Many people think that being religious is the same as being a Christian.
One of the greatest ironies is that many religious people are in fact not even close to being a Christian.
The word Christian actually began in Acts 11:26. "So it was that for a whole year, they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch."
We learn from this that Christians were the first disciples. In fact, they were such good disciples that people began calling them "people who followed Christ."
It was probably a term that was used to refer to the people they felt had actually gone way overboard on this Jesus thing. Their lives had become so radically different because of Jesus. They were clearly identified as people who followed Christ.
Is there enough of a radical change in your life for people to refer to you as one of those people who completely and totally follow Jesus?
Unfortunately, a great deception in today’s world is the belief that simply being a religious person means you are a Christian.
Some people think that because you were raised in a Christian home and taught by Christian parents you are automatically a Christian. That is not true.
To clearly understand the difference we must look into God’s Word and see what God has said about being a true follower and disciple of Christ.
1. A Christian has undergone a radical life-changing experience.
Saul of Tarsus went from being a persecutor of Christians to being one of the greatest spokesmen for Jesus. That’s a radical change.
Peter went from being a hot-headed uncommitted fisherman to becoming committed enough to give his life for following Jesus. That’s a radical change.
A Christian undergoes a radical change where a religious person is simply trying to be good in their own efforts.
Jesus makes a radical change in our lives. That was His intention. God wants to change us. We need Him to change us.
Paul said it this way in II Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new."
2. A Christian changes because of what God has done on the inside.
This is one of the greatest differences between a real Christian and being religious. Being a Christian is the result of inward change, not outward actions.
God’s people have had a hard time walking in God’s ways and following God’s commands. The reason is that good works don’t change us, only Jesus changes us. God knew the Law and all its demands could never enable them to keep God’s ways.
Being a Christian is a person who has had a radical change, a person in whom God has performed a spiritual heart transplant, and a person who now walks in God’s ways because they want to.
God wanted to redeem us from the curse of sin and all its effects. God wanted to have a personal intimate relationship with us that could only happen if we had a spiritual heart transplant.
3. A Christian is someone who sees the need for repentance and is "born again."
The radical life-changing spiritual heart transplant causes a person to be "born again". Jesus used this term in John 3:3 as He talked to Nicodemus who was very religious. Jesus said, "I say unto you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God."
God wants you to allow truth to penetrate your heart. The truth is that you are a sinner unable to save yourself. You are lost, dying, and unable to be good enough to ever warrant the Kingdom of God.
Unfortunately many see being religious as a better way. They see the opportunity to try and be good enough in their own strength as a better alternative than allowing Jesus to change their hearts.
They want to believe that God will give out Heaven to all those who can balance out all the bad things with enough good things they do. Unfortunately, God says this is not true.
You see it was never God’s plan to make us righteous by the keeping of the Law, by good works, or by looking religious. God’s plan from the beginning was always and has always been the same. God’s plan is to make us righteous by our faith in Jesus Christ who was the perfect sacrifice for our sins.
That becomes a key difference between those who are religious and those who are Christians. One is a change on the outside, and one is a change on the inside.
Religious people see repentance as a ritual. Christians see repentance as a way of life. Religious people see their spirituality as something on the outside while a Christian sees it as something on the inside.
Religious people are quick to find a good rationalization for doing what they want to do and they are quick to condemn true Christians for taking the Bible too literally.
4. A Christian compares himself to the Word of God, not others.
To a Christian, the Bible, the Word of God is life and spiritual health. To a religious person, the Bible is a good book that is optional depending on what they think and feel.
A Christian compares himself to the light of the Word of God whereas a religious person compares himself to someone else who they think is worse than they.
Most religious people see themselves as okay, not too bad, as good as anybody, and certainly better than "those" people.
A Christian however knows the truth. A Christian examines himself not on a comparative basis with others, but based on what God says about him.
5. A Christian does good work because he has been changed.
A religious person does good work to impress God and others. A Christian does good works to reveal God to a lost and dying world.
You could say that one is revealing who man is and the other is revealing who God is.
Things may look similar on the outside, but things are radically different on the inside. The motives are completely different because God working on the inside is a lot different than the man trying to imitate God on the outside.
Many think they are okay because on the outside they look religious. They compare themselves to others and they don’t seem so bad. Unfortunately, we can never be good enough to merit a relationship with God. No matter how much good work we do, it will never be enough. Jesus kept telling the religious people of His day that they could never be good enough. He told them in Matthew 5:20
"For I say unto you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."
They had a hard time accepting it back then and we have a hard time accepting it today.
If you have a hard time accepting this, ask yourself one simple question. If you can be good enough to go to heaven based on your good works, why did Jesus die for us? Why would He go to such lengths to suffer so much if you could be made righteous by your good works? The answer is obvious. We can only be made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ as the Lord of our lives. We can only become Christians because of what He has done.
Rene Monette is the pastor of Living Word Church, 109 Valhi Blvd. in Houma.
