Christ as the Living Person vs. Human Religion

 

Christ as the Living Person vs. Human Religion

Galatians 4:5-6 "God sent forth His Son...that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts"

Matthew 16:16 "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"

Galatians 2:20 "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me"

Colossians 3:4 "Christ our life"

Colossians 2:20-23 "If you died with Christ...why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—'Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,' which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom..."

2 Timothy 3:5 "Having a form of godliness but denying its power" 

Aspect	Christ as the Living Person	Human Religion
Meaning	1. The Son of God is the embodiment and expression of God the Father 2. He is life to us 3. The all-inclusive Spirit with divine reality	1. Formed by man with dead letters and empty traditions 2. Focuses on regulations, rituals, and external performance 3. Without the content of life
Distinction	1. A living person with life 2. Emphasizes indwelling and possessing man 3. Brings believers God's uncreated, eternal life 4. Focuses on life transformation and inner reality	1. Dead traditions without life 2. Emphasizes external compliance and behaviors 3. Brings believers bondage of regulations and rituals 4. Focuses on behavioral performance and external forms
Examples	1. Paul's encounter with the living Christ on the Damascus road 2. Love and obedience in Christ 3. Living because Christ lives in me 4. Christians possessed by Christ as the living person	1. Saul of Tarsus advancing in Judaism 2. Love and obedience outside of Christ (like Chinese traditional obedience) 3. Galatians bewitched by Judaizers, focusing on legal regulations 4. Observing religious rituals rather than living in Christ
Application	1. Receiving the Son of God as our life 2. Letting Christ live in us 3. Experiencing the Son of God as life in daily living 4. Pursuing the revelation and knowledge of Christ	1. Focusing on religious forms and traditions 2. Following dead letters and regulations 3. Having only external behavior without inner life in daily living 4. Pursuing religious knowledge and rituals
Relationship	1. Christ as the living person is the antidote to human religion 2. Christ as the living person far surpasses religion and its traditions 3. God reveals His Son in us to deliver us from religious systems	1. Religion often replaces the experience of Christ as the living person 2. People have a natural tendency to pay attention to religion and its traditions rather than Christ 3. Religion may hinder our enjoyment of Christ
Relevant Scripture	1. John 1:18 "No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him" 2. John 14:9-11 "He who has seen Me has seen the Father...I am in the Father and the Father is in Me" 3. Hebrews 1:3 "Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person" 4. John 10:10 "I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly" 5. 1 John 5:12 "He who has the Son has the life" 7. John 17:3 "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" 8. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" 9. John 1:12 "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God"	1. Matthew 16:13-14 "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?...Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets" 2. Mark 7:8 "You lay aside the commandment of God, and hold to the tradition of men" 4. Galatians 1:14 "And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers" 5. Galatians 5:1 "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage" 7. Isaiah 29:13 "These people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men"

Conclusion:

l   The table above clearly compares Christ as the living person with human religion. From Scripture and the provided information, we can see that God's heart is for us to know and experience Christ as a living person, rather than merely following religious regulations and traditions.

l   Christ as the living person can indwell believers and impart life, which far transcends any religious form or tradition. As Paul's experience shows, he once advanced in Judaism, but when God revealed His Son in him, he recognized that religious traditions were far inferior to Christ as the living person.

l   The "Application" section in the table especially emphasizes how we should choose Christ as the living person, rather than falling into religious forms and regulations. This directly addresses the question: "Which do you choose—human religion, or Christ the Son of God as the living person?"

 

*Please refer to the July 2024 Anaheim, California, USA training Experiencing, Enjoying, and Manifesting Christ (II) Week 20 The Way to Accept, Experience, and Enjoy the All-inclusive Christ as the All-inclusive Life-giving Spirit (who is the epitome of the all-inclusive blessings of God’s full gospel)