Religion tells us what to do and what not to do. Christianity tells us what to become and how to become it.
However, the church still continues to tell us what to do and what not to do, placing a standard of behavior before us which most find impossible to conform to.
In order to rise above this religious spirit, we need to see what God requires of us from a different perspective.
When Jesus came, He fulfilled all of the Law, and a new and living way became available to us through the cross.
The purpose of our redemption is to make possible our true calling – that of becoming like Jesus. This is our high calling and should be our goal in life. How then is the attainment of this calling possible?
Not by doing but by becoming
We cannot become like someone unless we know what they are like.
What is God Like?
1 JOHN 1: This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
God is light. Not just that God gives light – He is light.
1 JOHN 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
God is love and God is light. Love describes His nature, and light describes His spiritual essence and power.
God is a being of light and that light is the power source of the entire universe; that light is the creative power of God, the healing power, the power that imparts revelation and understanding.
Jesus is the light of the world and by Him and His light, all things continue to exist. COLOSSIANS 1: 17.
God is love; this describes His nature. Everything God does is always and forever motivated by love because that’s who He is.
Now if we are to become like Him, we must become love.
Many Christians want to become more powerful; they want more authority, more gifts, more anointing.
Their focus and motivation are wrong. Why do we want these things? If you become love, God will give you the power to love with.
God first requires us to become love in order to qualify for Kingdom power.
Religion is based on laws; true Christianity is based on love and acting out of love. If we live and walk in love we fulfill all the requirements of the Law and the Prophets.
When Jesus came to live within us, He did so in order to live His life through us. We have been taught who we are in Christ, but really the focus should be on who He is in us.
Jesus was emphatic – all He requires of us is to love the Lord with all our heart and love mankind as we would love ourselves.
The Scriptures make it very clear; if we walk in love we shall be transformed: 1 JOHN 2:10, 5 10. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. 5. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. “Whoso keepeth His word?” What word? The word to love God with all your heart and your brother as yourself:
1 JOHN 2: 10. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in.
He that loveth his brother abides in the light, and that light will purify and transform him.
When you become love, you become like God for God is love. When love is pouring through you, light is pouring through you and that light will transform you.
A profound union begins to take place between you and God as you learn to love and give out love, and that union will transform you into His likeness: