“It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship.  Religion just a bunch of meaningless rules and rituals.”

While this sentiment is very popular and describes something many people live by, it may not be the best description of what the Christian faith is or entails.  If we were to think this, if someone were to look at scripture and read the many times David says “I love the rules and rituals” and how Paul describes the law as that which reveals sin, and it also shows the heart of God to the believer through the rituals observed.

Example: LORD’s Supper/Communion/Eucharist

This expression of worship has been a highly debated point for centuries.  I have just begun to learn its spiritual and ritualistic use over the last 6 months or so.  For me, it had always been “just a symbol,” something to do to remember the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross.  The more I have become intimated with this topic in theology, the more I am awakened to the authenticity of its observance in conveying something so much more than I had made it.  It is, as my Pastor Jay Mathis says “A sermon without words.”  It proclaims the death of Christ until His coming…but just the once a quarter schedule, but continually, consistently, every Sunday.  When you come to take of communion, God is preaching His grace and blessing upon you.  As you eat of the bread, indeed, there is nothing “mystical or magical” physically present in the anatomic nature of the bread and wine (grape juice…I was raised baptist), but in my emotions, my heart, mind, soul, and strength, it is proclaiming the gospel to me every Sunday.  Since I must be in right standing with God having no unconfessed sins in my life when I take communion, it reminds me to live my life in a state of repentance, making sure as long as it depends on me to be at peace with everyone, and I come Sunday morning confessing sin and receiving blessing.  If you are not blessed in your heart, mind, soul, and strength when you interact with God (since these are what we are supposed to love God entirely with) then there is something lacking, something missing, a great void in the way you observe things which were meant to be sacred and mysterious (Latin: Sacramentum; Greek: Mysterio – μυστήριο = meaning: “wonder” or “amazement”).  So we can see that these “Ritual” are meant to give us a sense of wonder or amazement in their practice and observance.  Truly, if someone does indeed practice such things and there is no sense of wonderment or amazement, no movement of the soul towards worship, such a ones observance is meaningless and void of any true worship and blessing.

As Mark Driscoll states “Ritual is when there’s meaning, value, purpose, mission, and passion in what you do because of Jesus.”  You see, ritual is not bad, it is not unauthentic, it is not fake.  A real ritualistic lifestyle is passionate, it is deep, it is full of purpose and meaning.  It is, however, left to the worshiper whether or not they are going to authentically observe such rituals.  This is done by continually preaching the gospel in your spiritual life.  It is not only the power to save at conversion, it is the power to sustain and preserve the believer in the faith God has given them.  We can see that in relationships, the couple has certain things they like to do; go on long drives/trips/travel, coffee shops, bike riding, running/walking, picnics, sitting to observe creation, sports, concerts, bars/clubs/pubs/wine lounges, and other things which the couple enjoys to do habitually that bring great significance to the couple.  We can see how this can be a great picture of the modern view of “having a relationship” with Jesus.  A great article to read is Mark’s blog on the church at Sardis.  Click Here to Read the Article.

Imagine a world in which there was no resurrection. I’ll give you a minute to get there. You there? You depressed yet?

As a Christian I can only wonder on this point, “what do people feel when they do not believe in a resurrection.” What are the daily thoughts of someone whose only hope is the daily routines of life, work, hobbies, and other such things that occupy a human life? It begs a far too lengthy and philosophical existential question. So for the sake of this writing I won’t go there. But the question still remains…what if Jesus never promised eternal life, what if the extent of God’s relationship with humanity was to create them, let them live for a time, and then let them die with no hope for anything more? The resurrection is a big deal!

If there were no resurrection unto eternal life, there would be no other hope for life and our earthly existence would look exactly like it does today. Our American culture lives life and makes claims of how to live your life absent of the reality of eternity. When it preaches pithy sentiments such as “Live everyday to the full”, “You are the creator of your own destiny”, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” (or throw lemon juice in your enemy’s eyes), and of course “Live like everyday is your last.” The majority of people you and I interact with on a daily basis live their lives as if this is it. Not in depression, but in denial of the severity of the issue of eternal existence. They “celebrate life” and try to make the best of it. The difficulty comes when Christians adapt this same mentality. To believe in what the Bible really says about the resurrection (and not some weird American “enlightenment” philosophical Pelagian version) changes the way in which we live our lives today. If life is truly eternal then our earthly life, for the few years we have, is insignificant in grand scheme. I am not asserting that people are all the same when they think about the resurrection as if making a grandiose generalization, but rather thinking on a macro level so that we can think on a micro level into our own beliefs. It is written:

^“13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— ¹⁴ yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” James 4:13-17.

The resurrection and the reality of our belief in the true existence of it naturally changes the way we view every amount and quality of our lives. Because the resurrection is true and the follower of Christ will spend eternity with Him: 1) We realize we don’t have to live life as if it is our last, but that we live for the glory of Christ and trust He will keep us here as long as He would desire for us; 2) Life’s joys are truly those which direct us to our greater joy in Christ; 3) Our relationships with other people become increasingly less selfish, and marital relations become about the glory of God and furthering His kingdom, rather than simply self-fulfillment and romantic emotionalism; 4) Life’s struggles, sufferings, tribulations, and fleshly temptations fail in comparison to the joy to be experienced when Jesus our beloved bridegroom and hope is revealed; and 5) Our desire for the furthering of the gospel to those whose eternal futures exist of separation from God becomes a real passion in our hearts because we desire like Christ that “those who believe would not perish, but have eternal life.” So the gospel becomes preeminent in our lives and our view of sinners transformed from indignation and wrath for them to being covered in compassion and mercy from the Holy Spirit because of the cross and resurrection of Christ.  It shows us the power of Christ to awaken the dead and forgive our eternally devastating trespasses displaying for us the goodness of our great God.