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Scripture Reading: Rom. 2:29; 7:6; 2 Cor. 3:6; Gal. 1:12-16; 2:1-5, 11-14; 5:1-4, 25; 6:15; Eph. 4:11-16; Phil. 3:2-14; Col. 2:8-9, 16-17, 20-22; 3:11; Heb. 7:16
In the verses which we have noted above, we have begun with Romans and ended with Hebrews. This means that we have covered almost the entire section of the Epistles. In all these letters we will see how much Christ is versus religion.
In the letter to the Romans we have selected two verses, one in chapter 2 and one in chapter 7. In chapter 2 we read that what we need is nothing outwardly religious but something inwardly in spirit. “He is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is of the heart, in spirit, not in letter” (v. 29). In other words, this verse tells us clearly that we should be in spirit, not just in the letter of the written Scriptures. This word is written by the apostle Paul. Suppose there were not such a word in the Bible and I should say that you must be in the spirit and not care so much for the letter of the written Scriptures. I believe you would stone me to death. Hallelujah, Paul the apostle took the lead. This is not my teaching; this is my quotation. I am just a little follower; the apostle Paul is my protection. If you would stone anyone, you must stone him first. I have scriptural ground to say that what we need is something in the spirit, not anything merely in the letter according to the written Scriptures. Who can argue? Please do not misunderstand me: I am not saying, nor have I ever said, that we should not care for the Scriptures. I am saying that we must have something in the spirit, not merely according to the letter of the written Scriptures. What we need is the living Christ, not merely the black and white letters of the written code. This is the principle of Christ versus religion.
We have seen that the very Christ whom we enjoy today is the life-giving Spirit indwelling our spirit, and that He, the life-giving Spirit, has become one with our spirit. “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). When we say that we need to be “in spirit,” we mean in this wonderful, mingled spirit. In this spirit we have the Lord Jesus as the life-giving Spirit. Anything that is in spirit is Christ. Merely to be in the letter of the written Scriptures is to be religious. Those who are such do not care for Christ; they only care for the written code. We have seen in the four Gospels the living Christ standing before those religious people. But they only cared for the letter of their Scriptures. In John 7, in Christ’s very presence, they asked, “Does then the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes out of the seed of David and from Bethlehem?” (vv. 41-42). On one hand, they held their Bible, and on the other hand, they were in the presence of the living Christ. They cared for their Bible but not for the living Christ. Do you think the situation of today’s Christianity is any different?
More than forty years ago I was with a group of Christians who spent much time with the Bible. I have never seen any like them who were so familiar with the letter of the Word. One among them was even called “the living concordance.” At a certain time some among us began to have some living experience of Christ. We heard the Lord speaking within our spirit. When the news reached the leading one of that group, an old brother with extensive knowledge of the Bible, he was exceedingly surprised. He asked, “How could this be? God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation has been absolutely completed. If you would hear anything from God, you must study the Word. After completing the Bible, God never speaks to people anymore.” This was their concept. For anyone to hear a living word of God apart from studying the Bible was in their eyes as heresy. I was somewhat troubled by the attitude of such a leading and elderly brother. But something within strengthened me to such an extent that I not only testified but proclaimed that it is absolutely proper for the Lord to speak to people today in the spirit. This kind of situation exposes the state of Christianity. They care for their Bible, but they do not care for Christ. They care for the doctrine concerning Christ, but they do not care for the living, instant Christ Himself.
Romans 7:6 says, “Now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter.” Now we know what the word letter here refers to — it is the written Bible. Today we must serve the living Lord with newness in the spirit, not according to the oldness of the written Bible. I can say this boldly, because I am a little follower of this most bold one, the apostle Paul. Now we serve not according to the oldness of the written code, the written Bible, but according to the newness of the spirit, because in the spirit is Christ, while in the written code is religion. This is Christ versus religion.
