “child of Abraham”. In other words, they were ok spiritually because they had been born Jewish…a member of God’s chosen people. Even though John the Baptist tried to warn them about this assumption (Matthew 3:7-9), this is what they help on to…their religiosity based on their physical birth.

But when speaking to Nicodemus, note the first words out of His mouth. “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3)”. Let me ask you a question. Besides John 3:3 & 7…where else does the phrase “born again” appear in the Bible? 1 Peter 1:23 and that is just as a reminder that all Christians are born again. The only time it is used in dialogue to a person is in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. Why did Jesus say this? Because Nicodemus thought he was ok because he was religious. He thought he was ok because he had been physically born. Jesus was saying to Nicodemus: Your salvation is not assured because you are born…your salvation is assured when you are born again. And that second birth can only be assured by faith in Christ. Nicodemus’ entire religious world was torn apart. He thought he was fine. He thought he was holy. He did so because he knew he was religious. But he was as lost as the most ardent atheist in existence. But to his credit…he listened. He evaluated his religiosity and saw that he was wrong. He had put his faith in his religion. And as a result he was saved (John 19:38-40).

We cannot rely on our religiosity to save us. Sincere belief in the wrong Gospel simply means that we are sincerely wrong. I’m not trying to get you to question your salvation. But it is a legitimate question to ask if you actually have salvation in the first place. Your faith must rest on the Jesus of the Bible. The Gospel of the Bible. All of the Bible. If it’s not…then you’re just another religious person. And we have plenty of those wandering around.

-Dr. Danny Purvis