Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 111 ｜ Religion or Relationship

00:00:00.000 Hello, relatable listeners. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Happy Monday. Today is

00:00:05.960 Theology Monday as it is every Monday. Today, we are going to talk about a question I received

00:00:12.100 about Christianity being a religion or a relationship. So we are going to dive into

00:00:18.140 that. I've got a killer alliteration for you guys at the end that's going to sum it all up and

00:00:23.380 explain really the core of my argument. You guys know that I love alliterations to explain things.

00:00:28.920 They make me really excited. Also, what was I going to say? Oh, yeah. So I am, as I've told you guys

00:00:37.220 many times, I am filming stuff for this summer right now so that you guys have plenty of content

00:00:41.980 to listen to while I am gone for the few weeks. So my husband and I can just focus on each other

00:00:47.580 and our daughter and really enjoying that time together. I, of course, am going to miss you guys,

00:00:52.520 but not as much as I'm going to enjoy just kind of being with our family and chilling out. And I

00:00:58.560 I don't even have to really say anything about that because I know you guys are excited for me.

00:01:02.900 And I know you guys, if I wasn't resting and taking that time, you guys would be concerned

00:01:07.940 and you would be messaging me on Instagram being like, um, why are you still working? So just know

00:01:13.640 when those episodes come out, they're not live. They are being recorded currently. Also, a lot of the

00:01:20.300 questions that you guys are asking me or suggesting for podcasts that I do now. So some of you guys have

00:01:25.980 been asking me, um, okay, can you talk about why you're a Calvinist? Can you talk about the

00:01:30.560 points of Calvinism? Can you talk, um, about women in the church? Can you talk about Christians and

00:01:35.580 politics? All of these awesome evergreen topics that you guys are suggesting are topics that I've

00:01:41.000 already planned to cover this summer. And I don't say that to be like, stop asking. I'm just saying

00:01:45.560 that as we're on the same page and I'm really excited for the content that you guys are going to get

00:01:50.580 because these big questions, I wanted to take a little bit of time to really tackle them and get into

00:01:55.280 them. And I hope they're going to be productive and, uh, good for you guys and answer a lot of

00:02:00.060 the questions that you have. They're big subjects. I'm really only able to like scratch the surface

00:02:04.200 in these kind of 30 minute episodes, but hopefully these thoughts will be percolating in your head.

00:02:08.380 And by the time the summer is over, I'll be back and we can talk about, um, all the questions that

00:02:13.220 you guys have. So anyway, just wanted to give you an update on that. I'm a little over 33 weeks,

00:02:20.320 which is really exciting. Um, so we're almost there. We're trucking. We're trucking. Okay. Let's

00:02:26.620 get into today's Monday's theologies podcast. I don't know why I said it like that. It just kind

00:02:33.780 of came out. Okay. Uh, so we often hear from people that Christianity is a relationship, that

00:02:40.040 it's not a religion. Uh, we also hear that the term religion is really bad, that it is, uh, we, uh,

00:02:46.340 hear it kind of scoffed at that. We shouldn't be saying that Christianity is a religion at

00:02:50.860 all, uh, that Jesus hated religion. And the reason why the Pharisees we hear were considered

00:02:56.020 wrong and evil was because they were religious. So the question is, is this true? Is religion 0.99

00:03:01.100 really this bad taboo word that Christians shouldn't use? Is Christianity a religion? Is

00:03:06.680 it a relationship? Is it both? Is it neither? Is it possible to be both? Are they mutually exclusive?

