Come, follow me,” Jesus said. Matt 4:19
“How does your religion get you to heaven?” It wasn’t the question that stunned me, it was the response. “Actually, my religion doesn’t get you to heaven.” What? The host presiding over the inter-faith dialogues asked him to explain. “Sure, I’ve just never seen a religion save anyone. All religions are great at laying out some basic rules – dos and don’ts – that are good for our lives, but they don’t really provide hope or any kind of eternal security. It seems religions end up causing more trouble than solving any.” Wait – I thought this dude was a Christian! What was he saying?! “So then, how do you get to heaven?” the host asked him confused. “Well, it’s Jesus. He didn’t start a new religion; he came to provide us a model for life and a way to God. Believing in him and following him is the way. He takes us to heaven, not a religion.”
The word “religion” comes from a word that means “to tie up, to bind,” in the sense of obligation. Many people don’t want to become a Christian because they think Christianity is a religion. They are not looking to become burdened or tied up under a bunch of rules – they want to be free. But being part of the Christian religion and following Jesus are not one in the same.
Religion lays heavy burdens on the backs of men, under which they struggle. To the religious leaders of His day Jesus said, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them” (Luke 11:45-47). Jesus didn’t come to start a new religion and lay more heavy burdens on the backs of men; he came to show us a new way entirely – believing in and following Him.
As Christians, we often forget that we are following a person, not a religious system. What’s the difference? Where religion lays heavy burdens on the backs of men, Jesus promised, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt 11:28-30). I know what some of you are asking - what the heck is a yoke? Well, a “yoke” was a bonding to in the sense of servitude. So Jesus was contrasting the difference between following the Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious leaders of his day, and following Him.
The yoke of religion is heavy to bear. But following Jesus is different – the yoke He lays upon us as followers is light and easy to bear. In fact, in following Him we find rest for our souls. As followers of Christ, we do not preach how man can save himself through his religion – we preach Christ crucified (1 Cor 1:18) – because He is the one who saves us through His death and resurrection. Religion binds up; Jesus frees. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1).
When I was trying to be “religious,” I was not so much concerned with listening to others as I was with arguing them about how my religion was right and their’s was wrong (yeah, I’m sure that’s exactly what Jesus envisioned for his followers). When the tables were turned, I became defensive, as if I had something to prove. I didn’t care about trying to see where the other person was coming from; I only cared about winning the argument and proving I was right. My “knowledge” of the truth puffed me up, and I wasn’t really that concerned for the person right in front of me (1 Cor 8:1). My main agenda was winning converts to my religion, which I would have said was Christianity.
So in summary - I was argumentative, defensive, and puffed up. Doesn’t that just paint a beautiful picture of the Jesus and make you want to become a Christian? No! All it did was take the focus off of Christ and his work on the cross! Jesus would have said of me what he said of the religious leaders of His day, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40). Could it be that I had confused my religion with my Savior?
So what should we say of all this? That since Christ has freed us from the yoke of slavery to a religious system that we are free to do whatever we want even if it is sin? By no means! “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh (or sinful desires); rather, serve one another humbly in love…” (Gal 5:13).
We can’t follow Jesus and follow our sinful desires - it would be like trying to move in two different directions at the same time. In following Jesus, we are not free to do whatever we want and abuse grace. Sound like you’d be freer not following Jesus? The reality is you are not more free when you follow sin.
In obeying and following our sinful desires, we end up in servitude to them - obeying those desires even though it’s destroying us and hurting those around us. So we don’t have control over our desires – they control us, they become our masters. It may not be bondage to a religion, but it’s still bondage.
As Paul put it, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Rom 6:15-16). When you are in servitude to Christ, you are under a gentle and humble Master, one who wants to give you life and freedom.
For, “when you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:21-23).
