The Mystery of the Gospel, Part 3: The Failure of Religion

This is from the book The Mystery of the Gospel:

The Failure of Religion

"When the voice of John the Baptist echoed through the Jordan valley challenging the Israelites to prepare for the kingdom of God, something stirred in their hearts, and they remembered back to a time in the dim and distant past when they had been delivered from Egypt and established as a free people under the rule of God.

"The prophets likened the contract which had been sealed at Sinai between God and Israel to a marriage agreement. Israel, as the wife, had agreed to fulfill certain terms and conditions, in return for which God had promised to be her provider and protector.

"Under the covenant Israel was blessed beyond measure. Her enemies fled before her, and she rose to prominence among the nations. She took over the wealth of other peoples. So abundant were her harvests that there was barely time to gather everything in before it was sowing time again. The people and their livestock knew neither barrenness nor ill health.

"But it wasn't long before they began to neglect their part of the bargain, and God was forced to send national punishments to pull them back into line. Again and again they vowed to keep the covenant, but they never succeeded for very long. Even the more zealous of them whose lives were disciplined with religious devotions found that they couldn't live up to the terms of the covenant.

"Finally, God divorced Israel and disowned her as His kingdom. She was left to the ravages of foreign empires. Once more she became a subservient race.

"The story of Israel in the Old Testament is a record of the failure of an external system of religion. Religion failed to bring man into a living relationship with God and to enable him to live a life pleasing to His Creator. The writers of the New Testament tell us that God actually instituted the old covenant religion of Moses for the specific purpose of demonstrating the limitations of religion.

"What is religion?

"Religions are generally based on the philosophy of someone who once lived a relatively praiseworthy life. Such a man gathers a group of followers around him who desire to copy his lifestyle. Perhaps he leaves a book which records his philosophy of life. Others perpetuate it after his death. They try to emulate the kind of life he lived.

"So religion is to copy someone else's philosophy, to live by his concepts, to do what he tells you to do. It's following a set of principles or imitating an example.

"In the case of the old covenant, Moses wasn't the founder of the religion because it originated with God Himself. But Paul lumped all religions together, including that of the old covenant in which he grew up, as merely the 'elementaries' of life (Gal. 4:1-9). It might seem surprising that Paul would put Israel's religion in the same category as the religions of the heathen. But he saw that like all others it constituted an attempt by human beings to live their lives on a fleshly level in order to gain the approbation of the divine Being.

"All religions have certain elements in common. All involve the imposition of external rules and regulations. All depend on the performance of set standards. And all utilize a system of rewards and punishments to attain their objectives.

"Religion, Paul came to see, is just worship at the playpen level--the ABC's of a good life. It is an attempt to imitate godly living, and amounts to trying to be something we are not.

"Israel's religion was no one-day-a-week matter. It was ingrained into their whole way of life. It formed their national constitution. It was the basis of their economy and their political structure. But still it failed to deliver the goods, and when the people neglected the constitution, the kingdom fell apart.

"Every civilization in history has been based on ideals to which its subjects subscribed for a time, but which eventually proved too demanding for the bulk of the people. It is a simple fact of history that before the world's great empires were destroyed from without, they all decayed from within.

"While modern man seeks to solve social ills by treating the effect and cleaning up the environmental factors, the basic cause of all of our problems continues to be neglected. Jesus put His finger on the fundamental problem when He said:

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts and fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these things proceed from within and defile the man. Mark 7:21-23

"Certainly heredity and environment play their part in our difficulties, but the root of all evil is in man's heart. That is why no religion, no philosophy, no set of principles can deal with the human problem. The Old Testament is a litany of man's utter inability to help himself.

"What man does is the result of what he is. And man can't be what he isn't! Paul accurately described the unregenerate as 'sons of disobedience' who are 'by nature children of wrath.' They just naturally fall short of pleasing God.

"The deck is stacked against all mankind from birth. No one ever needed to be taught how to sin. It just came automatically as soon as we were old enough to sit upright and bang a spoon angrily because someone refused us more dessert.

"Paul wasn't just writing poetically when he said that the unregenerate are 'sons of disobedience' whose nature is at fault. Man's inability to build a world of love, joy, and peace is the result of an inherited condition which started with our first parents.

"Scripture speaks of all humanity as being 'in Adam.' We are born with the identical nature of the fallen Adam. We have inherited a hostility toward the ways of God which makes it impossible for us to please Him (Rom. 8:7-8). That is why no religion or philosophy can change us.

"Adam didn't start out separated from God or rebellious toward Him. God created man in His own image, and what He made He pronounced as 'very good.' Adam and Eve talked freely with their Creator in the garden and enjoyed His presence. They had an intimate relationship with God and enjoyed unbroken fellowship with Him.

"The trouble only began when Adam and Eve chose to act out their own self-interest. They looked at the world around them, and drew conclusions. But they were not satisfied with observation; they also wanted to experiment.

"The desire for observation and experimentation was stirred up in man by the serpent. He told Adam and Eve to rely on their own five senses. He assured them that appearances and feelings were reality. If a thing looked good or felt good, it would produce a good effect; if it looked or felt harmful, it was to be avoided. The only way they could be sure of anything was to try it out.