00:03:12.780 So first let us define our terms. What is religion? So religion in a general sense is the belief in

00:03:21.020 and worship of a superhuman controlling power, uh, especially a personal God or gods. Uh, so that is

00:03:28.940 the technical definition of what a religion is. I didn't come up with that definition. It's the

00:03:33.260 technical definition. A religion usually involves, uh, rites and rituals has some kind of set of

00:03:39.260 principles or a transcendent idea or some kind of being to follow. Religion has requirements of some

00:03:45.740 sort, or at least some kind of outline or group of suggestions. Um, it's the system by which people

00:03:52.600 orient themselves or a system by which people orient themselves to each other, to the world around them,

00:03:58.120 to themselves. And often, most often to some kind of figure or object or person of affection

00:04:03.800 or adoration. Um, and I say often in that last sentence, uh, because sometimes it's an object

00:04:09.700 that is being worshiped, but sometimes it's more of kind of like a concept, this ethereal energy,

00:04:15.420 this kind of intangible thing, um, like Eastern religions, such as Buddhism or Hinduism focus on

00:04:22.300 really concentrating on the metaphysical world. Uh, and I want to take a little detour for a second

00:04:30.360 away from the main point of this particular podcast, religion versus relationship, or whether

00:04:34.980 it's both, uh, I want to take a little detour and, uh, cut, and then we're going to use this detour to

00:04:40.600 come back to the religion versus relationship question. But I just want to make a note on the

00:04:45.580 Eastern mysticism that I just kind of explained. So this focusing or concentrating on this higher

00:04:51.440 energy or this metaphysical world that we are supposed to tap into. I want to take a detour because I

00:04:58.200 think it's important to point out that that concept has become popularized in the mainstream

00:05:03.500 culture in America, as well as in some portions of mainstream Christianity in America. You'll hear

00:05:10.240 people, Christians, non-Christians talk about good energy or energies and vibes and focusing on this 0.82

00:05:17.120 inner self to really be reborn or renewed. And they might not use that terminology, but if you watch a lot

00:05:24.000 of the Ted talks, if you watch some of the people that have specials right now on Netflix, they will

00:05:29.000 use these ideas of being reborn or renewed, um, by unlocking or unleashing something inside of you.

00:05:37.040 A lot of this self-love stuff that we talk about so much on this podcast, uh, what is really a lot of

00:05:43.640 self worship has its roots. Some of its roots in Eastern mysticism, uh, that your inner self has some

00:05:51.240 kind of untapped power that can be relinquished through the repetition of certain phrases or

00:05:56.780 rituals. And we've kind of Americanized a lot of it. We call it positive self-talk or we call it

00:06:02.860 self-affirmation. We call it these kinds of routines that put us in the right mindset. But a lot of it,

00:06:09.100 if we're very honest, is just superstitious. It's not pragmatic or logical at all. It's like the idea

00:06:15.380 that you have some kind of magic, uh, box inside of you. And if you want to, uh, open it, if you want

00:06:24.160 to unlock it, uh, you just chant the right way, or you say the magic word, uh, or you look yourself

00:06:30.380 in the mirror and you just tell yourself that you're greater or whatever the magic word is,

00:06:35.400 it'll open up. And, and all of a sudden you'll be confident and you'll be free and you'll be

00:06:39.840 successful. You'll be everything that you were supposed to be. And your potential will just

00:06:44.160 go crazy and you'll accomplish all of your dreams. But I just want to be honest with you guys as

00:06:49.000 attractive as that is, because it puts the control into our hands and makes us feel like we can do

00:06:54.960 something to really, um, to be who we really are and to find out our true authentic self.

00:07:02.980 I'll just be honest with you guys. That's not Christianity. You are not going to find support

00:07:07.640 of that in the Bible. You're just not, you want to know what's inside each of us. According to the

00:07:12.820 Bible, it's depravity, uh, a wicked and wretched heart. That's what's inside each of us. It is, 1.00

00:07:19.260 uh, a wayward, a wayward heart that is meant to be made right by Jesus. It is a lost soul,

00:07:26.500 dead and decayed by sin, uh, that can only be alive, made alive by Christ. So that's what we see when we

00:07:34.640 look inside us, according to scripture, not some magic box that is going to be unlocked. If you say the

00:07:40.400 right things and do the right things every morning. Now that's not to say that there's not a place for

00:07:46.260 discipline, that there's not a place for positivity. And we will get to what that means in just a

00:07:50.700 second. And it's also not to say that Christians need to be self-loathing, that we need to be

00:07:55.320 self-deprecating. That's not to say that we dwell on bad things and how bad we are all the time.

