Is Christianity a Religion or a Relationship?

As a new evangelical Christian, I find myself still practicing some of the tradition I was raised with in the Roman Catholic Church.

Is this wrong? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. And of course, you can always email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

First up today, we have a question via Facebook Live from one of our listeners in Lodi, California. This is from James Adriel, and he wants to know, are we required to forgive those who not only don't ask for forgiveness, but openly mock us? Should we apply Psalm 109 to them?

James, thank you for that question, and I think it's a really good question, something that we all experience in life is, at times, people treating us poorly, persecuting us, even for our faith in Jesus Christ. So do we apply Psalms, like the Psalms of imprecation, those Psalms where the Psalmist is crying out to God, asking God to curse his enemies, to those individuals? That's sort of what's happening in Psalm 109. I think we have to understand those particular Psalms in their context. I'm not saying that there isn't a place for them, but for believers under the New Covenant, as we're thinking about how to respond to those who are our enemies, those who persecute us, I think you just have to go to the Sermon on the Mount. What Jesus said in Matthew 5, verse 43, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven, for he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. We are called as believers under the New Covenant to love our enemies, those who persecute us for our faith in Jesus Christ, not to call down curses upon them, but to pray for their salvation, because God desires all people to be saved. Paul says this in 1 Timothy 2.

And so I think that that's really important. Now the question of forgiveness. Am I obligated to forgive someone who hasn't asked for forgiveness?

What does that look like? Well, again, a little bit later in Matthew, in Matthew chapter 6, what does Jesus say? Verse 14, if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, verse 15, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. And there what's being emphasized is this call for us, those who have been forgiven so much in Jesus Christ, to forgive others, to be forgiving. And so we are, you are called to forgive even the people that are mistreating you.

Now that doesn't mean that you're just supposed to sit down and take it, that kind of a thing necessarily. That's not what I'm talking about. There's a difference between forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration. We're called to forgive everyone.

The people who sin against us were saying, I'm not going to treat you the way that you're treating me. That's a part of forgiveness. Reconciliation, though, James, does require that other person to say, I've sinned.

What I'm doing is not right. I need your forgiveness. And so you can only reconcile if the other person, the other individual, understands what they've done and they're willing to repent of it.

And restoration is even a step beyond that. It's saying, look, you've repented and now our relationship is restored to what it once was prior to. And so we have to distinguish between those three things, forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration, but we're always called to forgive as Christians. And may God give you strength. Brother, I don't know what it is that you're going through right now, but may the Lord give you strength to love those who aren't loving you. And we get that strength from Christ himself, from the grace of the Holy Spirit, by remembering Jesus our Lord who endured suffering for righteousness sake. We as believers, we will have to endure suffering for righteousness sake as well in this life. And so may the Lord bless you and strengthen you, brother.

James, thanks so much for listening and for checking in with us through Facebook Live. Adriel, I'm so glad you fleshed that out, because I think a lot of people get tripped up. They really don't understand that forgiveness, restoration, reconciliation are three different steps, and there are people that simply are not going to respond like we might like them to. Yeah, I mean, this is one of the things that's confusing for a lot of people, and so they're stuck because they think, oh, I can't forgive this person. They never said that they were sorry.

And they're letting this sort of bitterness and anger continue to fester in their hearts. They want there to be this sense of peace, but they just feel like, oh, I can't forgive. Well, look, whether or not another person says they're sorry, we are called to forgive through the grace that we've received, the grace of the gospel, the fact that we've been forgiven so much. We ought to forgive others. Now, if they're going to sort of restore the relationship, if we're ever going to have a good relationship again, they need to recognize where they've sinned against us, and Jesus talks about this in the gospels as well. In fact, here in the Sermon on the Mount, I was just referencing that. You know, one of the things I love, Bill, about the teachings of Jesus is how practical they are, just in terms of everyday life and our relationships, what it looks like to forgive one another, to restore relationships. We're called to pursue that as image bearers, but also as, and especially as Christians, as brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, we would love to hear from you. Our phone lines will be open for the next 15 minutes or so. And here's the number to call. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. We've got phone lines open right now if you'd like to call and ask your question.

Right now, let's go to a voicemail we received from Danielle. So I am looking for some wisdom to overcome this dilemma, which I have struggled with for a while now. I want to fast more, to help me grow and praying for others and humility, but I struggle to fast. My dear sister in the Lord often talks about her fast. I'm fighting jealousy and wondering why can't I, or even worse, guilt of not fasting. Thank you.

Bye bye. Hey, thank you so much for that question, sister, and I want to encourage you. One, I thank the Lord that you just desire to pray for others and that you want to have this intimate relationship with the Lord where you're pressing into everything that the Lord would have for you. You want to pray, you want to fast, you want to study the Scriptures.

