God’s True Religion
Adopt this as your way of life if you want to live forever
You need no affiliation with any human religious organization or human religious sect to live a life pleasing to God.
Practicing God’s True Religion will make this life measurably better and you can be assured that when you pass from this mortal life it will not be “the end” but the beginning of an experience so wonderful, so awe-inspiring, so magnificent that we cannot yet truly understand what lies ahead.
The apostle Paul was given a glimpse of that future but he was not allowed to describe it in any detail:
2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.1 2 Corinthians 12:2–4 (NIV84)
Three Principles
There are three very important principles that one seeking to know God and His will for mankind should clearly understand:
1. God never changes.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. NIV Hebrews 13:8
2. Everything that God does is perfect. Therefore God never changes; nothing he created changes, including His laws.
He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. NIV Deuteronomy 32:4
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” NIV Matthew 5:17-19
3. God’s will for mankind cannot be thwarted by anything mankind does.
I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do. NIV Isaiah 46:10-11
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” NIV Isaiah 55:8-1
God’s laws for His True Religion
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day asked Him a very important question:
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:34-40 NIV
Do you understand what Jesus said?
The “Law and Prophets” are the total writings of the scriptures we call the “Old Testament”. Jesus did not mention animal sacrifices or the Levitical priesthood nor did He mention any rituals or religious observances.
Instead, He quoted two commandments that summarize yet contain the laws of His True Religion.
God’s True Religion leads to eternal life!
When Jesus was asked how a person obtains eternal life (our eventual salvation), He had the following conversation:
16 Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”
18 “Which ones?” the man inquired.
Jesus replied, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”
20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Matthew 19:16-22 NIV
Jesus told the man, and us through the recording of His words, that keeping the 10 commandments leads the way to eternal life. He specified (in the order He named them) the 6th, 7th, 8th, 5th and “love your neighbor as yourself” but it’s quite obvious that He was referring to the 10 Commandments.
The 10 Commandments are an explicit elaboration and definition of the greatest and the 2nd greatest commandments.
The first four pertain to our relationship with God and fall under the category of “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
The other six pertain to our relationship with our fellow man and fall under the category of “love your neighbor as yourself”.
Though the scriptures including the teaching of Jesus expound, explain and expand these commandments, according to Jesus these contain all that we need to know to have a good relationship with God and with our fellow man.
In other words, these are the principles that, if followed, bring mankind into harmony with God and bring peace, harmony and happiness to mankind.
If you need to better understand the 10 Commandments, perhaps you should access my series of essays on each of the Commandments starting with an introduction.
Following these principles is the essence of God’s “true religion”.
God’s True Religion Does Not Require Perfect Keeping of the Law
The Ten Commandments (as expanded and explained by Jesus and others whom He inspired over the millennia since they were given to God’s people) provide guidelines that we should all strive to follow.
Yet we know that no human other than Jesus has ever kept these commandments perfectly. In fact, until our human nature changes permanently, the apostle Paul states clearly that it is impossible for us to obey God’s laws perfectly.
The sinful [carnal – KJV, literally meaning “meat” – the normal human mind] mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. NIV Romans 8:7
Even the apostle Paul who saw Jesus both before and after His resurrection and was taught personally by God and designated the “apostle to the gentiles” was unable to keep God’s laws perfectly.
18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25 Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. NIV Romans 7:18-25
We should all literally thank God for loving us so much that He does not require us to keep His laws perfectly because none of us can. But He did teach us His True Religion in His own words as well as inspiring the prophets and apostles and His disciples to write their descriptions of that religion.
God’s “pure” religion revolves around faith and love rather than the letter of the law because we are set free from the death penalty that went with that law and are now under “grace”; it was said that three things are lasting:
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. NIV 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
The Ten Commandments are guidelines and teach us how we should deal with God and our fellowman. The New Covenant established at the death and resurrection of Jesus also gave us the gift of God’s spirit.
10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, `Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” NIV Hebrews 8:10-12
God’s True Religion – Summary
At the time of Jesus’ return to establish His kingdom there will be many people who have tried to keep God’s laws and who practice various human forms of religion – Judaism, Christianity and others – who will be excluded at least from the initial celebration of Jesus’ return because they did not practice God’s true religion.
This is a religion that puts God first – no exceptions in any area – and one that causes His people to take care of their fellow man to the best of their ability. Its practitioners are not under the “curse of the law” (those who violate it must die) but their sins are covered by the grace and love of God.
They do not necessarily “belong” to some human religious organization and even if they do, they only support the parts of that organization that practice God’s true religion.
It’s true that when believers join together and pool their resources and talent they can often do things that they could not achieve with individual effort in addition to sharing the friendship and love of fellow believers.
But human religious organizations often become involved in the forms of religions, in building edifices and symbols, and in the internal politics and strife that often become dominant in all human organizations.
There is no need to join some human religious organization to practice God’s true religion because it is the most individual, the most personal religion possible. It is a contract – a covenant – between God and each one of His people.
It guarantees that each one will lead the happiest, most contented life they can live; it guarantees that each one of these people will be the best neighbor, the best friend, the best father or mother or son or daughter, the best citizen of any community, state or nation that it is possible for that person to be.
They will strive for the rest of their lives to become what God made them capable of becoming. They will use their gifts of the spirit (their talents). They will always be looking for the return of Jesus and will be prepared (unlike the “foolish virgins in the parable). They will be searching the Bible and other sources for understanding of what they should be doing to show love to their fellow man.
These practitioners of God’s true religion are the ones who will hear their Master say on the day of division:
“Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” Matthew 25:34 NIV
1 To remind Paul not to become conceited because of that revelation (describing what he saw would be an act of pride and would cause others to think too highly of Paul, himself), God gave Paul a “thorn in his flesh” – some kind of physical disability which is never defined but which many think was a loss of vision. [2 Corinthians 12:5–10]
