I know people who are very religious and very sincere but not Christians. God will accept them, won’t He?
According to Scripture, the only way to be accepted by God is through His Son, Jesus the Christ. Scripture clearly states faith in Christ as Savior is the only requirement for salvation. In Acts 16:30-31 (NIV) we find Paul and Silas instructing the jailers how to be saved.
There are many who will claim some form of religion, however, they are not following the ways of Christ. The Pharisees and Sadducees were religious and sincere in their belief but they were not accepted by God. Romans 10:9 makes it very plain for us how to be accepted by God. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (NLT).
Religion without Christ equals a state of separation from God. Hebrews 11:6 states “…without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek him”. (NIV)
God has assured us that all who honestly seek him—who act in faith on the knowledge of God that they possess—will be rewarded. (NLT). However, in James 1:27 we find these words “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world”. These actions can only be performed in the right and acceptable way through one’s relationship with Christ. Caring for those less fortunate with no expectation of receiving something back in return is true and acceptable religion. Not only are we to care for others but we are to keep ourselves from being polluted by the ways of world. We must commit ourselves to Christ’s ethical and moral system and not the world’s.
- Rev. Darlene Johnson
