Religion Is Like Soap

I grew up in a religious tradition that believes Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins when He died on the cross, and that He was raised from the dead to demonstrate that He accomplished His mission. Trust in Him as your Savior and your sins will be forgiven. In a nutshell, Jesus Christ offers forgiveness of sins as a gift for which He has paid the price in advance. That's good news! If the message is true it is certainly something worth sharing with other people. Indeed, the folks I hang around with are constantly reminded that the good news is not only worth sharing, but we have a responsibility to do so. We must tell people what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us and freely made available for all who will trust in Him.

The process of doing this is called witnessing or evangelism. Evangelism is accomplished through a variety of methods. A Billy Graham Crusade is one example. Some participate in door-to-door evangelism. Occasionally you will see someone standing on a street corner preaching to the people passing by. Pastors and church leaders do it during regularly scheduled church services. Much evangelism is accomplished one-on-one, friend-to-friend, neighbor-to-neighbor. According to my tradition it doesn't matter how you do it, just that you do it.

Many people are offended with the very concept of evangelism of any kind. For them religion is . . . well, it's like bath soap. It doesn't make much difference what brand you use. Religions are basically all the same so any brand will do. You'll get scrubbed up, you'll look a little better, and you'll smell a whole lot better. (A friend once told me that the difference between us was that after he took a shower he looked beautiful again, and that after I took a shower I looked the same. Ya, he was a friend.)

These folks believe its wrong to say that one brand is superior to another. It's offensive, divisive, arrogant behavior. Common sense should rule. You'll never hear anyone say, “Wow, I switched to Dial and it changed my life. You should switch too and it will change your life.” That would be tacky, imposing your soap views on others. And you'll never hear anyone say that soap is true. It's just soap. The same goes for religion. We don't ask if it's true, we just want to use it to meet our needs.

What troubles me about the, religion is like soap, idea and the corollary that no one should ever share their personal beliefs with someone else, is that it makes religious faith weak and meaningless. It's not worth sharing. Like a half used bar of soap. You'll never find me going around the neighborhood offering to share it with my neighbors.

But lets assume that there is substance to religious faith. Would I not be a selfish person if I had a faith that was very meaningful to me, and helpful to me in living my life but I kept it to myself and was unwilling to share it with someone who might benefit from it? “What I believe is profoundly meaningful, but it wouldn't be of any value to you.” What?

I think our culture at large has accepted, and become very comfortable with schizophrenic, irrational thinking. We are comfortable living with contradictions. We are convinced that all religions are the same, yet if you study their basic concepts as stated by their founders, you will find that they are superficially similar but substantially different. We reject the idea of absolutes and affirm the idea that things are not true or false, just different, and that it is unacceptable to make value judgments. But when it comes to the actual living of life we constantly rely on absolutes and make value judgments every day. For example, if your employer pays the guy next to you more money for doing the same job you are doing you say it's unfair, not just different. Yes, we have learned to be comfortable living with contradictions. So with conviction we say, “There are no absolutes,” thus using an absolute to deny absolutes. No problem. Everyone does it. It's embedded in our culture.

Believe it or not, there are still a few people around who cling to the idea that there is truth and there are absolutes. Here's what I mean. There is broad acceptance among people around the world that Jesus Christ is, or was a great prophet and moral teacher. But have you ever read the words attributed to him in the New Testament? He made some outrageous claims! Take a look in the Gospel of John. It's the fourth book in the New Testament. There Jesus is quoted as saying, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Is that outrageous or what?

But there's more. On another occasion he said, “Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (5:24) That's the best news I've ever heard. The classic statement is found in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

There are many other verses that could be quoted which are outrageous by any standard. It seems obvious to me that anyone who considers Jesus a great prophet and teacher hasn't read His words. “I am the way!” That's it, “I am the way. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Is it possible to make a more focused, absolute statement than that? “Perhaps”, you say, “the words were placed in his mouth by his disciples and are not reliable.” Unfortunately the New Testament is the only record we have of his words. If it's unreliable then any understanding of Jesus taken from the NT is just a figment of someones imagination. It means we have no idea about what kind of person he was. And we have no basis on which to state that he's a great prophet or teacher.

But, if the New Testament record is reliable, if it accurately records what Jesus said, and if what he said is true, then it just might make sense to pay close attention to him and to his words. Maybe there's something to it, this trusting in Jesus, something of eternal significance for me, and something of eternal significance worth sharing with others.

I can't end this without mentioning another passage. It's in Matthew's gospel. Matthew is the first book in the New Testament. There Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Mt. 11:28-30) Isn't that encouraging? And it is true!

Gotta wrap this up. Time to run a few errands. Wow, the list includes a stop at Walgreen's. They have Dial soap on sale and my wife has a coupon. We'll stock up. I think Dial is the best . . . Oh, Sorry! I almost forgot. You might be offended if I try to persuade you that Dial is superior to other brands. I would never knowingly do that, at least not with Dial.

(Scripture verses are from the English Standard Version of the Bible.)