This world is full of religion.  Religion is man’s plan for god.  Most of it involves some type of activity to please a god or some type of search to find a god.  Actually the one being pleased is man himself as he creates his own god to worship in his self will.

Every culture has intertwined into its roots, some sort of religious belief and practice meant to soothe and bring relief to man’s troubled conscience.  This religion pleases the people because it allows them to do something to secure their religious obligations and then quite often, to live as if there is no God at all.

This religion is not God centered.  It is man centered and it focuses on what man can do to secure his soul.  It is full of religious tradition and religious activity which is external and powerless.  Religion often parades in the clothing of Christianity.

Man is not seeking or searching for the true God.  Scripture tells us that “all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned each one to his own way”, “there is none that seeketh after God, no not one.”   Even so, mankind knows there is a God.  The laws of God are written on man’s heart, so that he is without excuse.  Man loves darkness rather than light because his deeds are evil.

Religion is not a new problem.  It has been around since the beginning.  Cain worshiped God, but he did it his way.  He was rejected by God, because he brought the fruit of his own hands, showing that he did not accept God’s provision for his sin.

The Israelites had God dwelling among them with His presence manifested in the tabernacle and in the temple.  How quickly they turned their worship into a religion.  Their hearts grew cold and their worship external.  Through their self will and disobedience they incurred the judgment of God.

In Jesus’ day, Christ confronted the Jewish religious leaders concerning their outward religion.  They had pedigrees that they could trace back to Abraham.  They followed their religious traditions to the minuscule letter, but the Lord called them whited sepulchers (white washed tombs), full of dead men’s bones.  

These religious leaders knew the Scriptures.  The Pharisees even believed in the resurrection, but they did not have a personal relationship with God’s Messiah.  Instead they hated Jesus Christ, the very one the Old Testament scriptures prophesied would come and deliver them from their sins.  

They were the blind leaders of the blind.  They made every effort to discredit Christ, to frame Him and to kill Him.  

The Lord said to them, “And ye have not his (the Father’s) word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.  Search the scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.  And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” John 5:38–40.

So what about you and I?   Do we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ or are we just religious?