00:08:00.300 If you are in Christ, the reality is your identity isn't that you, uh, have something inside that needs

00:08:06.720 to be unlocked by doing the things that, um, I almost said someone's name doing the things that

00:08:13.320 a certain motivational speaker tell you, tells you to do, uh, your identity. If you are in Christ is a

00:08:19.280 new creation. The old has passed. The new has come. The Bible says. So when we, uh, are Christians,

00:08:26.480 we should look inside ourselves and see Jesus who is righteousness, who is holiness, who is everlasting

00:08:33.540 peace and goodness. This is what gives us so much confidence. Uh, Romans eight says that we are more

00:08:40.220 than conquerors through him who loved us, loves us, that nothing can separate us who are believers from

00:08:45.980 the love of Christ. Nothing, no power in the entire physical or spiritual universe can separate us from

00:08:51.820 Jesus. That is where our confidence lies. So if you want positive vibes, if you want a ritual to unlock

00:08:58.680 that inner potential, praise God for the gospel, uh, for the good news that saved you for the

00:09:04.780 unrelenting mercy of the Lord, uh, that manifested itself in his son, Jesus Christ. Uh, and because

00:09:10.920 of that, because of that gospel, you have purpose because of that you are useful. Uh, because of that,

00:09:17.980 you are a part of the greatest story ever told, which is the story of redemption of mankind through

00:09:21.680 Christ. Uh, first Corinthians three, nine says that those who are in Christ are God's fellow workers.

00:09:26.940 First Corinthians 12, 27 says, now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

00:09:33.520 Galatians three, 29 says you are heirs. According to promise. Ephesians two, 19 says you are fellow

00:09:38.760 citizens with the saints and the members of the household of God. So God has chosen you. God has

00:09:44.240 called you beloved has elected you. If you are a believer to be a part of his kingdom, not because

00:09:49.340 you are good, but because he is good. And the fact that his choosing of us has nothing to do with us

00:09:54.580 in our merit, in our goodness, in our deservedness whatsoever, uh, points to the fact that God of

00:10:02.840 the God of the universe has got us. Uh, Ephesians three, 12 says we have quote boldness and access with

00:10:10.680 confidence through our faith in Christ. Uh, we have access in Christ to the God of the universe. Uh,

00:10:17.180 think about in the old Testament, what it took for Israel to have access to God. Only the high 0.79

00:10:21.240 priest could enter the Holy of Holies after a series of sacrifice and, and rituals of making

00:10:26.320 himself clean. But in the new Testament, Jesus became our high priest, not just for the Jews,

00:10:31.660 but for the Gentiles also, and gave us all access through him, making us who by grace have put our

00:10:37.340 faith in him clean and acceptable before God. That gives us confidence. That is where our confidence

00:10:42.880 comes from. So the gospel of Christ is much better than any fleeting good feeling or good energy or,

00:10:50.660 or Zen or self-care routine or self-love mantra. Uh, it's better than any good feeling that any of

00:10:57.500 those things can give you. These things are pagan in origin. Now that does not mean that we don't

00:11:03.000 steward our time and our bodies. Well, that doesn't mean that we don't rest as God calls us to rest.

00:11:08.400 That doesn't mean that we beat down on ourselves. Uh, that doesn't mean, uh, that we are, like I said,

00:11:14.760 self-deprecating. It means that we derive our confidence, our joy, our, our satisfaction, uh,

00:11:20.700 from the one true God and what he has done for us, not from ourselves or any kind of superstitious,

00:11:26.780 superstitious, uh, rituals or mantras. Uh, we have unique personalities. Yes, we have unique

00:11:34.320 strengths and all of that is wonderful. God made us that way. He rejoiced in making us that way and

00:11:40.120 knitting us together as Psalm 139 says in our mother's womb, we are all beautifully and wonderfully

00:11:46.400 made. And all of these unique things about us make us a unique member of the body of Christ.