I think that's absolutely beautiful. Of course, we're weak. We're sinful. We fall short many times of the things that we hope to do, and there can be those feelings of guilt and shame as a result of our failures or even just not doing as much as we would like to do. We're going to experience that our entire lives. We're never going to be perfect, not this side of heaven.

So you don't need to be weighed down by that guilt and by that shame. Throughout the Bible, fasting was something that was really done occasionally, I think, in terms of it was the response of the people of God to difficulties, challenges that were coming against them. It might have been war. It might have been famine, but some sort of cataclysmic event that would drive the people to their knees to say, look, we need to proclaim a fast to seek the face of the Lord. I think that is appropriate sometimes today in certain situations for churches to call a fast, to proclaim a fast for individuals to say, look, there is something in my life right now or in the life of a brother or sister that is just so urgent.

I need to devote some time to this. I want to stop and set aside this meal or maybe this kind of food for a period of time and just to seek the face of the Lord. It's not a magic sort of thing. It's not like we're bartering with God, that sort of a thing. It's an opportunity for us to humble ourselves before the Lord and to cry out to Him and to pray. Jesus said, we've been in the Sermon on the Mount a couple of times already now, Matthew 6 verse 16, When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

See the intimacy there. This is something between you and God. Let me tell you kind of a funny story. I'm a little bit embarrassed of this story. The first time I ever fasted, I think I felt maybe some of that same guilt and shame or just the desire to do this but feeling like you're not very good at it.

I felt that early on in my walk with the Lord. I was a teenager and I just thought, I need to fast. I am going to fast. So I said, I'm just going to drink water for 24 hours.

Now I had no idea what I was doing or whether you should start small or that kind of a thing. I just said, I'm going to fast. I didn't have any food for 24 hours. That night was a friend's birthday party, which I decided to go to. Everyone's having pizza and cake and just a good old time. I was sitting there at the table with everyone else, kind of with a frown on my face.

My friend's mother came up to me, offered me a couple slices of pizza with a big smile on her face. I sort of barked at her, I'm fasting. This is sort of in a holy place, as you can tell. I think that's what happens a lot of times when we're driven by guilt, by this sense of, I have to do this.

A lot of times we sort of approach it that way. That's what I was doing in that moment. It really wasn't about prayer or drawing near to the Lord. I just need to do this because I think it's the right thing to do. If you feel like the Lord is calling you to set aside some time to pray and to fast about a particular situation, well, do that. That's okay. You're free to do that, but don't bite off more than you can chew, no pun intended.

Maybe start small. Maybe say, look, I'm going to set aside this meal, and I'm going to focus on the Lord in this time in praying for this other person, and know that as you do that, gosh, sister, the Lord loves you. He receives your prayers as you come to him in faith.

That's the key. Not setting aside food, but coming before the Lord in faith and in sincerity. May the Lord fill you with grace in order to do that and bless you, whether you fast or whether you don't fast. Thanks for your question. Love the way you make friends and influence people there with your barking about the pizza.

I'm fasting. Yeah, yeah. It sounded just like that, in fact, Bill. That sort of growl right there, yeah. My friends, his mom's face, you just should have seen it. She was startled. She was scared.

Oh, gosh. You were hangry. You were very hangry in that situation. That's right.

Yes, hangry. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Here's the number to call if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can call us right now. Let's go to Ashley in Baltimore, Maryland. Ashley, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Hi. I would like to know what you think about how we should go about sharing the Gospel in different cultural contexts. Hey, Ashley, thanks for that question.

A really, really important question. You know, there's been all this talk about, you know, do we contextualize the Gospel and what does that look like? And there's some concern there too because people are afraid, you know, if I'm trying to sort of appeal to a particular culture, am I watering down the message of the Gospel?

And if that's happening, well, that's a big problem. So the Gospel message doesn't change. It's the faith once for all delivered to the saints. We need to recognize it's the message of the forgiveness of our sins for our salvation.

And so super important that we understand that. But as we're preaching the Gospel, sharing the Gospel with particular cultures, we want to make sure that we're doing it in a way that's helpful, understandable, that we're able to relate to them specifically. I think there's an excellent example of this in the book of Acts. In the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 15, you have what's called the Jerusalem Council. And one of the things that was decided at that council is if people wanted to join the church, the Christian church, be a part of the family of God, quote-unquote.

They didn't have to go and be circumcised. I mean, that was the case under the Old Testament for people that wanted to join Israel from the outside. And the disciples say, look, they don't have to become Jewish. People don't have to become Jewish or become circumcised in order to be a part of the church. God is saving the Gentiles solely by faith in the name of Jesus. And so what they need is faith.