"The serpent's line was appealing: 'You're an intelligent creature with powers of reason. Why should you need to be told everything by God? Why can't you chart your own course through life, without having to bother God for advice all the time? You can see for yourself what is good and what is harmful. A little experimentation will settle the doubtful questions. After all, isn't that how God operates?'

"The serpent portrayed the way of experimentation and observation as being the ideal, as being the very way in which God Himself functioned:

For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3:5

"Could it be bad to become 'like God,' with the wisdom to make right decisions in all circumstances? To their minds, Adam and Eve weren't rejecting God when they ate the forbidden fruit. It wasn't that they disliked God and chose to cut themselves off from Him. No, they wanted to be like Him.

"God had made Adam and Eve. He had given them each other, and a beautiful garden to live in. They had no reason to turn against Him. He was their hero, their example. They wanted to be able to rise to His level, to copy His life. They desired His wisdom, His ability to make right choices.

"Satan's trick was to get them to believe that it was actually good to eat the fruit, even though God had told them not to do so. Satan in the form of the serpent had encouraged them to focus on appearances. It really looked delightful! So they concluded that the fruit must be good. But what they didn't know was that reality is more than appearances and feelings. It is much more than the five senses are capable of observing.

"Notice the next thing that happened:

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked . . . and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:7-9

"The spirit of disobedience had entered Adam and Eve, resulting in feelings of separation: a dramatic change had come about in our first parents. Their whole viewpoint was altered.

"Even their bodies seemed degrading. What God had intended to be beautiful and for enjoyment suddenly became shameful and 'dirty.'

"God Himself now seemed like an ogre, out to get them. They became fearful and hid from Him. People wonder why God hides Himself, but it was actually man who chose to hide from God. It wasn't God who had changed, nor their bodies. It was they who had taken on a negative view of God and everything around them.

"In making their decision to disobey God, Adam and Eve had assumed that they were wholly physical, and that all they required to live successfully was the freedom to make their own decisions based on what they could observe and experience.

"If something looked good and beneficial, they would do it; and they would avoid what appeared evil and harmful. They would act out of their natural instincts--the inbuilt drives for self-preservation, enjoyment, sexual fulfillment, and so on.

"But when man chose to be like God by living independently and by functioning from self-interest, he became temporarily fixed in that approach to life. He was trapped in it. He now viewed everything from the vantage of self-interest.

"Although conscious of himself before the Fall, man now had an exaggerated sense of self-awareness. This produced a feeling of separation from others, especially from God, and separation led to alienation. Man became the center of his own universe, suspicious of all others.

"The story of history is the record of man's groping around in his separated alienation seeking to function by experimentation and observation. But it seems the only lesson man has learned from his experimentation is the fact that he never learns anything from history. We stumble like the blind, our minds darkened.

"Generations of bloodshed have not taught us the way to peace. We are no closer today to the solution of our problems than we were when men first picked up clubs to solve their differences. Our generation may yet live to see the Final Solution for planet earth--nuclear oblivion.

"Several centuries before Jesus of Nazareth walked this earth, the prophet Jeremiah observed, 'The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?' We are simply baffled by the human sickness. There's a problem with man's heart that all of our scientific skill and ingenuity has failed to cure.

"Though he wrote in a different day and age and to an entirely different culture, Isaiah aptly described the human condition in a manner that is just as applicable today as it was then:

We hope for light, but behold, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope along the wall like blind men, we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at midday as in the twilight, among those who are vigorous we are like dead men. All of us growl like bears, and moan sadly like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far from us. Isaiah 59:9-11

"If there was ever a 'midday' in human endeavor, it is today. It took the time of Christ until A.D. 1750 for the total fund of man's knowledge to double. Today, knowledge of the universe and the world about us doubles every year or two.

"But despite the incredible advancements of civilization, when it comes to living together in peace and prosperity, everything we try fails. We have no answers. Man's heart is sick: he is a deceived bring, unable to discover the light of day.

"What man didn't know at creation was that God never made him to be the center of his own universe. He was created as a container, a vessel, to manifest a deity. But instead of entering into spiritual union with his Maker, so that he would manifest the characteristics of divine love, joy, and peace, when man listened to the serpent he entered into a spiritual relationship with the god of this world. Man began to manifest Satan's nature.

"Satan is selfishness personified. He is Mr. Self. Many believe that Isaiah 14:13-14 is a flashback to Satan's beginnings. That may or may not be true. But certainly we see his attitude reflected in the attitude of the king of Babylon:

You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High."

"All of the miseries of man got started when Satan tempted man to make himself like God. Man simply expresses Satan's nature, which is the way of self-centeredness. Satan wanted to be the center of the universe, and unregenerate man also sees himself as the center of the universe.

"When Jesus explained that all of the evils in the world come from man's heart, He didn't mean that God's creation was evil. No, man is still in the image of God, for Jesus said even of the Jews who sought to kill Him, 'You are gods.'

