TOILING UNDER RELIGION
Religion means human being toiling to find God. There are several religions everywhere in the world, they are motivated by human longing to find God, and they believe they can, by their human efforts, their human righteousness or their own works find God or they believe they have found God by their religious efforts.

This human toiling started at the building of Babel, when humanity agreed to build a tower in order to gain access to God and find Him. "And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens." Genesis 11:4. Why did they want to build a tower to connect to heaven? It is because there is always an emptiness in every man that only God can fill. Every being wants a connection with God. And since then, there have been several religions of different styles and systems of worship, aiming at getting access to God, aiming at personal relationship with God. Every soul desires a relationship with God because God is our Creator and we cannot be fulfilled without Him, no matter how successful we are.

But the truth of the reality is that, religion is deceptive and also is a terrible sin because it involves two evils: deception and disrespect – Self-deception and downgrading the standard of God. When you believe your own human efforts and wisdom can gain you access to God and make you righteous before God, you are in self-deception. Human effort is vanity, and human righteousness is filthy rag; for any man to believe his religion can make him righteous before God is a dangerous deception. The standard of God is so high that no man can meet up with it, and God is so distant that no human effort can connect them with Him.

No matter how hard a man toils, he cannot find God because God is too mighty to be fathomed by human wisdom and strength. The bad news about religion is that it cannot find God, no matter the name or popularity of the religion, you can never find God; no matter how religious, disciplined or good you are, no matter faithfully you pay your tithes, how you sow seeds to your pastors, how you are committed to your church. Humanity seeking God by their human effort and knowledge, called religion, cannot find God. Every religion tries different means to seek God and to supplicate unto God, but no religion has successfully found God, because God is unfathomable, His personality and knowledge transcends human comprehension. We cannot relate with God on the ground of religion.

When God saw the predicament of humanity that it was impossible for a mortal man to seek and find an immortal God, God Himself came to the world to seek for man. In the likeness of man, Jesus Christ came to the world to seek for the lost humanity. Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” That is the different between Christianity and religion, religion is man seeking God, but Christianity is God seeking man.

Your religion, your human efforts, your self-discipline and good work cannot give you access to God Almighty; they cannot save you. You need genuine salvation in Jesus Christ who died for you and rose for you; you need to accept Him as the Lord of your life by realizing your shortcomings and your sins, by asking Him to forgive and cleanse you. 1 John 1:8-9, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

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