Religions or Revelation ?

Monday, December 19, 2022

Jesus Christ... existing in the form of God... emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant, becoming like men... he humbled himself, making himself obedient unto 'unto death, even unto death on the cross. Philippians 2. 6-8

Religions or Revelation ?

"The opposition between the Revelation of God in Jesus Christ and religion seems to me to bear on both points.

First religion comes from the feeling of man, it is anguish, lack... On the other hand, the goal of religion is to ascend towards God ; man makes an effort to join God where he is, as evidenced by the countless religious monuments, from the tower of Babel (Genesis 11).

The revelation of God in Jesus Christ is the opposite of its two tendencies. It contradicts the feeling of the religious man... The gods invented by men are always gods at the service of man. The God of the Bible does not allow himself to be influenced by the will of man. He is a God who reveals himself when he wants to reveal himself, a God who is where we do not expect him, and rarely where we expect him; an elusive God for man.

The other contradiction is that the Revelation which is in Jesus Christ proceeds from above downwards. Christ existing in the form of God strips himself to become a man ; he takes the lowest condition, that of servant, and he accepts the worst punishment, that of slaves, the cross.

It is therefore a descending path : God comes towards man and joins him where he is, to free him and give him happiness. It is the opposite of the religious movement by which man would like to go up where God is. There is therefore a radical contradiction between all religions and the fundamental journey of the Revelation of the God of the Bible by Jesus Christ."

(after Jacques Ellul)

Source (The Good Seed)