I’ve been in church all my life. I consider that a great blessing. My parents led me to a relationship with Jesus when I was a child. As an adult, I have been a pastor and teacher for more years than I care to remember. Over those years I have seen too many come to Christ with great joy because they have encountered God’s grace, then lose their joy. Man-made religion makes an inroad into that relationship and they struggle to live out their faith in their own strength. Too often they become frustrated and give up. That condition is easily identified. It is their loss of joy. That progression happened in New Testament days, too. Paul wrote the Galatian Christians and pointed out what had happened to many of them since they first believed in Jesus “You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you” (Galatians 4:10-11). In other words, they had allowed religious rules, that had nothing to do with their relationship with Jesus, to creep in and steal their joy. Paul put his finger on how their man-made religious system had affected them. He asked a pertinent question, “Where is that joyful and grateful spirit you felt then?” (Galatians
4:15, NLT). That’s a good question for any of us to ask if we lose our joy. What has happened to your joy?

Performance-Driven Religion is a Joy Killer

There is no greater example in the Bible of joyless religion than the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. They scrupulously observed the smallest details of religious rules but missed the Son of God who was standing in front of them teaching and healing. Jesus Himself described what they did to those who followed them. They weighed the people down with a heavy burden of man-made rules. Jesus pointed out the problem of the religious leaders when He addressed them. “Jesus replied, ‘And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them’ ” (Luke 11:45). An example of this was provided by two rabbis who counted 1521 man-made laws their tradition had connected with the Sabbath. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day equated obeying these man-made traditions with obeying God’s Word.

Jesus Offers An Invitation of Grace

Jesus didn’t come to adjust their legalistic approach to religion. He came to replace that heavy burden with a life of freedom and joy. That is the message of God’s grace. Jesus had a message for those burdened by the religious loads placed on people by the religion of that day and it is a message for our day, too. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). That is the gospel message. Come to Jesus! It’s that simple and yet profound. Faith in Jesus is what we need. We don’t need 1521 rules about the Sabbath; we simply need to believe in what He did for us that we couldn’t do for ourselves. We find many things we could say about our salvation in Scripture but they can all be summarized in this offer Jesus makes to all of us who’ve lost our joy in the struggle to do for ourselves what could have only been done by Jesus. Don’t get so lost in religious performance that you lose sight of Jesus and His gift of grace. He is who the gospel is all about and what He did for us on Calvary is enough to secure our eternal salvation. Believing in Him and what He did for us is what God wants from us. When we come to Jesus we discover what we always find when we experience God’s grace—inexpressible joy. Don’t let man-made religion steal your joy.

Wally | GG Team