The Difference Between Religion and The Gospel

I was forwarded this email and I want to share it with you. Use it to check your spiritual heart condition.

The Difference Between Religion & The Gospel

by Tommy Park May 14th, 2009

Below is a very insightful comparison between “religion” and “the gospel” drawn from the sermons of Tim Keller (Senior Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan). Tim does a remarkable job of probing hearts and revealing how easily we slip into self-dependence mode. As I’ve been saying each Sunday, real slavery according to the Bible is self-reliance. So, read the comparison list below with humility and care. It will do your soul good.

RELIGION: I obey-therefore I’m accepted.

THE GOSPEL: I’m accepted-therefore I obey.

RELIGION: Motivation is based on fear and insecurity.

THE GOSPEL: Motivation is based on grateful joy.

RELIGION: I obey God in order to get things from God.

THE GOSPEL: I obey God to get to God-to delight and resemble Him.

RELIGION: When circumstances in my life go wrong, I am angry at God or my self, since I believe, like Job’s friends that anyone who is good deserves a comfortable life.

THE GOSPEL: When circumstances in my life go wrong, I struggle but I know all my punishment fell on Jesus and that while he may allow this for my training, he will exercise his Fatherly love within my trial.

RELIGION: When I am criticized I am furious or devastated because it is critical that I think of myself as a ‘good person’. Threats to that self-image must be destroyed at all costs.

THE GOSPEL: When I am criticized I struggle, but it is not critical for me to think of myself as a ‘good person.’ My identity is not built on my record or my performance but on God’s love for me in Christ. I can take criticism.

RELIGION: My prayer life consists largely of petition and it only heats up when I am in a time of need. My main purpose in prayer is control of the environment.

THE GOSPEL: My prayer life consists of generous stretches of praise and adoration. My main purpose is fellowship with Him.

RELIGION: My self-view swings between two poles. If and when I am living up to my standards, I feel confident, but then I am prone to be proud and unsympathetic to failing people. If and when I am not living up to standards, I feel insecure and inadequate. I’m not confident. I feel like a failure.

THE GOSPEL: My self-view is not based on a view of my self as a moral achiever. In Christ I am “simul iustus et peccator”—simultaneously sinful and yet accepted in Christ. I am so bad he had to die for me and I am so loved he was glad to die for me. This leads me to deeper and deeper humility and confidence at the same time. Neither swaggering nor sniveling.

RELIGION: My identity and self-worth are based mainly on how hard I work. Or how moral I am, and so I must look down on those I perceive as lazy or immoral. I disdain and feel superior to ‘the other.’

THE GOSPEL: My identity and self-worth are centered on the one who died for His enemies, who was excluded from the city for me. I am saved by sheer grace. So I can’t look down on those who believe or practice something different from me. Only by grace I am what I am. I’ve no inner need to win arguments.

RELIGION: Since I look to my own pedigree or performance for my spiritual acceptability, my heart manufactures idols. It may be my talents, my moral record, my personal discipline, my social status, etc. I absolutely have to have them so they serve as my main hope, meaning, happiness, security, and significance, whatever I may say I believe about God.

THE GOSPEL: I have many good things in my life—family, work, spiritual disciplines, etc. But none of these good things are ultimate things to me. None of them are things I absolutely have to have, so there is a limit to how much anxiety, bitterness, and despondency they can inflict on me when they are threatened and lost.

Beware Of The Religious Spirit

Matthew 9:9-13 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.

Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”

When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” (Matthew 9:9-13)

Brother and sisters do you know that you are sinner? As long as we are living in these sin craving bodies and on this sin infested earth we will be sinners. That is why we need Jesus every day. You are probably saying I know this Lisa, this is nothing new to me. But do you really know this? We must realize that although we have changed certain things in our lives and left addictions, habits, attitudes, or whatever vices behind none of us is without sin. None of us have arrived at place of perfection or are sinless. If we think we are standing strong, we must be careful not to fall. This is a dangerous place to be. (1 Corinthians 10:12)

In Matthew 9 the ‘religious’ people stood by and saw Jesus doing a work in disreputable sinners’ lives. He was spending time with them because they knew they were sinners and they needed Him. They didn’t deny who they were. Who they were and what they did made them realize that they needed the Savior more. Jesus called Matthew a known tax collector to be one of the disciples. Tax collectors were known for being greedy and taking more money than they were supposed to. Yet Jesus told Matthew to get up and leave the booth to follow Him.

The religious people were so caught up with their own sacrifices and rituals that they were not showing mercy to those that needed it most. Jesus told them, “I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices”. That same religious spirit exists today and we must beware of it. That spirit will try to creep into our hearts and make us think that we are so righteous and saved. It will bring a spirit of pride with it. Then the knowledge that we have about the Word will just make us feel important and religious, but it will not strengthen the church. Love is what strengthens. (1 Corinthians 8:1-3)

This spirit will cause us to look at other people and say, “I can’t believe they do this or that” or “I would never do that” or “They got what they deserved”.

Brothers and sisters..I pray that we have not become so ‘saved’ that we have allowed a religious and righteous spirit to creep in to our hearts. This will only push people away from receiving the Truth and we are in danger of falling and becoming one those that we criticize.

“Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18

When we see the Lord doing a work in disreputable sinners we should rejoice and ask the Lord how we can serve these individuals. We should not be behind their backs discussing their waywardness. Instead we should ask how can we help them. How can we build them up? How can we show them the love of Christ? This is what we are called to do. We are not to be like the religious Pharisees who thought themselves so great because they knew the Word. Brothers and sisters if we don’t truly love others we will gain nothing. Walk in love..