Unchained: Why Grace Is Everything Religion Can Never Be

Grace is good. Religion is not. That might sound harsh, but stay with me.

Some will say, “A lot of good is done in the name of religion.” True. Others point to James and his vision of pure religion… caring for widows and orphans. Fair enough. But let’s talk about what religion actually is at its core.

The word traces back to a Latin root meaning to bind — bound to vows, rules, traditions. At its heart, religion is bondage. And a good form of bondage is still bondage.

Here’s the difference in plain terms:

Religion says God helps those who help themselves. Grace says God helps you… full stop. One is a ladder you climb. The other is a hand reaching down.

Five reasons religion is bad for you:

• 1. It’s built on a lie. Religion says you can make yourself good. That’s the oldest con in the book… the same whisper from the garden. We’re still falling for it.
• 2. It leads you away from God. It promises a path to him that somehow winds in the opposite direction. Religious pride and the throne of grace aren’t on the same road.
• 3. It makes you angry. The most religiously rigid people are often the most furious. They carry impossible loads and can hear the joy of the party but pride keeps them at the door.
• 4. It makes you blind. Israel tried religion for fourteen centuries waiting for it to deliver. Then Jesus came and fulfilled every requirement of the law so we could be justified by faith. Religion still says it depends on you. That’s not devotion… that’s blindness.
• 5. It will take everything from you. Rules drain the life out of your marriage, your friendships, your church. God gave us relationships. Religion swaps them for a checklist.

Grace isn’t the soft option… it’s the only one that actually works. Because it doesn’t depend on you. It never did. That’s not bad news for religion. That’s just the good news. Nearly too good to be true news!

BEN
DAILEY

www.awakenchurch.ac
benwdailey@awakenchurch.ac
972.261.1919

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