00:11:52.600 And they are not recognized to puff ourselves up and to tell us how great we are and to tell us how

00:11:59.740 different we are, but to contribute to the unity of the body of Christ and building up of the body of

00:12:04.780 Christ, the needs of the saints, uh, as, as the Bible says for the glory of God, not for our own

00:12:10.900 glory. And Philippians 4, 8 also tells us, uh, how our minds are supposed to operate, how the renewed

00:12:18.460 mind operates, the things that we dwell on. It's not more self-talk. It is this, whatever is true,

00:12:24.660 whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable.

00:12:30.300 If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

00:12:37.700 So this is what gives us assurance. This is what gives us confidence. So don't buy into the lie that

00:12:44.860 there is some kind of good meshing or melding of mysticism, which is essentially focused on yourself

00:12:54.300 and Christianity of the Bible, which is focused on denying yourself and making God and glorifying God 0.65

00:13:02.880 in everything that we do. So don't make that mistake. You're going to see it a lot. Um,

00:13:08.980 and we've talked about this in one form of the other and talking about the lie that you are enough

00:13:13.080 talking about the lie that you just got to love yourself more before you can love other people.

00:13:17.980 Uh, we've talked about these lies in the past. You can look at, I can't even list all of the past

00:13:23.000 episodes in which we've talked about these lies and said what the Bible has to say about them.

00:13:27.180 And there's a lot of people that push back really hard and I get emails and comments and people say,

00:13:32.880 no, all of this stuff is biblical. Uh, you know, God wants to, wants us to take care of ourselves and

00:13:39.060 all this stuff. And I think I've made enough caveats for you to realize that I'm not saying

00:13:43.020 that we should just let ourselves go in the sense that we shouldn't care about, uh, we shouldn't

00:13:49.020 care about anything at all. I've already said, we should steward our time and our bodies and

00:13:54.280 everything that we have. Well, we should rest according to the will of God. We should do all

00:13:59.360 of these things. But at the end of the day, it is God who takes care of us. It is God that we worship.

00:14:03.540 It is God that gives us our confidence and our contentment and our satisfaction, not ourselves.

00:14:09.140 That's the point. Um, so all of this really transitions well off of our detour away from mysticism,

00:14:16.720 back onto our main road of religion versus relationship. Uh, Christianity is by technical

00:14:23.320 definition. Yes, it is a religion. Of course, James says that pure religion is taking care of

00:14:28.860 the widows and the orphans. And so it's not in and of itself, this horrible, dirty word is technically

00:14:34.760 a religion, but it is not. Here's the distinction. And I think this is what people are trying to say

00:14:40.640 when they say Christianity is not a religion. Um, I think this is what they're trying to say.

00:14:45.600 Okay. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. It is not a religion like other religions. It is like 0.90

00:14:50.940 no other religion. What it offers is so much bigger, so much better, so much, uh, so much

00:14:56.980 different than what any other religion can give you. And in our detour, I actually outlined why, 0.97

00:15:02.760 but here are the distinctions between the Christian religion and all other religions.

00:15:07.700 So are you ready for my alliteration? I know I said it was at the end. This is kind of halfway.

00:15:11.880 Okay. Get excited. I love alliterations. The Christian religion, unlike any other religion, 0.82

00:15:18.220 is one of reality, reconciliation, and yes, relationship. I, there's actually a lot of

00:15:24.640 other RE words that I could just keep going with. I could like construct probably a whole paragraph

00:15:30.300 because when you think about it, there are a lot of words that start with RE, like, uh, renewal,

00:15:36.460 like regenerate, all of these things that have to do with Christianity. Okay. I'm not even going to,

00:15:40.460 I'm not even going to get into all of that of why I picked these words, but here we go.

