The Trap of Religion

Graveyard, symbol of the spirit of religion's goal

The trap of religion is easily sprung on servants of Christ. It promises more. More mysteries, more sufferings to prove you are worthy, and more self righteousness and platform to punish people with. Religion often gets its webs and coils around Christians because it looks so similar. It's caricature christ wears a similar crown of thorns and promises that you will be good enough this time to prove yoru holiness to the Holy Trinity, when in truth you already are holy, "And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." (Hebrews 10:10). Jesus told us there would be other christs to deceive even the elect, one of them is found in Church, it looks and dresses like the True Christ, but the false christs demands where Christ develops, the false Christ crushes where Christ shows compassion, and the false christ creates another gospel (2 Corinthians 11:3-4) and leads people away from pure devotion to Christ, "I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ." (2 Corinthians 11:3). The false christ wants us to believe we can do something more, be holier, and prove ourselves worthy of forgiveness and God's love, when it is already freely given, "By grace you are saved, not by works lest you should boast" (Ephesians 2:4-6), "Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit," (1 Peter 3:18),
"When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God," (Romans 6:10), "He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west," (Psalm 103:12), "so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him," (Hebrews 9:28), "So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most," (Hebrews 4:16), "We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are," (Romans 3:22), "But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do," (1 Corinthinas 8:8), "But now He has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence," (Colossians 1:22), and "For God's will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time." (Hebrews 10:10). Spirits of religion and false christs want us to wander from the cross, from when Jesus paid it all and says, "It is Finished" (John 19:30) and lead us into shadowlands of self made religion, "These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." (Colossians 2:23 ESV). It is in there, down in that valley of virtue that we find ourselves overwhelmed by the fact that we are weak vessals (2 Corinthians 12:9) and that only Christ Alone can save us and make us holy (John 4:10, Acts 15:11,  1 Peter 1:5, Ephesians 2;8, Romans 3:24, Romans 9:15).

Our enemy the devil spares no expense and time in trying to convince us God is an angry God, when in truth God is a loving God (1 John 4:8) and His anger lasts only a moment (Psalm 30:5). But as it is written, "Where is another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people? You will not stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing unfailing love." (Micah 7:18). There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve our witness to people, overcome addictions, and sinful habits, but the folly is to believe we can achieve this through asceticism, monasticism, rituals, and self help books. The truth is we need the loving relationship of Jesus Christ to lead us from love to love, which leads to fuifilling all commandments and edicts (Matthew 22:40-41). Our focus should not be self improvement, it should be on our Savior Jesus. The moment we take our eyes off of Him we sink like Peter (Matthew 14:22-33) and this is why author of Hebrews tells us, "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2). Self made religion and man made ideas (Mark 7:7, Colossians 2:23) are to ensnare you and put heavy yokes and burdens on you (Matthew 23), when Jesus said, "Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light." (Matthew 11:28-30). God has standards, but they are soaked in His blood and love, and so we can come "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need," (Hebrews 4:16) and, "But now He has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence," (Colossians 1:22). Religion and spirit thereof creates a separation that sin initially held between us and God, but has since been torn (Matthew 27:51) and so we must be bold in our defiance to the demons that want us to be slaves to Law again, "For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." (Galatians 3:10), and "Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. I'll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace. But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love." (Galatians 5:2-6).


Preachers who cry out for holiness are always popular, John the Baptist was popular in his quest for repentence, but Jesus who broke the man made laws of religion by doing things on Sabbath, "Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath," (John 9:14), "Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand.  Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” Then he turned to his critics and asked, “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” But they wouldn’t answer him. He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! At once the Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus," (Mark 3:1-16), and "At about that time Jesus was walking through some grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, so they began breaking off some heads of grain and eating them. But some Pharisees saw them do it and protested, “Look, your disciples are breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath.  Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God, and he and his companions broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. And haven’t you read in the law of Moses that the priests on duty in the Temple may work on the Sabbath? I tell you, there is one here who is even greater than the Temple! But you would not have condemned my innocent disciples if you knew the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’For the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!” (Matthew 12:1-8). John Baptist was not hated by Pharisees and teachers of religious law, but Jesus Christ our God was. Because Jesus revealed, "I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent." (Luke 5:32). Obviously we don't stay sinners (Romans 6:1-15), but the point is that religion can make you Pharisee and hardend to the work of God, and God Himself. The Pharisees ultimately killed Jesus, though He rose again (John 20), but the spirit of religion is clear, it wants to kill Christ and did so, but thankfully Jesus rose again. We must beware of trap of religion, in it are rotten seeds that will dry your spirit out and make you an enemy of the cross (Philippians 3:18), enemy of God (James 4:4), and enemy of the work Jesus is doing today. Take heed my brothers and sisters, "There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death." (Proverbs 14:12). Instead, seek the wisdom of Jesus Christ, The Father, and Holy Spirit, studying the Holy Bible and move in Spirit. Do not let religion, the spirit thereof blind you as it did the Pharisees, for those religious leaders of Jesus' day we sons of Satan (John 8:44-45),  sons of hell (Matthew 23:15), and going to burn in hell with Satan (Matthew 25:41). Do not imitate them, but rather immerse yourself in Immanuel's love and let Him lead you towards His will for today and each day.

Finally, here is a great passage on not falling for the spirit of religion's trap,
"I hope you will put up with a little more of my foolishness. Please bear with me. For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one husband—Christ. But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent.
You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed. But I don’t consider myself inferior in any way to these “super apostles” who teach such things.
I may be unskilled as a speaker, but I’m not lacking in knowledge. We have made this clear to you in every possible way.  Was I wrong when I humbled myself and honored you by preaching God’s Good News to you without expecting anything in return? I “robbed” other churches by accepting their contributions so I could serve you at no cost. And when I was with you and didn’t have enough to live on, I did not become a financial burden to anyone. For the brothers who came from Macedonia brought me all that I needed. I have never been a burden to you, and I never will be. As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, no one in all of Greece will ever stop me from boasting about this.
Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows that I do. But I will continue doing what I have always done. This will undercut those who are looking for an opportunity to boast that their work is just like ours. These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve." (2 Corinthians 11:1-15).