4. Religion in its entirety is not enough to be right with God. How is someone right with God? A person is right with God through contrite repentance in and through Christ alone form grace alone. We find how someone is right before God in the sacred pages of the Word of God. Spiritual salvation is all of free grace; free love; free compassion; free mercy and free choosing based on God's good pleasure alone. We cannot be right with God based on religion. In fact, no one is right with God based on religion. Religion has to do with the outward practices of men, but true religion has to deal with the heart. Heart issues focus upon sin and faith, repentance and contrition, focus and confidence in the Cross alone. I submit to you that it is the Cross alone and that means it is apart from human invention. The Cross is divine in origin; that is, it is from God, of God, through God and by God that the Cross happens. The God-man shed His innocent blood on the Cross at Calvary to redeem and ransom His beloved and blessed people. It is said that God will accept His people based on spiritual stuff (Bible reading, church attendance, etc). However, this is not the case, because God does not accept us based upon our personal performance. God accepts us based upon the sinless performance of Christ alone; however, that does not mean we ought to be negligent regarding the issues of personal meditation and responsibility. We can all kinds of spiritual stuff (which are not bad in and of themselves) but we can remain separate from our Redeemer and Creator. To be right with God is to have faith, but if ewe neglect faith is will still be faithful to us. However, we ought to strive to have faith in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. There will be people who boasted of miracles in Matthew 7, but they were not right with God. We must be right with God. We must repent of our sins because God through His dear Son commands us to repent. The scribes and Pharisees did not repent to the God of Jesus Christ. They performed outward deeds and seemed to be only concerned with fleshly employments. They thought they were right with God because they were highly religious, but this is not the way to be right with God. We ought to be right with God through His Son's dear Cross. They tested Jesus to see if He met their stipulations about religion, but Jesus was all of Incarnate Grace. That is, Jesus did not mix the Father's true religion with the false religions of the scribes and Pharisees. People of false religion make their own set of rules or standards. They wanted to test Jesus with a sign, but Jesus said that a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. However, He gave them no sign except His bodily resurrection in three days. Man-made religion is dependent upon the performance of miracles for salvation or for unbelievers to witness a miracle. True religion accepts what God has already provided in His written Word. True learners accept what God has already revealed in the Bible.
5. If we follow the story of the rich man and Lazarus, we can see the complete sufficiency of the Scriptures. Abraham responded to the rich man in hell that his five brothers had Moses and the prophets. That is, Moses and the prophets should be enough for him to see that there is true religion. However, the rich man did not think that the divine Word was enough but to send someone from the dead. Abraham said if they did not listen to the Scriptures they would not listen if someone came back from the dead. Many today reject biblical Christianity but there is evidence and proof of Jesus' bodily resurrection. People are blinded by their personal sin, but it does not take religion to release us from spiritual bondage. It takes the Spirit of God and the Word of God to release us from spiritual bondage by God's good pleasure. Jesus is the ever-wise God and He will be loved as such, but He would not give in to the demand of Satan for a miracle. False religion is spiritual prostitution. The religion of Jesus is spiritual freedom from sin through on-going repentance and faith. Jesus was not a circus-performer. That is, He would not give in to their demand for a miracle because it was sinful. Jesus is God Incarnate and He always does what is right. We must come to Jesus for spiritual help. He will deliver because He is able.
This blog web site is for the in-depth, sound and basic exegetical study of the Bible in Reformed apologetics; that is, I shall expound upon the inerrant and infallible Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. There shall be biblical studies in world religions and non-Christian cults. I also quote and research reformed writers and I am happy to study from them. May the Lord bless everyone who reads this blog with spiritual riches in Christ which is His imputed merit by faith alone.
