Is there such a thing as a Christless Christianity?

What seems like a bizarre question needs a little clarification in what I mean here!

I have spoken to many in Ireland who refer to Christianity as the 'religion' that they adhere to, with the noteably inference being the church denomination or style that they are most comfortable with ie. 'my religion is Catholic or Church of this or that... or Pentecostal' and so on.

In writing this blog I am aware of many in our nation whose 'Christianity' is more about a cultural association or a style preference than about Christ. Nor is simply knowing there IS a God surely what Jesus came to achieve, even the demons know that a God exists, and tremble at His name!

If any of this is true of you, then don't hang up the phone just yet!

Jesus hated 'religion'! 'Religion' is what we might refer to as 'man's efforts to reach out to God' without the 'key to knowledge', that is Jesus Christ Himself! (see verse below)

"Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering' Luke 11v52

In Luke 16v16 we have a record of Jesus saying...

"The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it"

This means that Christ (whom John the Baptist was preparing people for)
was the end and the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophet's message. Put simply everything that had come before was pointing to the coming of 'the Christ', God's promised One,

"Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes" Romans 10v4

The Key to Knoweledge, that is lacking in so many lives,even those who may refer to themselves as 'Christian' by association, is JESUS CHRIST and HIS GOSPEL (Good News)

- without this we have no true knowledge (literally intimacy) with God!

Christianity is not a set of moral standards or a mid-life improvement scheme! Christianity is not just some kind of association to a religious code or denomination. No, Christianity is about Jesus - the Saviour and the new life we find in Him.

He died and rose again from death not so that we could 'improve' morally but rather so that we could 'die' to our fallen/sinful nature and be 'raised' with a brand new 'heart' (or spirit) and then walk with personal intimacy with God in and through the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit. All this happens only as and when Christ's sacrifice is credited to us too through faith. Otherwise the cross is meaningless to us....

Any other Christianity is surely a Christ-less Christianity. We can learn moral lessons from Jesus' life and teaching and still remain 'Christless' by failing to accept His gift of Grace in faith. Nothing else will make us His 'child'. Everything else will leave us with a 'Christless Christianity'...

What about you?

Please contact me at jjshiels@gmail.com if you would like to learn more about how to make a true and deep connection with God - through Jesus!

JS