The video above will expose the problem with religion and explain the good news—how you can be made right with God.
The point of it all is Jesus and our union with him, moving away from mere religion, external observances—what you eat, what you drink, certain days, certain things—to relationship (Colossians 2:16-17), away from religion, to relationship.
Right? The problem with religion is that it doesn’t fully get there.
Look as it continues: “You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of this world, such as, ‘Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!’? Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. These rules may seem wise,” listen, “because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires” (Colossians 2:20-23 NLT).
That’s the situation that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were in. They were working really hard with strong devotion, pious self-denial, and even severe bodily discipline. They built a fence around the law. They weren’t even going to get close to it.
But their hearts were still rotten.
That’s the problem with religion—mere external observances.
But we, through faith in Christ, have been brought into a relationship. And through the power of God, we can actually have help in conquering our evil desires—those things that dwell in the human heart.
That is why the work of the New Covenant is a new heart, not a new set of rules (Ezekiel 36:26; Jeremiah 31:31-33).
That is why our righteousness is found in Christ and is not our own (Romans 3:21-24).
What we need is to be renewed by a greater external power on the inside, not merely washing our hands on the outside. That’s the problem with religion.
Paul would say in Philippians, “We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us.” Let’s read that out loud. “We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us.” Good. “We put no confidence in human effort….I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith” (Philippians 3:3, 9 NLT).
That is the good news!
That is the wonderful news for humanity that had been caught up in this religious, “How can we ever please God and be acceptable before God?”
And God had given Israel some external observances that were meant to represent some internal realities that were coming, but that reality was found in Christ and what he has done for us in the cross, so that in our salvation, we are not given a new set of rules, we are given a new heart.