Worldly religion is man’s vain attempt to make himself acceptable to God. Christianity is being “accepted in the beloved” (Eph.1:6). Religion is based on merit, salvation is based on mercy. Religion says we must depend on goodness, the Bible says it is all by grace. To be saved we must depend on what Christ did for us, not what we try to do for Him. And no one who ever trusted Him has been deceived or disappointed! J. C. Ryle said it well many years ago:
Thousands and tens of thousands have sought for pardon at the mercy-seat of Christ, and not one has ever returned to say that he sought in vain. Sinners of every name and nation—sinners of every sort and description—have knocked at the door of the fold, and none have ever been refused admission.
If the way which the Gospel sets before us were a new and untraveled way—we might well feel faint-hearted. But it is not so. It is an old path. It is a path worn by the feet of many pilgrims, and a path in which the footsteps are all one way. The treasury of Christ’s mercies has never been found empty. The well of living waters has never proved dry.
