4 Things That Religion Can’t Do For
You

There is a major difference between religion and relationship. Christianity is not simply
morality or rules, but a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is a yielding of heart and
reorientation of life, not simply adding rules to your life.

This generation has been under a falsehood that impacts our hearts greatly. The falsehood is
that somehow by being a “good person” or “doing good things” equals Christianity or salvation.
This mindset impacts us and leaves us in a false complacency, a false confidence and selfrighteousness before the Lord. We see celebrities and others who are “good people” and we
think this is what God is looking for, as if morality is Christianity, or doing charitable deeds is
equal to a passionate commitment to Jesus.
My definition of religion:

An outward focus on being right with God while neglecting/ignoring the condition of the heart.

Our attempt to be right with God [salvation] outside a committed, loving dependency upon
Jesus Christ and His finished work

Rules without relationship, form without power
Religion is one of the greatest opponents of this generation.
1. Religion cannot bring lasting freedom to your life
A. Our weak attempts to live morally or do right things has no power to deliver us from sin,
darkness or our destructive habits and lifestyles.
B. Religion actually introduces a greater burden in our lives because it gives a standard that we
cannot live up to or measure up with, therefore it becomes oppressive rather than freeing.
a. Matthew 23:4-heavy burden
b. Romans 7 Paul gives insight into the struggle that occurs when we live by rules rather
than empowered by relationship and abiding with Holy Spirit
14
So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too
human, a slave to sin. 15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do
it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that
the law is good. 17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. 18 And I know
that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t.
want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.
20
19
I
But if I do
what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
21
I have
discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I
love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind.
This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
24
Oh, what a miserable person I am!
Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?
25
Thank God! The answer is in
Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because
of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. 1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to
Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from
the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the
weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body
like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by
giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be
fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. Romans 7:148:4
C. The issue that Paul is addressing is that humanity fell under the power of sin and darkness and
none of our good works, intentions or attempts to be a good person will deliver us from sin. It
is only through trusting in and committing our lives to Christ, who has overcome, that will bring
freedom and salvation.
D. Colossians 1:13-14 makes it clear that Jesus is the one who delivers us from the authority of
darkness, redeems us, forgives us and brings us to the Father. He alone can do this.
E. Paul says in Galatians 3:24 that our inability to “keep the rules” [obey the law of God] is
actually the avenue that exposes our need for a Savior. The law and our weakness is what
leads us to a saving relationship with Christ.
F. John 8 gives us insight into a confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders. He told
them that unless they receive His word they will not be free. They declared they were sons of
Abraham and have never been in bondage. Jesus identified the bondage of their life-sin.
[verse 34: whoever sins is a slave of sin] He told them that if the Son set them free they would
have true freedom [faith in Christ not in works or religious affiliation]
G. 2 Corinthians 3:17 says that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2. Religion cannot bring life
A. The Bible clearly teaches in Ephesians 2 that apart from Christ we are dead in sin, under the
authority of darkness, bound by sin and separate from God. Our only hope for life is Christ’s
offer of salvation.
B. The fruit of sin is death and our good deeds cannot bring life now or eternal life after we die.
C. The continual critique of the Pharisees by Jesus was they look beautiful on the outside, yet
inwardly they were dead and full of death. Their hearts were dead and bound by darkness.
This is essentially hypocrisy.
25
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so
careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and selfindulgence! 26 You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside
will become clean, too.
27
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like
whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all
sorts of impurity. 28 Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with
hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matthew 23:25-27
D. Revelation 3:1 Jesus warns the church of Sardis that they have a name that they are alive,
but they are dead on the inside.
E. What we have to understand is Jesus is not after the outward, but is looking to fill us with life
inwardly that will affect us outwardly. If we only possess a form of life, or a name that we are
Christians and yet lack the life of God in us, we are walking in hypocrisy.
F. Jesus said His words are life [John 6:63] abiding in a loving and trusting relationship is life
[John 15], knowing Him is life [John 17:3]
G. In John 5:39-40 Jesus told the religious leaders that they were searching out the scriptures