"It is what is in man that is evil. The sins that flow out of man's heart, defiling the good creation that God made him to be, come from the spirit that indwells him. Jesus said of the unregenerate Jews of His day:

You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies. John 8:44

"Man's center is not his physical brain, but his spirit. It is his spirit that is self-conscious, 'For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him?' It is the human spirit that Satan has impregnated to engender 'sons of disobedience.'

"Satan's trick is to blind us to reality, so that we see ourselves in the same way that he sees himself--as a separated, alienated self who has to look out for Number One. He works through our natural biological drives, blinding us to everything but our own self-importance.

"The Bible speaks of the unregenerate people of the world as the living dead. Human beings are said to be 'dead' in trespasses and sins. And the loose woman is described as 'dead even while she lives.'

"'Death' in Scriptural parlance doesn't refer to the cessation of all life, but rather to separation from God. Those in Satan's empire are the 'living dead,' because they function as separated selves, instead of knowing oneness with God's whole created family.

"Satan's domain is aptly described as 'darkness,' for darkness created an illusion of being alone, separate from others. Even though among others, when trapped in darkness we can be terrifyingly alone. We read that 'the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving,' plunging them into darkness, 'that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.'

"Christ's glory was to reflect the Father. He was not an independent god, but the image of God, manifesting the life of His Father.

"Sin is described as falling 'short of the glory of God'--living as an independent self, instead of being an expression of the nature of God as Jesus was. All of the sinful deeds which man does stem from the god of this world who indwells him, creating the illusion that man can operate as an independent self, an isolated god.

"We either manifest God the Father as did Jesus, or we manifest the god of this world. But we cannot be gods in our own right. Satan lets us think we are when he indwells us, but it is an illusion. 'You are doing the deeds of your father,' Jesus said of His persecutors (John 8:41). Just as He was a vessel through which His Father could express Himself, so they were vessels for the devil's expression.

"Perhaps you grew up thinking of yourself as a fairly decent sort of person who could be tempted into sin by the devil. Most of us have thought of temptation as an external pull on our minds, trying to entice us to use our biological drives in a wrong way.

"The truth is, however, that the devil works from within. He is an indwelling master. He rules his subjects from the center of their hearts, because he is a spirit who works in man. He simply urges us to act as independent, separated selves, as if we were gods in our own right--and all the time we are manifesting his nature because he is Mr. Self.

"Did you ever think of yourself as the expression of Satan--as Satan in John, Richard, Anne or Mary form? That is what it means to be part of Satan's kingdom. Until converted, he is our god, and we manifest him.

"But there is another illusion that the devil creates. It is the illusion that he is involved only in sinful deeds--murders, robberies, adulteries, lies, and the like.

"Actually, Satan isn't averse to people doing good. Jesus Himself said that we humans 'being evil, know how to give good gifts' to our children. In fact, Satan was the original advocate of life lived by the knowledge of good and evil.

"Satan's nature is self-centeredness. When self benefits from doing good, he is happy for us to do good. But when self finds it to its advantage to murder, steal, or cheat, that is the route it takes.

"This explains why there can be so much good in the world even though it is under the control of the kingdom of darkness. Satan's subjects can do wonderful philanthropic deeds, as long as the cause of independent self is advanced.

"The devil isn't out to get humans to commit as many murders, indecent acts, or thefts as he possibly can. If he were, the world would be a good deal more unstable than it is! No, his primary aim is to have an alternative society--a rival empire to the kingdom of God.

"So Satan is consistent in promoting self, whatever the means. That is why his society 'works,' even though it is really 'hell' compared with the kingdom of God. Jesus said that Satan isn't divided against himself, or his kingdom couldn't go on. The good and the bad in society stem from Satan's nature--the knowledge of good and evil.

"And don't be fooled--Satan isn't against self-improvement! He sought to climb to the top to rival God, and he expresses that same drive for self-advancement through his channels. The striving of man to 'be better' is just the manifestation of self.

"Satan is even pleased to see man involved in religion, because invariably religion is based on the improvement of self. This is one of his cleverest devices! If he can get us to focus on self, even through religion, he has accomplished his goal. After all, the first trap he laid for man involved religion: it was the temptation to become 'like God.'

"Not surprisingly, the devil actually has ministries! But don't imagine that they are only the liberals who deny the efficacy of the blood of Christ. No, they are 'false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their deeds' (II Cor. 11:13-15). These ministers stress living righteously, but it is based on self-effort--obedience to the right laws or principles--instead of on the natural, spontaneous flow of the inner life of Christ.

"If you have always thought of Satan as advocating only such things as gross immorality, it may seem strange that he should actually advocate righteousness as if he were an angel of God. But he is delighted to preach righteousness as long as it is the outcome of self-effort. And because religion is man's attempt to live like God, whatever the precise form of the religion, God's way of producing righteousness in us doesn't lie in the field of religion.

"Jesus didn't come to found another religion. What He came to bring isn't based on a written code left behind by its founder, which others then try to follow. It isn't the teachings of a dead man perpetuated by his admirers. Nor is it a philosophy of life or a set of principles that we must try to live by.

"But if religion isn't the path of righteousness, what is?"