What is True Religion?

During my employment as a teacher, I was confronted with this question more than any other. And it is indeed a most important and legitimate question, as the eternal welfare of your soul hinges upon its answer. Scripture teaches us very plainly that to be deluded in the realm of religion is the worst imaginable delusion (Matt. 7:22,23).

Yet, the answer to the stated question is surprisingly simple, albeit having profound implications. My answer is: “True religion is God-centered religion in all its aspects.” I then proceeded to amplify this statement, which I briefly wish to do for you as well.

To be God-centered in our religion means that our religious profession, our religious experience, as well as our religious practice are all focussed on God Himself, as He has revealed Himself to us in His Word. This of necessity means that a person, who by God’s grace, may live such a God-focussed life, will therefore view and examine his religious profession, experience, and practice from God’s perspective rather than his own or that of others.

This is entirely consistent with the literal meaning of the word “religion,” which is, “to be reunited,” or “to be reattached.” Isn’t this the purpose of true religion? In Paradise man lived in union with his Maker, but in our fall this union was destroyed and man became detached from his Maker. However, in His Word, the source and substance of true religion, God has revealed how in Christ fallen sinners can be re-united (or re-attached) to their Maker. Christ Himself, in whom dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily, is therefore the very essence of true religion, as in Him God can be with us, or united to us again. Hence, the angel not only revealed to Joseph that His name would be Jesus, but also Immanuel, “which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matt. 1:21-23).

What significant conclusion must we draw from all this? The answer is, that all religion which does not focus on and revolve around God, manifested in Christ, is false religion, as in none other but Jesus Christ alone can God be reconciled to His sinful creature, and sinners can be reconciled to their Maker. Therefore, a truly religious person cannot rest until he or she has the assurance, wrought by the Holy Spirit, that he or she is reunited, i.e., restored into God’s favor and fellowship in Christ.

Why? Well, this is the very focus and goal of the saving work of the Holy Spirit. He convinces a sinner, in whom He has shed abroad the love of God, of the dreadful breach that exists between him and God, which results in godly sorrow. He convinces the sinner that there is nothing he can do to repair this breach and be restored into God’s favor, whom he has so deeply offended, whose just wrath he is worthy of, but yet after whom his heart yearns with an unquenchable yearning. It is this holy despair that he must be reunited to God after whom his heart pants as a hart pants after the waterbrooks, and yet to whom he cannot be reunited due to God’s justice and his sin, which the Holy Spirit uses to prepare his heart for the revelation of Jesus Christ, in whom he can be reunited to God again. This is what the truly religious person longs for. God is the focus of his experience, God is the focus of his conviction of sin, God is the One whom his soul yearns for, God is the One whom he must be reconciled to, God is the One he cannot live without! This is what makes the thought of hell unbearable. It is not the prospect of suffering itself which causes such agony, but the thought of eternal separation from the God he loves, which brings forth the anguished cry expressed in question 12 of the Heidelberg Catechism, “Is there no way by which we may escape that punishment, and be again received into favor?”

Do you perceive the God-centeredness in all this? This is therefore the essential question that will sooner or later be pressed from the lips of all in whose hearts the Holy Spirit is savingly at work, i.e., of all who are truly religious! This should come as no surprise, for the Holy Spirit is God, and therefore He focusses the attention of the sinner upon God. Is it any wonder then, that when this Spirit reveals not only that in Jesus there is a way, but that He is the Way unto God, that we will cry out, “Give me this Jesus or else I die!” The Spirit of God, as the Spirit of Christ will not allow such a sinner to find rest anywhere else but where God rests, namely, His only-begotten Son, in whom He is well pleased! This is why Christ stated in John 6:45, “Every man that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me.” Here Christ summarizes all true religious experience in one sentence! All religious experience therefore, which does not ultimately bring me to the feet of Christ, in order that I may be reconciled to God, is not the saving work of the Holy Spirit.

My dear, young friend, are you perhaps religious? Please, examine whether your religion is true, i.e., God-focussed and Christ-centered. If not, then the passage of Matthew 7:22,23, will once also be applicable to you if God prevent not. However, if your heart pants after God as a hart pants after the waterbrooks, if question 12 of the Heidelberg Catechism expresses the anguish of your soul, keep on! God is a rewarder of all those who diligently seek Him. No one whose heart truly yearns after God has ever sought Him in vain, “being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil.1:6).

Bartel Elshout is laboring as evangelist-elder in the Denver, Colorado area on behalf of the Netherlands Reformed Congregations.

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