and the law, holding to each small detail yet they missed the entire point of the word of God- to
lead them to God not simply forming rituals and routines to abide by. Jesus said essentially,
“You are looking to do the law and hold to your traditions yet you will not come to the One who
wrote the law and is the Life giver.” There is no life in the law/word of God apart from an
abiding relationship with God.
H. 2 Corinthians 3:6 says the letter kills but the Spirit brings life.
3. Religion cannot bring truth
A. Religion poses as a form of truth but is a lie. Deception poses as truth but stands against and
hinders the advancement of truth. Jesus told the Pharisees, the most “righteous men” in their
day, that their hypocrisy kept people from entering into the kingdom of God [a true relationship
with God] [Matthew 23:13]
B. Paul warns us of the coming hardship of the last days and part of his warning is concerning
religion.
1
You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people
will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God,
disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving
and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is
good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather
than God. 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. [lovers
of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. NIV] Stay
away from people like that… always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
8
Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. 2 Timothy
3:1-8
C. Outward motions cannot change the human heart. Only the Holy Spirit can bring truth to our
hearts that liberates us.
D. Truth is a Man- Jesus said I am the Way, the Truth and the Life [John 14:6]. Truth is
something we must encounter and abide in, not simply our opinion, our denominational stance
etc.
E. Religion opposes truth like an immunization shot opposes the flu. It injects you with just
enough of the virus to not make you sick, but to build up resistance to the full virus. Religion
gives us formulas, rituals and traditions that make us “well” yet resistant to the Man of Truth,
the person of Christ who alone holds freedom, life and truth.
F. The Bible tells us of a time coming when there will be a great “falling away” where many will
depart from the faith and sound doctrine and follow deceiving spirits and destructive doctrines.
[1 Tim 4:1-2, 2 Thess 2, 2 Tim 4:1-5, Jude and many other passages] This occurs in part
because we continually embrace form without truth and it positions our hearts to be dead and
vulnerable to deception. We must possess truth in this hour to withstand the coming
pressures.
4. Religion cannot save you or bring eternal salvation
21
I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with
God, then there was no need for Christ to die. [He died for nothing] Galatians 2:21
A. Morality cannot save us, good works cannot save us, going to church cannot save us- if any of
these things could deliver us from the grip of sin and pay the debt we had before God, then
Jesus died for nothing.
B. Ephesians 2:1-10 lays out the need we had and the mercy of God in salvation
1
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you
followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work
in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of
our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
4
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when
we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with
Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming
ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ
Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is
the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in
Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
C. We are saved by God’s grace through faith and trust in what Christ has done for us. We have
nothing we can add that will bring salvation. What God desires is a heartfelt response to what
He has done for us leading to obedience and love, which will bear the fruit of good works and
transformation in our lives.
D. We should not make the same error the Pharisees in John 8 made. Their confidence of
salvation was based upon their heritage rather than Christ. So many in the church think that
because they were raised in the church or their family went to church, they are Christians.
This is an error. Christianity begins when we yield our lives fully to the Lordship of Christ and
surrender our hearts to Him.
E. Baptism, confirmation, communion and any other tradition of man does not bring salvation.
Christ alone is Savior and salvation is through Him alone.
What do we do then?
Story of rich young ruler: Mark 10:17-22
A. Jesus met a young man who was successful in life and had a desire for God. When the rich
young ruler came to Jesus and asked Him what he should do to have life, what did Jesus tell
him? He lacked one thing- a heart that was surrendered to God and loved God. The man had
followed the rules his whole life, yet his heart was consumed by other things. Jesus identified
the competition in his heart and said this is the one thing I want from you- pure love.
B. Jesus also identifies this in Matthew 22:34-40. Jesus is asked what the greatest
commandment of the law is. He answers them with a shocking statement. Loving God
entirely is what He is looking for. It is the first and great command of God
o
The first commandment in 10 commandments is have no other gods or make carven
images- the heart of this is a heart condition of love, not just physical statues and idols.
C. He is looking for us to abandon our futile attempts to “be good enough” and live status quo
Christianity and fully yield our lives to Him. He is looking for us to stop trying to justify
ourselves before God and trust in what He has done for us.
Religion leads to bondage, death, deception, and separated from God and eternal life. Jesus leads
us to freedom, life, truth and salvation.