REPENTING OF RELIGION

 
Greg Boyd wrote an insightful book entitled ‘Repenting of Religion’. Religion can be the structure that directs us to spirituality – but is not spiritual itself. As an entity it can be a substitute for oneness with Christ and a most subtle idol. Christ come in our flesh is spirit and life. We can, if not astute, be people who are religious but not spiritual at all.

UNION WITH GOD IS YOURS
‘There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus,’ which is why there is no separation between the self and God, thanks to the achievements of Christ. Many Christians inadvertently leave their treasure in the ground. As a result, they live ‘budget’ of Christianity (religion) when they could be living the riches of what Paul called Christ who is our life. Paul meant living the incarnation while John names this ‘Christ come in our flesh.’ It means Christ for us and Christ expressed as us. It is safe to say that in this mindset many Christians simply ‘do not get it’, living out the illusion of self-made grace that is the contract that they imagine* they having going with God. The result leaves Believers as a caricature of themselves rather than their living as new creation sons of God. But we are reconciled – made one with God – in Jesus.

MADE ONE WITH GOD
“Reconciliation” means “to restore friendship” or“ to heal a relationship” that is damaged or broken. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they broke their relationship with God and hid among the trees in fear. Because of disobedience, sin separated us from God (see Isaiah 59:1, 2). By sin, we made ourselves “enemies” of God. But Jesus healed and restored the relationship between God and humanity that was broken by sin. No longer must we hide from God, for Jesus has made peace between God and sinful humanity.

RECONCILED
In Jesus, God has reconciled the world to himself. The apostle Paul writes: For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.―Colossians 1:19-22.” (1)

ONENESS WITH GOD IS YOURS
As Believers we are not separated from God and need not work to achieve the gift that is already ours – union with God. Neither must we earn Christ to be worthy of Him before He can be our Savior. Jesus has earned us and made atonement by the cross. Jesus lives in us by the Spirit which is the effect of the atonement, meaning that we are one with Christ as the eucharist indicates.

LIVE IN THE COMMUNION CHRIST HAS GIVEN YOU
Rather than vacillating between a sense of forgiveness and alienation because of some sin, we need to live in the foundation of our life in God which is that Jesus has made us one with Himself as a result of His mission, life among us and His victory over sin and the grave. You are positioned in God in Christ. Christ and the trinity in you, heals your being and grows you in the ability to love and live in the love of Christ. This is more than forgiveness. It is you and we becoming Christ multiplied because He and His life is woven into us by the Spirit – the Spirit of Sonship.

REPENT OF CHRISTIAN IDOLS
“As our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus commands us to “repent” and “believe” the “good news.” “Repent” means “to change our minds.” It means to stop believing in false gods and idols and to believe in our Father in heaven, who sent his Son Jesus to show his love for the world. “Repent” means “to change our lives.” It means to stop living in the darkness of sin and to start living in the light of our Father's love and forgiveness.” (2) It means repenting of embedded crooked gospels and embracing the real Gospel of Jesus and the Real Christ, who is our life in every way.
 
*Often a couple of church distinctives and an attachment to iconic behaviours and positions that identify their church.
(1)Davis Martin M.. The Christian Doctrine of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit (pp. 31-32). AsiAfrica Ministries, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
(2)Ibid p. (pp. 32-33).