Religion is the act or process of relying upon.
The most widely practiced religion in the world, not just today, but ever… that invades every system of belief… permeates every denomination within Christendom… and beckons every single person to its altars…is the religion of self-reliance.
The act or process or relying upon one’s self.
People have come to believe that the only one looking out for them… is them. That in order to prove anything… you must first prove yourself. That you need to earn and fight for a place… or you will be replaced.
And so, they have come to rely on themselves for…
Happiness… Success… Pleasure…
by proving of one’s self to be right, by giving in to one’s desires, by defending one’s position…
and all at the expense of others. Whether admittedly or not… when you look up to yourself… you look down on others.
Whether they are fighting for a spot in the corner office… or time at the pulpit…
To lead a business… or a ministry…
When it is done in their own strength… they are priests of their own altars… exalting their own selves… covered in the filthy rags of their own righteousness… practicing self-reliance.
Believe me, I know. I was ordained in the religion of self-reliance. And I was not alone. Pride was with me.
So what does the ROTC have to do with this? How can it help us to seek relationship rather than religion… to move from self-reliance into the place of God’s Grace?
First… it is not the acronym you may have thought.
We aren’t talking about the Reserve Officer Training Corps. As much as the military reference would suit those in the army of God well.
No… this is a different ROTC.
What we are talking about is a full-out Revelation Of The Cross.
We need to give in to the Spirit of God and see Calvary for what it truly is. An act of Love. An act of Justice. Necessary.
And only when we have this revelation can we truly come to Rely On The Cross.
Our righteousness, our goodness, our freedom, our salvation, our life is not something we can rely on ourselves for… we must rely on the work of the cross for its provision.
We cannot prove ourselves to be good. We cannot earn grace. We cannot take ourselves out of the ocean that has separated us from Him… we can only lift our arms… reach for Our Savior… and allow Him… through His love… to lift us.
And when we have… if we want not to turn again to the old way of self-reliance we must always carry the Remembrance Of The Cross.
Paul wrote of the cross, “For I am determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him Crucified,” (1 Cor 2:2) and, “we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Cor 1:23,24)
If we forget why we needed the cross, and who we were apart from it…
We begin to think more of ourselves than we should.
We see ourselves as high and lifted up… rather than Him…
We begin to compare ourselves to others… rather than to Him…
And we begin to think that we can prove ourselves worthy of the gift we have been given.
Which we cannot.
Remember the Cross and you will never forget your first Love.
I pray that today… and every day… we would all join in the ROTC.
And that Christ would be glorified in us.
SDG
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