jd121961:
To get a grip on the question, “Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?” is directed towards people who perform religious traditions based on routine without love and passion for our Savior. It is also directed to those who don’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior. No one should say, “Hey! He/she’s a catholic lets ask he/she that question”.
We shouldn’t get to hung up on words and ignore the fact that Jesus hung on the cross for us.
I totally agree with you JD! Great response, simply and clearly put! Thank you for that.
So after reading the different responses from everyone here I felt that I should also share my 2 cents worth. I’m a Catholic, who most definately has a relationship with Christ. However, it was not always like that, I grew up as a religious kinda gal. That was where I got lost. I got so caught up in my church, in my CCE classes, my RELIGION…and left Jesus in the dust. Unfortunately, this is true for many Catholics.
I have many Protestant friends who totally respect me as a Catholic Christian and the Catholic church itself. Why is it that we are constantly out to get each other though? The way I see it, there is no one church that is better than the other. I have seen good and bad in both. Who truly has the right to judge another church, unless that church is clearly going against God and the Word?? Then it should definately be questioned.
I have been told that I’m going to hell because I was a Catholic. Now, when that was said to me it was true. Not because I was a Catholic, but because I truly was NOT saved. It is by God’s grace alone that we are saved, not how good or religious we are. Jesus said in John 3:3, " Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." We need to be born again, or “saved”, by the Spirit to go to Heaven. And yes, if you love the Lord, then, you should be obedient to Him. But we are all in one way or another selfish, that’s our nature. “All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God” (I can’t remember where that verse is exactly but I’m sure everyone has heard it.) It is God who changes us, and makes us into a new creation. It is He who brings out the good in me, not my own actions. Also, read Galations 2:20,21, it says, “yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God;
for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” So it’s saying, we are renewed completely by God’s grace, and we now live by faith in God. So, if “justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing”…well then that means that if we are saved by our actions according to the law, then Christ’s death on the cross wasn’t sufficient enough for us to be saved, it was FOR NOTHING. However this is not so, because God threw out the laws of the Old Testament and made a new covenent with us. Which was that He would send His Son to die for us, His blood would cover our sins. Read Romans 7:1-6.
I encourage you to read Galations 3. That should explain alot. I have stood up for the Catholic church many a times, I am not so much of a traditionalist as others, but do see the major frowning upon on the Catholic churhc. However, I can’t agree with the church on this one. The church has many good aspects of it, not everything we do is completely Biblical, I don’t see it as wrong though either, we are more of a “sacraficial” church compared to all the others. Although, in respect to the argument of Faith vs. Acts, I am convinced that it will not be our acts that get us into Heaven, we have to start somewhere and that is at faith. We must submit our lives to God, and then He comes and makes us new. It is He who works through us, it is His glory in the things we do.
You can be a good and moral person and not know squat about God, does that mean you go to Heaven? I don’t think so.
I am a Christian. I think that’s what is important, are you a Christian or not? God is not going to base our entrance on whether or not we were part of this or that church, no way! When we die, it will be, was this person a follower of Me? That’s what Christian means, to be a follower of God! How are any of us going to lead others to Christ when we are too busy bickering between each other about who is right?
We should not base our “personal relationship” with Christ on how often we go to confession, or our communion on Sundays. Those are all special parts of our denomination, however, they do not grant us our salvation. It is Christ’s blood, I know that’s always going to be sufficient for me.
God Bless You All!
- BlestOne, also read Matt. 23. It’s about the jesus’ denunciation of the scribes and pharisees for being pompous and religious.
Where does that come from?