00:15:43.700 Reality, reconciliation, and yes, relationship. All of these things define the Christian religion

00:15:49.600 and what makes it distinct and regenerative. Uh, okay. So number one, uh, first the Christian 1.00

00:15:56.860 religion is real. So first was reality. First, the Christian religion is real. So I'm speaking to 0.54

00:16:03.580 Christians here. So I think I'm okay in using the Bible as the basis for what is real and what is not. 1.00

00:16:09.920 I understand people who are not Christians are like, well, why are you going to the, 0.55

00:16:13.560 that's just circular, that's just circular reasoning. Why are you going to the Bible to

00:16:17.300 say that Christianity is real? I don't believe in the Bible, but as Christians, we believe that

00:16:20.940 the Bible is our ultimate and inerrant source of truth and wisdom. And the Bible says that the God 0.78

00:16:25.700 of the Bible is the only God that exists. And he is self-sustaining that he created everything,

00:16:30.900 that his rule is absolutely sovereign and that nothing, nothing escapes his control.

00:16:36.740 And so I am speaking specifically to Christians who have bought into this crazy lie that they think 1.00

00:16:43.000 somehow the Bible has justified relativism. There's another R E word has justified our, 1.00

00:16:49.120 or kind of condones the existence or legitimacy of other religions as well, as long as we just love

00:16:55.340 each other and are really nice. But the Bible doesn't give us that option at all. Uh, it's very clear.

00:17:00.860 If we go all the way back to Exodus, we could probably go back even further than that. But I think

00:17:05.480 this is a good first example. Exodus 3, 14, when God is speaking to Moses, I am who I am, he says. And he

00:17:12.660 said, say this to the people of Israel. I am has sent me to you. That's it. I'm self-sustaining. I'm

00:17:18.960 self-existent. I was here for all of eternity. I am here for all of eternity. I am suspended in the

00:17:26.780 eternal. Now I am. A second example, Isaiah 46, 9 through 11, for I am God, and there is no other.

00:17:35.200 I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times,

00:17:40.180 things not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,

00:17:46.880 calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken,

00:17:52.880 and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed, and I will do it. That is the power and the authority

00:17:59.420 and the absolute sovereignty of God right there. He is the only one. He is the only true God. There

00:18:06.200 is no other, and there is no one even like him. Not even any God, little g, that people come up with

00:18:12.340 in their own minds. That's what every God is besides the God of the Bible, the God that we just read

00:18:17.540 about in Isaiah. It's a God, little g, constructed from man's minds. No God that has even been

00:18:23.040 constructed by man's minds is even like God, he's saying. Also, the other thing here is the other

00:18:31.400 example. Sorry, I had a hard time speaking for a second. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity,

00:18:37.000 God made flesh, sitting at the right hand of the Father, the judge of the living and the dead,

00:18:40.920 says this in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father

00:18:46.520 except through me. Then about this Jesus, in Colossians 1, God through Paul says,

00:18:52.600 he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created

00:18:58.280 in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities,

00:19:05.820 all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things

00:19:12.180 hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the first

00:19:16.500 born from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him, all the fullness of God

00:19:23.160 was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in

00:19:29.960 heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. So we even got reconciliation thrown in there,

00:19:35.740 which is going to be our next point. But this is talking about the reality of God and the exclusivity

00:19:41.740 of the God of the Bible. So again, I understand if you are not a believer, you're saying, well,

00:19:48.400 this isn't sufficient evidence for me. Well, my prayer is that the eyes of your heart would be

00:19:53.160 enlightened so that you can understand and see the hope to which you've been called. But even more so

00:19:58.760 to those who identify as Christians who have bought into the lie of relativism about the equal

00:20:05.440 legitimacy of a variety of faiths, the Bible, I want to reiterate, just doesn't give us that option.