What is it to be religious? To be religious is simply to be sound, scriptural, and fundamental, yet without the presence of Christ. If we lack His presence, regardless of how scriptural we are, we are simply religious. Paul in these two verses of Romans laid a solid foundation for Christ versus religion. Today our service, our work, and even our life must be altogether in the spirit, not merely according to the letters of the written Bible. I know that when I say this I run a risk. I will be charged with the heresy of turning people away from the Bible. But I simply refer you to these two passages of Scripture, Romans 2:29 and 7:6. Everyone must admit that the word letter in these passages refers to the written Scriptures. There can be no argument. Christ is versus religion; Christ is versus the written code. We may have the right quotation from the written code yet miss Christ, just as the Pharisees and scribes in ancient times. We must be alert not to pay that much attention to the written code. If we do, it is altogether possible and extremely probable that we will miss Christ. The only way of safety is to behold “with unveiled face...the glory of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).
In the first chapter of the letter to the Galatians, Paul gives a little history of his background in religion. He says in effect, “Do not speak to me about religion. You could never beat me. I was in that, and I was tops in that. I advanced in religion beyond many of my contemporaries, being ‘more abundantly a zealot for the traditions of my fathers’” (v. 14). Traditions always go together with religion. When you are strong for tradition, you are strong for religion, and the outcome is that you will persecute the church. All those who advocate religion will surely be persecutors of the church. The apostle Paul said this himself, once in Galatians 1 and again in Philippians 3: “As to zeal,” Paul said, “persecuting the church” (v. 6). In other words, “When I was in religion, I persecuted the church.”
If you are a real Christian, you are a member of the Body of Christ. But be careful; even as a member of the Body of Christ, if you are religious, you will spontaneously persecute the church. I know what I am saying. I have seen many good Christians, many members of the Body of Christ, who have done much damage to the church. They were simply for religion; they were simply religious. These people justify their actions by pointing out certain verses in the Scriptures. They are not the unbelievers, and they are not the Jews; they are real Christians who are so religious. They care for the Christian religion; they do not care for the church life. Some would not damage the church openly, but they undermine it in a subtle way.
The two outstanding essentials of the church life are: (1) to keep the oneness and (2) to be in the spirit. In fact, all we need for the church life may be summed up in this. The slogan “In the spirit, on the ground” epitomizes these matters. On the ground means to keep the oneness, and in the spirit simply means that we must do everything in spirit. The reason for all the criticism and persecution of the church life is simply due to these two matters. People care more for religion than being in the spirit and keeping the oneness.
If we mean business for the church life, we must be all-inclusive. Unless the church is involved in sin, immorality, or idolatry, we must go along with it. Whether the meetings are noisy or silent, whether the saints speak in tongues or do not speak in tongues, whether they pray-read or do not pray-read, we must keep the oneness in the local church. Suppose a brother comes in with bare feet. We cannot chase him away. We cannot say, “Brother, go home and get your shoes; otherwise, you cannot come back.” As long as he believes in the Lord Jesus, as long as he loves the Lord Jesus, he is our dear brother. We must love him, not because he has bare feet, but because he has Jesus Christ. If you feel that you must speak in tongues, then speak in tongues. If you feel that as a sister you should have your head covered, then cover it. If you prefer not to cover your head, then do not trouble those who do. Would you, or could you, be so all-inclusive?
The problem today is this: those who speak in tongues always insist that others should speak in tongues, and those who do not speak in tongues would prohibit all others from doing so. We should not care for religion; we should only care for Christ. If we only care for Christ, nothing will bother us. We will be one with all the brothers and sisters. If we all care for Christ and nothing else, we will always be one; there will be no problem.
We must be here not caring for anything but Christ and the church. We may have all things: we may have pray-reading, we may have speaking in tongues, we may have head covering, we may have bare feet, we may have all other things that are not sinful. Could you say that bare feet are sinful? They are not sinful. You may say that you do not like bare feet, but the Lord may say that He is not concerned about that. Some may say, “I simply cannot go along with anyone playing the tambourine in a meeting.” For my part, I am not for it or against it; I am just neutral. If someone feels that he should play the tambourine in the meeting, let him play it. What is wrong with that? We do not care for all these things — we just care for Christ. It is this that makes us one.
Some may charge us with being too liberal; they may call us “liberal Christians.” But be careful: this term liberal Christian refers to the modernists who do not believe that the Bible is the divine revelation or that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who accomplished redemption, was resurrected, and ascended to the heavens. They are the liberal ones; we are not. We would die for the Bible. We believe that the Bible is God’s divine word, and we believe that our Lord Jesus is the very God incarnated to be a man, who died on the cross for our sins, and who was resurrected physically, spiritually, and literally. We believe furthermore that today He is in the heavens as well as dwelling within us as the life-giving Spirit, and that one day He will return, physically and literally. You cannot call us liberal. We are the most fundamental among the fundamentalists. We believe furthermore that there is one Head and one Body, one Shepherd, one flock, one Christ, one church, and one local church for one city.
We are not liberal, and neither are we legal. We do not have legality in letters. In all the minor matters of the Scriptures we never press the point in a legal way. We never will compromise, however, on the person and work of Christ. We admit being legal in this matter. We do not care for religion, even a Christian religion; we just care for the living Christ.
Paul tells us in Galatians 1 how much he was involved in religion and how zealously he persecuted the church of God. What is the church? The church is not anything of religion; the church is just the expression of the living Christ. This is exactly why those religionists persecuted the church. The church is Christ in an enlarged way. If you are just for Christ, be ready to suffer persecution, not from the unbelievers but from the Christians, the religious people.
We have seen how in Acts 10 Peter received a vision and learned that in the New Testament age there is no difference between the Jews and the Gentiles, between the clean creatures and the unclean. It seemed that he learned the lesson well, but look at his behavior in Galatians 2. When Peter came to Antioch, he ate with all the brothers, including the Gentile brothers. But when the Jewish brothers came down from Jerusalem, Peter separated himself from the Gentiles, pretending not to associate with them. Could you imagine that Peter would be such a cowardly person? Peter knew that he should not keep that kind of religion, but he feared the Jewish brothers, and not only he but also Barnabas. Paul was so bold at that time to stand with Christ versus religion. He resisted Peter to his face. It is so easy to pretend to be religious. You may shout, “Hallelujah, praise the Lord,” but when you are in the presence of certain brothers, you will not shout. You will become, not a bold Paul, but a cowardly Peter.
We have seen, however, that even Paul in the latter part of his life was not so bold. In Jerusalem, in that intense atmosphere of religion, Paul was subdued and went along with the religious situation in order to save trouble. Let me tell you, whenever you go along with religion to save trouble, you will have more trouble. We may go along with religion, but the Lord Jesus will never go along with religion. Never try to avoid trouble in following the Lord. The more you boldly face the trouble, the less trouble you will have. If you ever consider being mild and compromising a bit, be sure that you are about to involve yourself in many difficulties. Always beware of acting like Peter and Barnabas in Galatians 2 and the apostle Paul in Acts 21. Today is a day of confusion. Today is also a day of a battle being waged between Christ and religion.
Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians that if we attempt to keep religion, we will lose Christ, and Christ will become of no effect to us. “Behold, I Paul say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing...You have been brought to nought, separated from Christ, you who are being justified by law; you have fallen from grace” (5:2, 4). If you keep religion, you will lose Christ, and if you keep Christ, you will certainly lose religion. Christ is versus religion; Christ never goes along with religion.
Then Paul tells us in Galatians 6 that it is not a matter of circumcision or uncircumcision, and it is not a matter of being a Jew or a Greek; it is a matter of being a new creation in Christ (v. 15). He says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (5:25). This is all: we just need to walk by the Spirit; we just need to be a new creation, without anything religious.
Let us look now at the passage in Ephesians 4: “That we may be no longer little children tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching in the sleight of men, in craftiness with a view to a system of error, but holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ” (vv. 14-15). I do not know whether you have seen something here which is still of religion. Of course, the word religion is not mentioned, but something of religion definitely is mentioned. Paul said that we should no longer be carried about by “every wind of teaching.” Notice that it does not say “heresy,” but “teaching.” “Every wind of teaching” is undoubtedly something of religion. Contrasted with the winds of teaching in this passage are the words holding to truth. The truth is Christ. We must hold to truth in love so that we may grow up into Christ. So we see here that Christ is versus the winds of teaching, or in other words, Christ is versus religion.
