Since there are just a few days before Christmas, I think it’s important to make one last effort to expose the scandal of religion. I am not talking about a scandal where money is embezzled, or some sexual sin has been covered up. I’m talking about something that’s far bigger, more pervasive, and more damaging than those things could ever be.
Today we try to understand that Jesus did not come to try to make us more religious. He did not come to give us a moral system. He did not come to condemn us to hell or purgatory. He came to demonstrate that His kind of spirituality and ultimate salvation is very, very different than a man-based religion of moralism, command, and control.
It’s sad to admit that in most churches across America on any given Sunday, what you hear is a performance-based religion. Be good, be better, do better. And while the goal is indeed to live the best life possible, none of these religious theories take into account that unless God moves to us, we are helpless and ultimately hopeless to change our own lives.
Today we take a good look at the first ten verses of Ephesians 2 and apply them to our lives so that Christmas might come alive with its wonder, its joy; that we might walk away with hope and humility, energized for a new year, knowing that God is truly with us.