00:20:11.840 They're not all the same God. They are not even similar gods. There is one God according to our

00:20:17.220 only source of truth, which is his own word. Second, Christianity offers reconciliation in a way

00:20:24.940 that other religions do not. So second is reconciliation. I've said this before, every religion tells you how

00:20:31.540 to get to God. So if God is up on this mountaintop, every other religion says, here's how you get to

00:20:37.460 him. Here are the steps that you need to take to climb up the mountain. Good luck. If you don't take

00:20:42.020 these steps and you don't get there, well, then that's sad for you. I'm really sorry, but this is

00:20:49.200 what you have to do. These are the rules that you have to follow. This is how you have to clean yourself

00:20:52.640 up. This is how you have to earn your way to God. Climb your way to the top of the mountain.

00:20:57.960 Christianity is different than that. Christianity says, actually, no, you are down in the valley,

00:21:05.520 completely dead in your sin, completely incapable of pleasing God on your own. So God says, I am

00:21:11.540 going to come down the mountain to you. I am going to get off my throne, come down the mountain in the

00:21:16.860 form of Jesus Christ, who is going to make you alive in him and new and now eternally pleasing and

00:21:21.700 acceptable to me through this thing called reconciliation. So reconciliation in theological

00:21:29.280 terms means exactly what, of course, in a much bigger way, but means exactly what it means in

00:21:35.160 non-theological terms. So if you have a rift with a friend, if you're estranged from a family member,

00:21:39.600 if you're at war with an enemy, if you're at odds with anyone, and then you make peace with them,

00:21:45.700 you become no longer enemies and you come together, you make an agreement to no longer be at odds with

00:21:49.740 them. You are reconciling to them. It's not just to agree to disagree, but it is by definition to

00:21:55.980 restore friendly relations with or be in harmony to make consistent with the other. That is the

00:22:03.420 definition of the dictionary gives us of reconciliation. So the Bible says that we are

00:22:07.480 without Christ enemies of God. So there is no in between. If you're without Christ, it's not like

00:22:12.000 some of you are just, where some of us are just good people apart from Christ and God like kind of

00:22:17.120 still has some affection for us. And we're like on good terms with God, like even apart from Christ,

00:22:22.480 that's not the option that the Bible actually gives us. The option that the Bible gives us is

00:22:26.940 that either you are in Christ and friends with God, or you are not of Christ and you are enemies of

00:22:31.320 God and completely dead in your sin. So if you can imagine reconciliation with an enemy that still

00:22:37.360 hates you, that is still warring against you, that has no interest in making peace with you

00:22:43.100 whatsoever. And then you offering peace to them and reconciling with them. That is what happened

00:22:51.600 when God reconciled himself to us through Christ. Romans 5, 10 through 11 says,

00:22:58.840 for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that

00:23:04.100 we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life? More than that, we also rejoice in God through our

00:23:10.580 Lord Jesus Christ through whom we now have received reconciliation. So God by grace, Ephesians 2 says,

00:23:17.200 offered Jesus as a sacrifice to reconcile us while we were yet enemies to himself. Can you imagine,

00:23:25.260 can you imagine doing that yourself? Can you imagine extending reconciliation, dying for reconciliation,

00:23:32.520 sacrificing something like that in reconciliation to someone who hates you and wants nothing to do

00:23:38.180 with you and has shown you no signs of wanting peace or repentance? That's who we were. And Christ and

00:23:44.340 God still sent his only son to die for us. He didn't have to. He had every right to say, you are my enemies

00:23:52.060 now and forever. But in his mercy, while we were yet sinners, the Bible says Christ died for us,

00:23:58.440 making reconciliation between a perfect and holy God and an imperfect and unholy and an unwilling

00:24:05.340 people. He offers peace and unity with him in spite of just how wretched we are and how little we deserve

00:24:13.580 his love. No other religion offers that. No other religion offers that. No other religion says that

00:24:19.300 you can do nothing to please God. You are hostile to God. You are enemies of God. You are unrighteous.

