The nature of religion

Religion is man reaching out to God. Religion is finite man, attempting to grasp the infinite, the inconceivable. Religion has so many forms, because man has so little grasp of God. The history of religion is man trying to find, understand, hold, and control that whihci is greater than himself. It is in this context that we come to Christianity. Christianity is not the story of man reaching out to God. Christianity is the story of God reaching out to man. Christianity, far from having stories of men trying to grasp God, instead is full of stories of man running from God, fighting with God, and flaunting God. Only in Christianity do we find a God who has done things for the benefit of His people, rather than a people doing things for the benefit of God.

Animistic religions, and polytheistic religions tend to see their sacrifices either as meant to feed their god, or meant to illicit a specific response from their god. Thus we see that people keep bread before the shrines of their ancestors, so that the ancestors will have something to eat. Thus we see that people make sacrifices to the rain god, hoping for rain.

Our God doesn’t work this way. The sacrifices in the Bible are all described as making a sweet smell for God. God does not need a sweet smell. God does not benefit materially from a sweet smell, we gave to God something that he likes. Yet, we also see that the sacrifices are not what God desires from us.

"You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, Oh God, you will not despise." Psalm 51:16-17

"If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?" Psalm 50:12-13

God set up Christianity for our benefit, at great cost to himself. God arranged his plan for our lives, and paid for us with his son’s blood. The greatest sacrifice in history was made not to God, but by God, for us.

This morning, I read in Mark, “Then [Jesus] said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.’” Mark 2:27-28. Reading this reminded me that God set up his laws, his precepts not for his own benefit, but for mine. God gets nothing out of me taking a weekly day of rest, but I get a great deal out of rest. God made the Sabbath for me, he didn’t make me so that I could have a Sabbath.