Religion will not teach us, who we are “In Christ“, so that we can walk in the Spirit, because, its leaders fear that they will loose control over us. See, when we learn, who we are in Christ, and walk in the Spirit, we will be free, but since religion derives its power from controlling, and exploiting us, they will not teach us the truth.
Sadly, religion performs its diabolical service, i.e., controlling, and exploiting its members, all in the name of God. Consequently, God’s name is held in derision by the unbelieving world. (Romans 2:24) Religion hurts God’s efforts to reach the unbelieving world, because the unbelievers recognize control and exploitation when they see it.
What is even sadder is that God’s people are so in love with Him, and so eager to please Him, that they are, by and large, blind to the fact that their religious institutions are controlling and exploiting them. God’s people mistakenly believe that God needs these corporate institutions to build Him a dwelling place on the earth, and spread His kingdom throughout it. God, however, doesn’t need them.
God told His people to go into the nations and make disciples, not to build large buildings, and require people to come to them, and pay for them. Believers go out into the world, and proclaim the gospel, and as a person believes the gospel, God comes to live in their body, and, by doing so, He enlarges His Body, and spreads His Kingdom.
The Body of Christ is not a physical body, in the form of some religious institution, no, the Body of Christ is a Spiritual organism. Likewise, God’s Kingdom is not a physical institution with tentacles that reach into politics, business, and entertainment, and slowly squeeze the players in these fields, until they submit to God. No, God’s Kingdom is within us, for it is a Spiritual Kingdom, which can only be entered by embracing God’s love, which is made known to us via the gospel. (1 Corinthians 12:13; Luke 17:21; 1 John 4:9-10)
The leaders of these religious institutions are not called to become rich, powerful, and influential, so they can, use their power, money or social influence to bring people to God. No, no one comes to Jesus, unless the Father draws him, through the Gospel. (John 6:44)
Now, am I saying that believers should not assemble together, at some location, in order to worship the Lord, encourage each other, and study the Scriptures? God forbid! The Scriptures are very clear: We should do these very things! (Hebrews 10:25; Ephesians 4:9-10)
We have gotten off track, however, and established cash-hungry religious institutions, which are run by “little caesars“, who like the Caesars of the old Roman Empire, believe that they are God-men, who demand absolute obedience, and can not be questioned. These God-men hear directly from God, and speak for Him, whereas his subjects do not. These priests stand between God, and His people, and give them their marching orders, which they dare not disobey.
This caesar mentality is not biblical, and in fact, it is antithetical to what the Bible teaches. The Bible clearly says we are all equal, i.e., we are all brothers. It says that the greatest among us, will be the one, who is the servant of all. It also says that those, who serve us, must not lord over us. (Matthew 23:8; Mark 10:42-45; 1 Peter 5:3)
Not only do these so called God-men priests stand in between us and God, and shut up the kingdom of heaven unto us, unless we obey them, as they steadily lord over us, and fleece us, they also attempt to bribe us into obeying God, and scare us into not disobeying Him. Usually, this entails obeying God so that He will bless us with wealth (most often by giving to the religious institution, or the caesar), and threats of sickness, poverty, death or Hell, if we dare disobey Him.
Does this sound a little familiar? It should! This is exactly what the Jewish religious leaders were doing to God’s people in Israel, when Jesus arrived. See, human nature has not changed since that time: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
In the Old Covenant, a person was saved by believing whatever God had said about the Promised Seed. After that, the law penalized disobedience, and rewarded obedience. So, the law determined the quality and length of your life, but it didn’t determine your salvation.
When a person was saved in the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit did not enter his body, and abide with him. The law is what attempted to keep the believer on the “straight and narrow”. When the believer failed, he offered the prescribed sacrifice in order to be restored.
The situation is different in the New Covenant. Now, when we believe what God has said about the Promised Seed (Jesus), the Holy Spirit comes to live in our body. The Holy Spirit gives us new desires, and restrains us from doing evil. The law’s threats of curses, and promises of blessings are no longer needed, neither are its sacrifices. Thankfully, there is no longer a need to meticulously keep the law.
Don’t misunderstand: The law is good and holy, but our flesh is not. The law stirred up the diseased emotions in our flesh, which strengthened sin’s control over us, and this drove us to the sacrifices, which symbolized Jesus. The law was our schoolmaster that led us to Jesus. (Romans 7:8, 12, 14; Galatians 3:24)
Jesus kept the law perfectly, and earned the blessings that the law offered, and put away the curses it prescribed for disobedience. And since Jesus is in us, and we are in Him, our salvation, and our blessings have been secured forever, by His perfect obedience!
It is finished! We are blessed with every blessing that God has to give us! We are forever saved! We are the righteousness of God! We are Holy! There is nothing more that we can do to be more saved or more blessed! God in Christ paid it all, and did it all! Glory!
Now, hold on, wait a minute. This kinda steals the thunder away from the little caesars, and their religious institutions doesn’t it? Exactly: That is why they will not teach this in its entirety. The whole truth removes their ability to control, and exploit their members.
Caesar is afraid that without his promises of blessings, and threats of curses, he will not be able to expand his kingdom, and we will not obey God. The caesar’s empty promises and vain threats, however, are no longer needed. We now have the loving embrace of the Holy Spirit, who will change our evil desires, and motivate us to do good works, which glorify God, not caesar. (Galatians 5:17)
So what shall we say? Since we are free from the law, and under grace, shall we sin so grace will abound? Since it is finished, and God is not going to take away our blessings, or our salvation, shall we just live the way we want to, and go on sinning? God forbid!
The choice is yours: You can listen to the promises and threats of caesar, hoping that they will restrain you from doing evil, or you can embrace God’s loving restraint within you, the Holy Spirit, your supernatural restraint.
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