00:24:26.000 You are depraved. You deserve only God's wrath. And instead of requiring sacrifice from us, 1.00

00:24:31.560 this God instead loves us so much that he sends his only son to die for us, to pay our debt,

00:24:39.740 to wipe our slate clean, to declare us forgiven, and then to adopt us through his son as sons and

00:24:45.600 daughters. We become his heirs. We become his co-laborers. We get adopted into his family. We become

00:24:52.400 citizens of God's kingdom. He is now our father and our king, and we will live in eternity with him.

00:24:58.620 Why? Not because we are good, but because God is unbelievably good. He is so good that we can't even

00:25:06.400 just, we can't even fathom how good he is and how much he loves us. We don't, we don't even know.

00:25:11.040 Our finite minds really cannot wrap around that. No other faith gives us this kind of reconciliation

00:25:19.980 to a perfect God that is not our own doing, as Ephesians says, but it is a free gift of God.

00:25:26.700 No one offers grace like the God of the Bible. No one offers redemption and reconciliation like the

00:25:33.620 great I am. So the second point, the second reason why Christianity is different is because of

00:25:40.940 reconciliation. And the third distinction in Christianity is that it offers, yes, relationship.

00:25:48.760 Now, this does not mean that Christianity is not a religion, but that in this religion,

00:25:54.900 the only true religion, the only religion based on reality, the only religion that offers free

00:26:00.480 reconciliation is also the only religion that offers a full relationship with the God of the

00:26:05.680 universe. Why is it the only religion that offers this? Because it is the only religion that takes

00:26:10.860 Jesus, the son of God at his word, that he is the only way, the only truth, the only life,

00:26:14.880 and that no one comes to the father except through him. But in Christ, we have access to the father.

00:26:20.240 We are children of the father. We are co-workers with the father. We have a relationship with the

00:26:26.440 father because of Christ. The most important commandment Jesus tells us is this, love the Lord

00:26:32.220 your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength. John 16, 27, Jesus says,

00:26:38.460 for the father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

00:26:43.920 There's love between God the father and his children. This is not just some ritualistic religion

00:26:49.400 in which we make sacrifices in the hopes that God isn't going to smite us. But by his grace,

00:26:55.080 through Jesus Christ, we have a very genuine, a very real, a very trusting and trustworthy, loving,

00:27:00.900 intimate relationship with the King of Kings. And that's a miracle. That's amazing. He cares for us.

00:27:06.360 He knows our needs. Jesus says in Matthew that we shouldn't worry about what we're going to wear or

00:27:11.500 what we're going to eat because our father already knows that we need all of these things.

00:27:15.080 He has all the hairs on our head already numbered. He closed the lilies of the field,

00:27:20.700 Jesus says. And how much more valuable are we to him than they? And that's a rhetorical question.

00:27:26.760 Jesus knows the answer. It's a lot more valuable. Matthew 6, 30. But if God so clothes the grass of

00:27:33.320 the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you,

00:27:39.680 O you of little faith? So this is a relationship. It's a beautiful, loving, gracious, kind relationship.

00:27:48.300 A relationship that depends on his faithfulness, not on ours. Now, often people ascribe the worldly

00:27:55.580 definition. Here's the whole kicker. Here's how we're going to end. This is important. I feel like

00:28:01.080 this summarizes everything that we just said, or finally maybe gets to the point. Often people

00:28:07.480 ascribe the worldly definition of relationship to our relationship with God. They use that as an

00:28:15.520 excuse not to regard God as holy and powerful. This is a symptom, I think, of what we kind of talked

00:28:23.860 about last Monday on the episode that I titled Messy or Unholy when we talked about the danger of

00:28:30.880 this so-called messy Christianity that glorifies sin and rebellion in the name of relatability. So in the 0.91

00:28:37.120 name of also vulnerability and authenticity, people abandon reverence and fear of God saying,

