is Christianity a religion?

I heard a very interesting sermon from Dr. Tim Keller recently (sermon downloads), he talked about the *differences* between Christianity and other so called religions. It was a very powerful lesson, and I am no theologian, but I will try to summarize based on what I understood and my "take home". If you are interested, you can always download his sermon online.

Scripture reading: Mark 2:23 -3:6 (NIV)

Lord of the Sabbath

23One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"

25He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."

27Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

Mark 3

1Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."

4Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent.

5He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

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- "If I obey and is a good person, then I will (have to) attain the reward" vs. "I believe we are all sinners, Jesus' salvation saved us; as a result of this belief, therefore I obey and there is a desire to do good deeds from within the new me!"

This is an especially interesting point to me: People obey laws in society, not because they are all inherently good people, but because they are afraid of the consequences if they don't obey. Consequences can be anything from physical punishment to mental/peer/social pressures. It's the fear that stems from these negative consequences that drives people to obey and be good behaving citizens in the secular world. Even with some other religions, believers are told to obey and thus achieve a good status within their deity's eyes, and then they will be rewarded accordingly. Only Christianity is different, it tells of the gospel story of our God who came down to earth to "save" us, that the consequences are severe but He has already paid the prices for us, all we have to do is BELIEVE in Him, in His salvation. When we do sincerely take the gospel into our hearts, then we will be a changed person. We will, out of the love for Christ thus the love for others, want to become Sanctified, want to spread God's love to all those around us, and want to make a positive impact on other's lives. Through this altered heart/mind, we will want to do good out of our own free will, to share the overflowing grace from God with those around us. Then the desire to (not necessarily obey, but) do good will prompt us to be viewed as a group of law-abiding model citizens in the society. The difference is that clear: we desire to do good because we genuinely care; others choose to obey in order to avoid negative consequences (whether they believe it's for this or the next life). The motivation is such stark contrast from other religions. And the driving force behind our newly gained desire to spread goodness is not from within ourselves, because that would be severely limited by our innate selfishness. Instead it stems from us being the vessel that is fulfilled with God's love and grace, that not only are we so filled and benefit from it, that we CANNOT possibly contain it within ourselves, that we are compelled to overflow and spill over the top, to downpour it into our surroundings. We have no choice because the people around us will detect and witness these positive "ions" flowing outwardly from our lives. We feel this calling in our lives, and we desire to strive to become a better person.

Salt and Light (Matthew 5:13-16)

13"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

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- "salvation by deeds" vs. "salvation by faith" - Abraham's story. This part is so well known that I don't think I will need to recount my perspective on this one... Just go read Genesis.

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- "There is no middle ground!"
That Jesus is life, He is everything!
There is no middle ground when it comes to beliefs, there is no such thing as "I LIKE Jesus". One either believe and throws everything away for Him, or just a none-believer. There is no integrity in the middle!

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- Sabbath ==> Rest!

Work and Rest (Luke 6). Jesus is our infinite rest, that we are constantly in turmoil because there is a "machinery of self censorship" and "eternal inner murmur of self reproach".

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- Dr. Keller also mentioned several other attitudes regarding religion, amongst them 2 other types of beliefs are:

• self discovery (people who do not believe in the established teaching, but prefer to "discover" the truth on their own during their life time
• self-righteous (people who study and obey the bible, and feel that they've earned the "reward" - moral conformity)