In Ephesians 4 we read that all the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers were given by the Head to the Body for the perfecting of the saints. The perfecting of the saints means making the saints to grow. We feed the saints so that they may grow and thus participate in the work of the ministry. The end result is that the saints build up the Body of Christ. The building up of the church is not done directly by the apostles, prophets, evangelists, or shepherds and teachers, but by the saints, “until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (v. 13). The saints are being perfected, and we are all going on until we arrive at three things: (1) The oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God. The oneness here is of two things — the faith and the full knowledge of the Son of God. (2) A full-grown man. While we are going on, we are growing until we all arrive at a full-grown man. (3) The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. If we refer to 1:23, we see that the fullness of Christ is just the Body. The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ is the measure of the Body.
Notice clearly at this point that 4:13 does not say, “Until we all arrive at the oneness of the doctrine and the teachings concerning the Son of God.” It does not mean that. It says, “Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge [the knowing] of the Son of God.” If we care overmuch for the doctrines and teachings, we are indeed religious. We must see clearly the difference between faith and doctrine. Our Christian faith is entirely different from Christian doctrine. Simply stated, it is this: Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was incarnated as a man, who died on the cross for our sins, who was resurrected bodily from the dead, who ascended to the heavens, who now indwells our spirit, and is coming back soon. This is our faith, and we are all one in this. Besides this faith, however, there are many doctrines. Concerning even one matter, the second coming of the Lord Jesus, there are numerous teachings. Some say that Jesus will return after the tribulation, others insist that He will come before the tribulation, and still others say that He will return in the midst of the tribulation. We all believe that Jesus will come again — this is our faith. Every genuine Christian believes this, and there is no problem as far as that simple fact is concerned. But the matter of exactly when He will return divides Christians. We must see that all these doctrines or teachings concerning the exact time of the Lord’s return have nothing to do with our faith. Our faith is what saves us — if we do not have the faith, we can never be saved. Whether we believe in the pre-tribulation, post-tribulation, or mid-tribulation return of the Lord, it has nothing whatever to do with our salvation. It is not holding any specific doctrine concerning the Lord’s return that saves us. All we need to do is keep the faith, not the doctrines.
Suppose that three brothers, born of the same parents, attend a gospel meeting and all are saved. That means they have all received the same faith. Now suppose that after being saved, one goes to a Presbyterian seminary, another to a Methodist college, and the third to a Baptist university. After a year’s time they will all collect and adhere to many diverse doctrines, and when they come together, they will undoubtedly debate and argue with one another. You see, immediately after they were saved, they had the faith; they could be one. But in addition to the faith, they proceeded to gather all kinds of doctrines. They began with something good, but they started to collect “junk” — I would use such a strong word. Then they began to love the junk. We may use another word and say that they began to gather “toys.” The many doctrines which divide so many of the Lord’s children today are simply toys.
Now suppose that these three brothers who have collected their “toys” are confronted by a brother who really knows life, a brother who knows how to make the saints grow. Suppose that this brother comes to them, never speaking about doctrines but helping them to grow. He teaches them to call on the name of the Lord by saying, “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!” All the teachings and doctrinal differences will spontaneously be dropped and disappear. You see, while we are being fed with something of Christ, we are growing spontaneously and cannot be divided over doctrine.
The younger we are, the more toys we retain. I am a grandfather — I do not have one toy. But all my grandchildren have many toys. When we grow up, the toys automatically fall away. Paul was so concerned “that we may be no longer little children tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching.” The children are those who are carried about by the winds of teaching; they are carried away from Christ the Head and the church the Body. When all the doctrines are gone, when all the “toys” have been dropped, we are brought back to Christ and the church.
We have all been distracted and carried away from Christ and the church by many kinds of teachings. Notice: they are teachings, not heresies. They may be sound, scriptural, and fundamental, but they are carrying people away from Christ and the church, from the Head and the Body. Hallelujah, it is by the growth in life that we drop all the doctrines and arrive at the oneness of the faith. Those three brothers in our example were one in the faith at the time of their salvation, but following that, they were carried away by the various teachings. Then by the growth of life, praise the Lord, they were brought back to arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God.
Have you realized that when you collected the doctrines, you collected all kinds of religion? The doctrines are the religious things. I have just mentioned one category of doctrines — the doctrines concerning the Lord’s coming. Consider how many doctrines there are concerning baptism. Some believe in being immersed once, and others believe in being immersed three times; some believe in being immersed forwards, and others backwards; some in natural water, and others in flowing water. There are all kinds of teachings concerning baptism, and there are many other categories of doctrines which we have not yet covered.
Are we here for all these things? May the Lord have mercy on us. We must be here for Christ and the church. This will make us one. It is thus that “all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love” (v. 16). We must drop all the doctrines, give up all the religion, and only hold to truth, which is Christ and the church, His expression. Then we will be one in the unique faith, the saving faith.
In his letter to the Philippians Paul elaborates more on his religious background. He had high attainments in religion; yet what things were gain to him in religion, those he counted loss for Christ. He is even so bold to refer to those religious things as “refuse.” The Greek word for refuse means “dog food”; it was the dirty things used for feeding the dogs. To the apostle Paul, not only all other things but even all religious things were dog food. So he said in the same chapter, “Beware of the dogs” (3:2). Paul was saying, in other words, “Beware of the Judaizers, the religious people.”
He also said, “Beware of the concision” (v. 2). Concision is a contemptuous term for circumcision, referring to what the Judaizers, the religious people, practiced — the religious circumcision without reality. Paul was saying, “Do not care for religious things. If you do, you will miss Christ.” Paul determined never to miss Christ. He said, “One thing I do: Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I pursue toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called me upward” (vv. 13-14). We must realize that if we hold on to our experiences in the past, however good they may be, they will become today’s religion to us. Yesterday’s manna can never be today’s food; if we keep it, it will stink and breed worms. How pitiful to be continually referring to some experience of ours ten or twenty years ago. We need to experience Christ daily and even hourly in a new way. If we hold on to our past experiences, even those of yesterday, they will become our religion. While you were experiencing those things in the past, you were experiencing them in the presence of the Lord. The Lord, however, is going on today. Why stay there with the good things, the right things, but without His presence? All the good and right things will become your religion. You must press on, forgetting the things which are behind. The fullness of God in Christ is our goal. Paul says, “I pursue, if even I may lay hold of that for which I also have been laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (v. 12). He said in other words, “Christ has gained me for fullness, yet I have not experienced all that fullness yet. I am pressing on to that goal.” We need the Lord’s mercy and grace that we may never become stuck in our experiences of the past. We must leave that, abandon that, forget about that, and go on.
Going on to Colossians we read, “Beware that no one carries you off as spoil” (2:8). Beware; you will be captured, you will be distracted, you will be frustrated by philosophy, by the tradition of men, by the elements of the world, by many things besides Christ, for in Christ “dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (v. 9). Forget about philosophy, forget about the tradition, forget about the elements of the world, forget about all things, regardless of how good they are, if they are not Christ. Forget about everything but Christ. Eventually, Paul tells us that in the new man, in the church life, there cannot be Greek and Jew, barbarian, and Scythian. That means that there is no religious or unreligious, no cultured or uncultured. In the church life Christ is all and in all (3:11). In the church we have neither religion nor culture; we only have Christ.
Finally, Paul tells us in Hebrews 7:16 that Christ is a Priest, “who has been appointed not according to the law of a fleshy commandment but according to the power of an indestructible life.” We do not have any regulations or rules, because Christ, the High Priest, ministers the things of God to us, not according to any commandment of letters but according to the power of an indestructible life. In the church there is no more religion; there is only the living Christ.
Anything that is traditional, anything that is religious, anything, regardless of how good, “spiritual,” scriptural, or fundamental it may be, if it lacks the presence of Christ, we should give it up. Let us abandon all these religious things including our past experiences and care only for the living Christ, the instant Christ, the up-to-date Christ. This is our destiny, and this should also be our destination, our goal. We are pursuing that we may lay hold of that for which we have been laid hold of by Christ Jesus. We are pursuing that we may experience Christ in a full way.
