Is Your Religion TOO EASY?

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In 1998 I attended a funeral in Kentucky for a young person who had led quite a worldly life. He had never claimed to be a Christian. He had never gone to church. He had never shown any effort to live for God. But the preacher "preached him into heaven," anyway!

Your religion is "too easy" if . . .

•  Being saved requires little or no effort

•  Going to church is unimportant

•  Your church friends are mistaken for your drinking buddies

•  Foul language and immodest dress are "no big deal"

•  Adulterers can stay in their improper marriages

Surprising? Quite understandable, actually, if you think as follows:

1. "All you have to do to be saved is believe." - The young man had admitted, once, in private, in an unusually thoughtful moment, that he believed that Jesus was God's Son. If all we have to do is "believe," then the young man was saved!

2. "Once you're saved, you can never be lost." - No matter how he had lived, he had supposedly been saved, and could supposedly never be lost, so . . .

3. He was "good to go."

THAT religion was simply TOO EASY!

What does the Bible say about "faith only"?

"Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. . But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? . You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only." (James 2:17, 20, 24)

Even the demons believe - and tremble! (James 2:19) Check the gospel accounts: More than once, demons and unclean spirits confess that Jesus is the Son of God. (By the way, confession of faith is more than "faith" only.) According to the "faith only" teaching, they should be saved! But Jesus said, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved." (Mark 16:16) And the passage that talks the most about confession being made with the mouth unto salvation also talks about the importance of obeying the gospel. (Romans 10:9, 10, 16)

What does the Bible say about "Once saved, always saved"?

"It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame." (Hebrews 6:4-6)

"If, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangles in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: 'A dog returns to his own vomit,' and, 'a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.'" (2 Peter 2:20-22)

One of God's conditions for salvation is our obedience. Our works can never be the basis for our justification (see Romans 4), but our works complete our faith and display our faith to the world.

Repentance is a way of life for a Christian, and any religion that says otherwise is simply TOO EASY!

Written by Ink Man

Quotes are from the New King James Version of the Bible.

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