The Death of Religion

The death of religion is good news for all! It was religion that killed Jesus. But God raised Jesus from the dead, and put an end to religion, and death. 

God took ancient Israel into the Promised Land despite their resistance. They refused to enter God's rest. Israel wanted to continue to labor and so does religion today. God has given us the good news of Jesus the Christ. Israel would have rather returned to Egypt (symbolic of religion ) and labor. They would have rather lived in bondage - in slavery. They died in the wilderness because they refused to rest.

God gave Israel the Sabbath. It was a shadow of what was to come in Christ. The lesson from the sabbath was rest. Israel was to rest in the provision of God. The days of their laboring, toiling, and being enslaved were over! They were to enter the Promised Land - a land flowing with milk and honey; a type of rest, or salvation, pointing us to Jesus and his finished work. Realizing that it is finished means that we can rest assured of our salvation because Jesus himself is our salvation, and "he ain't going no wheres."

He "sat down" (Heb. 1:3¹). He has "taken his seat" (Heb. 8:1). He "sat down at the right hand of God" (Heb. 10:12). [Jesus] "has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:2).

He's not "restless," he's "resting." Sitting is a metaphor for Jesus finishing the job (Heb.4:3,10). Even in unbelief we participate in his life, because his grace is much more than our resistance. Jesus is the meat, the solid food of the gospel. He is what the good news is all about.

Jesus has "put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Heb. 9:26). "He having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time" Heb. 10:12). "Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin" (Heb. 10:18). "I will remember their sins no more" (Heb. 8:12). "We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Heb. 10:10).  "For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified" (Heb. 10:14).

We are truly free! Praise God! However, our freedom was costly; it cost Jesus his life, and it cost us our life (2 Cor. 5:14-15). That's right, we died together with Christ (Col. 3:3). But the good news is, we've been raised as new creations in Christ. Now here it comes. Are you ready? We're also seated with him in the heavenly realm (Eph.2:5-6). We along with Christ are resting from our toil and labor (Mat. 11:28-30). We are called to fix our eyes on Jesus. Even though the full manifestation of our glory isn't yet visible, the apostle Paul tells us, "When Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory" (Col. 3:4).

Religion died when God became man, and lived and died for us, and as us. We enter his rest when we trust in him, and what he has already accomplished. We deny him when we continue to labor, and toil for what he has given us by his grace, and kindness. God has raised us up with him, and now we are called to live in this reality.

Religion is dead because man's attempt to understand God apart from the revelation in Christ Jesus, is dead!

Religion is dead because man's attempt to to see himself apart from the revelation we have in Christ Jesus, is dead!

Religion is dead because man's attempt to draw closer to God apart from the oneness given to us in Christ Jesus, is dead!

Religion is dead because man's attempt to enter the heavenly realm apart from what Christ has already accomplished for us and as us, is dead!

Religion is dead because man's attempt to see and live in Reality apart from the revelation of the new creation  Reality in Christ Jesus, is dead!

Thank God religion is dead. But the good news of Jesus lives and has no end.



¹All scripture references are New American Standard Bible (NASB).

The Ascension of Jesus Christ

Happy Ascension Day, friends! 

Many people actually celebrate this day without fully realizing what the day means. The good news of Jesus is in his life, death, resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Spirit.

When Joshua took the children of Israel into the Promised Land in the fortieth year after the Exodus (Josh 4:19), he foreshadowed what Jesus was to do. In the forty days after his resurrection, he appeared to his disciples, then he entered bodily into the holy of holies, the Promised Land, and we too entered in him. Jesus himself is our Promised Land. He is our salvation! 

Jesus didn't just float up into the sky, he was raised bodily, and ascended bodily into heaven. Luke tells us that the resurrected Lord Jesus appeared to his disciples with many convincing proofs over a period of forty days. After blessing them, he was taken up into heaven (Acts 1:1-3, 9). In Luke 24 we read that his disciples: did not find the body of the Lord Jesus (vs. 3, 22-23); he had risen [from the dead, bodily] (vs. 6); Peter entered the tomb where Jesus was buried and saw only the burial clothing that was placed on Jesus’ body after he had died, but did not see Jesus (vs. 12, 24); [Jesus] entered into his glory [in a glorified human body] (vs. 26); he vanished from their sight (vs. 31); [Jesus said] see my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have (vs. 39); he showed them his hands and his feet (vs. 40); he ate a piece of broiled fish [to convince his disciples that he was still the same Jesus - still human] (vs. 42-43). Jesus fulfilled (filled to the full) the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms and he opened their minds to understand the scriptures (vs. 44-45). Jesus appeared to the women, to Peter, to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and to five hundred believers at one time. He appeared to James, and lastly he appeared to the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul tells us that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus entered another dimension in a transformed body (imperishable, glorified, in power, spiritual body, bearing the likeness of the man from heaven, immortal – yet still human) (1 Cor. 15:42-44, 49-54). 

Jesus entered into the holy of holies once for all, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own precious blood, having obtained eternal redemption (see Hebrews 9:11-12, 26; 10:4, 10-12, 14). He is both the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and our High Priest (Heb. 7). He made purification of sins, and then sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high (Heb 1:1-3; 8:1). 

Jesus ascension pictures what is already reality. Jesus is the head over every power and authority - God is King over heaven and all the kingdoms of this world (Eph. 1:21-22; Col. 2:10). Ascension pictures Reality. Jesus is in his rightful position of authority in the heavenly realm, on his heavenly throne, above all power and authority as King of kings, and Lord of lords. 

The great theologian, Thomas F. Torrance says, the ascension means man has been exalted into the life of God, and onto the throne of God. 

The apostle Paul tells us that the Pioneer, Jesus Christ, has brought us with him into the heavenly realm. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together in Christ [two early manuscripts have in Christ, not with Christ] (by grace you have been saved),  and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:5-6 NASB). 

God has decided not to live without us. In the transformed and ascended Lord we are united with him forever. We share in his resurrected, ascended, and cruciform life. 

Watch my latest video on the ascension: