I have become theologically eclectic in my Christian walk over the years. I was born and raised Catholic; had an evangelical born again experience at a Young Life youth camp; attended a charismatic college; broadened my library with the early Fathers, Catholic saints, Luther, Wesley, and Calvin; and am currently doing the nondenominational thing. In short, I have studied and seen a good bit within our Christian family. It is from this perspective that I have come to the sobering reality that much of the church has allowed itself to become seduced by a false gospel. No one particular branch is more susceptible than another, and though this false gospel may look different it is really two sides of the same coin called religion.

Now I know much has been written and said proclaiming the evils of "religion" in recent times, but this is not an attempt to climb on the bandwagon. Quite honestly, I stay awake at times mournfully pondering the situation we have gotten ourselves into as the church, and have a good healthy fear of the Lord for what it may require of Him to shake us from this path. I have said that we are looking at two sides of the same coin, that the false gospel of religion can look different in various places. In fact, many times this same problem manifests itself in what would seem to be completely opposite patterns of thought and behavior.

On one hand, you have the error of legalism. This is what most think of when the topic of "religion" is brought up. Rules and regulations prescribing every thought and action conspire to suffocate any life and joy from the way of Christ. As a former Catholic (though not a bitter or disgruntled one) I can attest to the power and hold of legalism. The Catholic Church has roughly twice the number of canons, or laws, than the Pharisees of Jesus' time. However, I have come to learn that Catholics, by no means, have a monopoly on legalism. There is a political correctness with many Christian circles just as manipulative and controlling as the secular college campus thought police. Many have succumbed to reducing the gospel of Jesus to mere behavior modification and decent, moral citizenship. The clothes we wear, the length of our hair, the television and movies we watch, the music we listen to, books we read are all predetermined by the self-righteous as being either good or bad, virtue or vice, sacred or secular. No self-respecting member of the new school of Pharisees would ever be caught going to an R-rated movie or listening to secular radio. Even the food we eat has come under scrutiny as Christian health food enthusiasts use the bible as a club to beat the red meat out of you. The cozy bedfellow of this brand of legalism is a form of priestcraft that steals the priestly birthright of every Christian, and reserves power to a chosen few. Like the Pharisees before them, many do not enter the true freedom of the gospel-kingdom life and they prevent others from doing so as well.

I can certainly understand the allure of this particular form of religion. A world of ever increasing immorality is a scary, foreboding place in which to live or raise a family. For many a preoccupation with their own fallen sinfulness, and a sincere lack of self-trust coupled often with a view of God as a scornful judge-or perhaps colored by the love not received from their own fathers-can find in a legalist religion a safe harbor. In many ways the peer pressure of the Christian subculture lifts the burden of moral choices from them. They need not worry about being corrupted by the media or destroying their bodies with preservatives. The folly in this way of thinking is, of course, that external behavior equals internal righteousness. All too often, friends and family are taken completely by surprise when the secret vice of a normally outward appearing righteous brother or sister finally becomes known. The tragedy is that the very religious, legalistic community that such a sinner has chosen to be part of often lacks the ability to gently restore someone who has fallen from grace, and so restoration may never take place. Meanwhile, the legalistic community eventually recovers from being deceived by the so-called believer and convinces itself that the problem is not in their misunderstanding of the gospel, but that the person who fell was never a true believer to begin with. This is often motivated by the fear of being corrupted by a "sinner" or as an act of denying the fear that they are no better.

The polar opposite of legalism is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called cheap grace. Yet, it is really just another form of religion. In cheap grace religion no one is ever challenged to "live a life worthy of the calling they have received" (Eph. 4:1). Dallas Willard calls this phenomenon the gospel of sin management. In reality, it takes the new life promised in the gospel of Jesus and reduces it down to the act of removing sin-guilt. The goal of the Christian life becomes avoiding hell rather than experiencing fullness of joy and life. This has had a tragic impact on the way we live and preach.

Because this gospel of sin management is only concerned with removing sin-guilt in order to go to heaven, we have redefined what it means to be a Christian. Cheap grace removes any burden on the bearer to count the cost of following Jesus because it often promises no cost at all. Salvation is reduced to reciting a prayer. For many, once you've "prayed the prayer" there is nothing left to do but wait for the day when, as Willard says, you get scanned on the big checkout line in the sky and your bar code says "saved". This has bred a form of evangelism that is numbers-driven and seeks to further reduce the gospel to simple catch phrases and formulas that are easy to remember and repeat. The command of the Great Commission to make disciples has been replaced by the push to make believers. We measure our success in ministry by how many people we can get saved, and we will sugar coat the Christian life making all sorts of misleading promises to get someone to say that prayer. We will tell them that they don't have to go to church. They don't have to have a prayer life or study scripture. They don't have to do anything (except maybe tithe). This concept, that one can be a believer without living the life of a disciple, is completely foreign to the New Testament and the history of the church. In scripture and church history, we are warned to distinguish between mere belief and following after Christ, for even the demons believe (James 2:9).

Another aspect of false grace is a reversal of the scriptural understanding of discipline and judgment. On more than one occasion in more than one church, I have seen the same person express disdain and outrage at the behavior of a non-believer, yet turn a blind eye in the name of grace when a Christian continues in deliberate sin. We often feel that it is not our place to judge a fellow Christian. This may be due to a desire to avoid conflict or offense, or it may be a result of the improper understanding of salvation illustrated above. Scripture however is clear that we are to hold each other accountable and to confront a brother or sister when they stray from the path. In fact, Jesus himself went so far as to lay down guidelines on how to properly confront a fellow disciple (Matt. 18:15).

In many ways this is just as much of a reaction to legalism as many aspects of legalism are to the loosey-goosey ways of cheap grace. These are both two expressions of the same false gospel of religion. Neither truly embraces all that Christ taught his disciples. Both take snippets of the truth and push them to the extreme while denying the whole gospel message. One sacrifices grace and mercy for overbearing discipleship; the other sacrifices discipleship for cheap grace and mercy.

Jesus said that His way is narrow (Matt. 7:14). When we attempt to follow Jesus while holding to forms of religion we will either make his way so narrow that no one can pass through, or so wide that no one could possibly be left out. When I read the gospels I see Jesus demanding higher standards than had ever been previously required (Matt. 5-7). At the same time, I see Jesus extending love, grace and mercy to all that desire to follow him even though they repeatedly fall (Matt. 18:22, Luke 5:20, John 21:15). I see a Jesus that rebukes the Pharisees for their external righteousness (Matt. 23) while at the same time restoring the sinner with a warning to sin no more (John 8:1). Being a follower of Jesus requires much, it requires your very life (Matt. 10:39, Matt. 16:25), yet he has promised to make it bearable (Matt. 11:28). Jesus never weakened his message, never lowered his standards, never chased after someone who didn't want to follow (Matt. 19:16), never passed on an opportunity to share love and healing (Luke 18:35), never refused a contrite sinner (Luke 7:36).

It is by grace through faith we are saved. Grace means that our salvation begins and ends with God. He is the one that calls to us, that woos us to him. He offers forgiveness, mercy, and redemption purely from his heart of love. He promises to make up all that is lacking in our feeble efforts to follow. Faith is our response, but is a response that goes beyond just a mere intellectual agreement. It is a faith that is proven and evidenced by our works, our lives. It is a response that literally means placing our trust in him. Saving faith is an active faith that compels us to live life leaning completely on him. Saving faith is not just saying a prayer, though that may be a valid start, and it may even be present without a specific born again experience as we have come to think of it. A faithful response to God's grace means that we are agreeing to live a new life, or rather that we agree to die to ourselves and let Christ live in us. This saving life is lived by the Spirit of God living in us. It is the Holy Spirit who was given to us to convict us of sin and remind us of the way we are to follow.

Jesus said that the entire Law can be summed up and fulfilled by loving God and loving each other. If we spend our lives doing these two things we will not need to worry about falling into sin or the clothes we wear and the foods we eat. If we spend our lives doing these two things we will not fear living the life of a disciple and practicing spiritual disciplines. If we completely loose ourselves in these two activities we will truly find Life.