RELIGION
Religion is
us trying to prove to God how important we are...spirituality is being humble
enough to allow God prove to us how important He is.
What you are
when you are alone with God, that you are – and nothing more. You may make a
great show of love and faith in church, singing like Pavarotti or attracting
the masses to your profound Sunday school lectures. But if there is no private
communion between you and Jesus – frequent and deep communion – then your
religion is worthless.
Kris Lundgaard
The Enemy Within, P&R Publishing,
1998, 119.
I believe that human morality,
rather than flagrant sin, is the greatest obstacle to the gospel today. If you
ask the average law-abiding person why he expects to go to heaven, the answer will
be some form of “because I’ve been good.” The rich young ruler (see Matthew
19:16-20), the prodigal son’s older brother (see Luke 15:28-30), and the
Pharisee praying in the temple (see Luke 18:9-12) all had this in common: They
were confident of their own goodness. Their attitude is replicated throughout
our society. And the more religious a person is, the more difficult it is for
that person to realize his or her need for the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Jerry Bridges
Copied
from The Gospel for Real Life by Jerry Bridges, © 2002, p. 121. Used by
permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com.
All rights reserved.
Outward acts
of…piety which do not flow from the new and God-given affections of the heart,
which delight to depend on God and seek his glory are only legalism and have no
value in honoring God.
John Piper
The Supremacy of God in Preaching, Baker, p.
83.
Religion
today is not transforming the people – it is being transformed by the
people. It is not raising the moral
level of society – it is descending to society’s own level and congratulating
itself that it has scored a victory because society is smiling accepting its
surrender.
A.W. Tozer
I initially
examined Christianity in order to write a book making a mockery of it… After
extensive research, however, I discovered that Christianity is not a religion
of men and women working their way to God through "good works." Nor
is it obedience to a pattern of religious ritual. Rather, it is a relationship
with a living God through His Son Jesus Christ. To my amazement, I was
confronted with a person, not a religion. Here was a person who made staggering
claims about Himself, along with profound claims on my life. Jesus was so
different from what I had expected. Other religious leaders put their teachings
out in front. Jesus put Himself out in front. Others would ask, "How are
you responding to my teachings?" Jesus asked, "How are you related to
Me?"
Josh McDowell and Bart Larson
Jesus, a Biblical Defense of His Deity,
Here's Life Publishers, Inc., p. 9.
Religion is
not a preference. Although people are allowed to hold their own opinions, they
cannot make up their own truth. This cannot be done with religion any more than
it can be done with mathematics. To insist that all religions are equally true
is another way of saying that all religions are equally false… If every
religion is compatible with its opposite, why bother with religion at all?
Is Jesus the Only Way? Crossway, 1999, p.
34-35.
God does not
like to be taken for granted. It flies in the face of His eternal purposes –
that He be known and loved and praised and enjoyed. And it makes us superficial
people… When the main thing is missing, what’s left is distorted and
superficial, whatever it is. If someone says, “Oh, that’s just religion,” I
answer, “It’s not religion. It’s reality. God made the world and
everything in it. He owns the earth and everyone on it. He is the main actor in the world. He is
guiding the history of every people and nation to their appointed goals.
Everything, without exception, has to do with God and gets its main meaning
from God. And not to show this, but to take this for granted, is to be
superficial.” It is simply impossible to overstate the importance of God. And
He does not like being taken for granted. The psalm does not say, “Great is the
Lord, and greatly to be taken for granted.” It says, “Great is the Lord, and
greatly to be praised” (Psm. 96:4).
John Piper
God is a Very Important Person, Sermon, May
11, 1993, Used by Permission, www.desiringGod.org.
Most men,
indeed, play at religion as they play at games, religion itself being of all
games the one most universally played.
A.W. Tozer
The Divine Conquest.
Men never do evil so completely and
cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
Blaise Pascal
A religion
that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.
Martin Luther
Either our
religion will transform us or we will transform our religion to suit our
sympathies.
Michael Horton
The
Agony of Deceit, Moody, 1990, p. 123-125.
Religion is
not a thing which it is possible to put off and put on like a Sunday dress… If you
think you are doing so, believe me that as yet it is not a religion, but a web
of delusions.
Edward Reynolds
A Puritan
Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by
permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 236.
“Man’s
religion” does not deal honestly, either with God or with himself. He is
obliged to give a much better representation of himself than the case warrants.
He is obliged to profess to be what he thinks he ought to be, and what he
supposes God wishes him to be. He practices deceit upon his own conscience; and
he tries to practice the same deceit upon God. The whole of man’s religion may
be said to be founded upon this dishonest dealing.
Horatius Bonar
Man:
His Religion and His World, 1851.
There are
basically only two kinds of religion in the world: those based on human
achievement and those based on divine accomplishment. One says you can earn
your way to heaven; the other says you must trust in Jesus Christ alone.
John MacArthur
The
history of persecution of God’s people shows that the chief persecutor has been
false religion. It is the purveyors of error who are the aggressive enemies of
truth, and it is therefore inevitable that, as God’s Word predicts, the final
world system of the antichrist will be religious, not secular.
John
MacArthur
Matthew 16-23, Moody, 1988, p. 307.
You can have
tons of religion without an ounce of salvation.
Author
Unknown