00:28:43.680 well, this is what a relationship is. But the Bible tells us something different. The Bible says that

00:28:48.400 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The Bible says that we should work out our salvation

00:28:54.300 with fear and trembling. The Bible tells us to be holy as God is holy. So our relationship with God

00:29:01.160 isn't one where we just shake our fist at him or we complain to him or we pretend like he exists for

00:29:08.880 us like a genie in a bottle or a motivational speaker that he has to live up to our standards

00:29:13.000 of a really good friend, like some kind of gal pal that constantly tells us how awesome we are.

00:29:18.020 That's not what the relationship with God looks like according to the Bible.

00:29:22.300 So here's the deal. Here's the deal with a Christian relationship with God, which does exist and is

00:29:27.840 a beautiful part of being reconciled to God through Christ. Here's the deal. Are you ready?

00:29:33.440 Having a relationship with God doesn't change God. It changes us. So having a relationship with God

00:29:42.460 doesn't change God. It changes us. Having a relationship with him doesn't change his nature.

00:29:49.720 It changes our nature. So I think a lot of people believe that having a relationship with God

00:29:55.640 means making him more like us rather than making ourselves more like him. It's meant to,

00:30:03.920 the relationship is meant to make us holier, meant to make us kinder, more merciful, more in awe of who

00:30:09.800 he is, more reverent, more pure. That's what sanctification is, that it is accomplished through

00:30:14.800 this reconciliation, that it is accomplished through this amazing relationship that we have with God.

00:30:20.180 Our relationship with God doesn't lower God to our standards. It lifts us to his, which is Christ

00:30:26.260 likeness, which is worked out in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4, 13 through 15,

00:30:32.360 God through Paul says, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the

00:30:37.460 Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may

00:30:44.040 no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried out by every wind of doctrine,

00:30:48.180 by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love,

00:30:53.460 we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ. So in our relationship with God,

00:30:59.760 we become more like Christ. God doesn't become more like us. We see this instructed by Jesus when he

00:31:07.880 tells us how to pray in Matthew 6. He says, pray then like this, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your

00:31:14.800 name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread

00:31:21.000 and forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation,

00:31:28.160 but deliver us from evil. No one is closer to the Father than Jesus, considering that Jesus

00:31:34.220 is himself God. And Jesus's prayer, as we see, reflects that of both a child and a servant,

00:31:40.080 a child asking for provision and protection and a servant paying respect to his king and asking

00:31:46.200 forgiveness. So that is our relationship to God as both a humble child and a grateful servant.

00:31:54.780 That's the distinction between the religion that is a true Christ-like relation or the relationship

00:32:00.580 that is a true Christ-like relationship with God. And the one that I think a lot of Christians

00:32:07.180 advocate for, which is more just like the gossipy relationship that you might have with some of

00:32:12.360 your friends that doesn't actually reflect a relationship that is demonstrated by Christ in

00:32:17.980 the gospels, one of reverence and fear and awe and gratitude and humility. Yes, it is intimate. Yes,

00:32:25.640 it is trusting and loving and all of these wonderful things. I mean, the Bible says we have boldness and

00:32:31.020 access with confidence through our faith in him. So we get to approach God with boldness through our

00:32:36.080 faith in Jesus Christ. That's amazing. But that again, doesn't change the nature of God as King

00:32:41.260 of Kings and Lord of Lords as Alpha and Omega. It changes who we are. So that's what I wanted to

00:32:48.440 distinguish today. I hope that all of that made sense. If you have any questions or comments,

00:32:53.600 feel free to email me, allyattheconservativemillennialblog.com. Make sure you subscribe

00:32:57.400 on YouTube if you love this podcast. Share it with your friends. Leave me a five-star review

00:33:02.320 if you so desire. Love you guys. And I'll see you here on Wednesday.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - May 13, 2019

Ep 111 ｜ Religion or Relationship

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