Authentic Christianity

 
Romans 2:17-29 is a long paragraph pointing out the relationship between genuine faith and conduct. The Jewish converts in Rome to whom Paul is writing needed to understand that meeting the outward practices of their religion was not enough. Real circumcision is not outward and physical but inward and spiritual. He writes – and this summarizes the point he wants to make – “A person is a Jew who is one inwardly” (v. 29). This insight stresses the difference between religious acts and authentic religion. Given the nature of man, perhaps the most common shift is from genuine faith to symbolic acts increasingly devoid of personal involvement.
         Paul has established the vitally important point that genuine Jewishness is a matter of the inner man. Rites may be followed and rituals observed but by themselves they never qualify as proof of reality. To be a real Jew calls for an inner change. In this case the “duck test” doesn’t apply — “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” One can look like a Jew, worship like a Jew, and dress like a Jew, without being a Jew. The same is true of the contemporary Christian; a person can act like one, go to church like one, and even claim to be one, but that doesn’t make a person a Christian. Being a Christian calls for and requires an inner change. That’s why Jesus told Nicodemus, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3). Everyone is born once but the genuine Christian has experienced a second birth, this time not physical but spiritual. Using Paul’s statement we would alter it slightly to, “A person is a Christian who is one inwardly.”
         Two questions: The first is: Why does spiritual experience always seem to move from reality to ritual? Most individuals will tell you that been the story of their spiritual journey. Coming by faith to Christ was a rich personal experience but with the passage of time one often discovers that it has become some form of religious activity that one does, not like it was. The answer to that shift is that Satan is perfectly okay with religion itself; what scares him to death is the person who insists on a continuing authentic relationship to God. In Paul’s words, that person is a Jew/Christian because he is one inwardly.
         And the second is: What’s the secret of a continuing experience of genuine Christian faith? The answer is persistent reliance on the Holy Spirit to keep one’s daily walk like the initial experience of faith. I know that what I’ve written sounds discouraging but I was simply trying to be honest given my experience with other believers. It’s an uphill walk to heaven but the resources along the way are continually available for those who understand that Christianity is primarily a matter of the heart not of conduct.