What we need is faith. And yet in the very next chapter, in Acts chapter 16, it's so interesting because Timothy is circumcised. Now, it just sort of seems odd. The council had just decided people don't have to do this. We don't have to do this if we want to follow Jesus. It's not a religious ritual for us anymore. And yet in the very next chapter, Timothy is circumcised.

Why? Because he's going to preach the gospel, to share the gospel with Jewish people. And he knew that for them, that was a stumbling block. This was something that was going to make it hard for them to hear his words. Now, how they knew whether or not he was circumcised, I don't know.

Don't ask me that question. But the fact of the matter is, is he underwent this ritual, not because he had to. Acts 15 made that absolutely clear, but because he wanted to share the gospel with this particular group of people.

And he knew that that would have been a stumbling block. Friends, there's a really good question we can ask ourselves as we think about sharing the faith with our neighbors. What are the stumbling blocks that we put up, the things that keep us from sharing the love of Christ with our neighbors, and maybe some of that is cultural, that get in the way?

Frankly, I think sometimes it's just a lack of relationship, not knowing our neighbors. Maybe having them over for dinner, getting to know them, opening up the doors to share Jesus and his love with the people around us. And so we are called to contextualize that. I mean, Paul says this to the Corinthians.

He says, look, I've become all things to all people, that I might win some, that I might save some. He's saying, look, the gospel message doesn't change, but we want to share it in ways that are understandable and relate specifically to individuals and whatever culture they're coming from. And so I think we have to be sensitive to this, brothers and sisters. And it's something, as I said, that the apostles themselves were sensitive to.

Otherwise, Timothy would have never gotten circumcised in Acts chapter 16. It really was about wanting to share the gospel with a particular group of people. And so thank you for that question. May God give each of us wisdom in our own lives to know what does it look like for me to be bold with the gospel, to share the gospel in its purity with the people around me, but in a way that's also sensitive to their cultural backgrounds and is going to help them understand what Jesus did for them.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. By the way, we are very excited to announce we have a brand new Bible study to offer you. And it's on one of those books that just a lot of Christians find very mysterious, the Book of Revelation. Yes, we are continuing to offer our brand new Revelation study guide, Bible study. I mean, this is an excellent resource if you want to go deep in the Book of Revelation. And you can do it on your own. You can do it with a group of friends, a Sunday school class.

Really, the options are endless. And so get a hold of this Revelation Bible study exploring questions about the end times, the mark of the beast, you know, the rapture, those kinds of things, questions that we oftentimes get on this broadcast. Get a hold of this resource. It's yours for a gift of $20 or more. It'll really help you understand one of the most challenging books of the Bible and to request a copy of the Revelation study, just go to CoreChristianity.com forward slash Revelation. That's CoreChristianity.com forward slash Revelation. You can also call us for that offer or any one of our offers. Here's the phone number. It's 833-The-Core. That's 1-833-843-2673. By the way, you can also use that phone number to leave a voicemail question if you can't call during the program but want to call some other time during the day or night. Our phone lines are always open and you can record your voicemail there.

Here's a voicemail we received from Jose. I was raised as a Catholic. I've been dealing with depression and anxiety, which caused a lot of friction with my belief, which I understand a relationship with God. I'm trying to have a relationship with God, which puts me away from my family for the choices I made. I catch myself bowing down on my knees in front of a Jesus Christ portrait. Am I committing a sin because we're not supposed to be idolizing?

What would you recommend a person who's trying to search for the answers? Thank you. Jose, thank you for that question, brother. We know in God's law, God calls us not to make images and not to bow down before those images. I understand, especially coming from a Roman Catholic background, that that may have been very much a part of your piety and something that you were doing.

What would be a good way to approach this question? I can tell, Jose, from your question, that you long for God, for His grace, for His mercy, for His help. God hears your prayers when you cry out to Him, when you bow down before Him.

Also, there's nothing wrong with bowing. It's just one of the postures in prayer, kneeling before the Lord. You see this everywhere in the Bible, but we don't see Jesus. We can't see Him right now because He's at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Peter could say in the book of 1 Peter 1 verse 8, though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. So you might not be able to see Jesus in a picture, that kind of a thing, but you know there is a way that you can lay hold of Him by faith and it's through His word. Paul said in Galatians chapter 3 verse 1 that Jesus was placarded before the Galatians, almost billboarded before the Galatians.

How? Through the preaching of the word. Jesus said that He reveals Himself through the scriptures. He rebuked the religious leaders in John chapter 5 saying that they searched the scriptures thinking that in them they have eternal life, but He says those very scriptures testify of Me.

If you want to quote unquote see Jesus, brother, open up the scriptures and learn about Him more and more. Learn about the love and the grace and the mercy that He has for you. And I think that's the best encouragement for us in prayer. There's nothing wrong with kneeling in prayer and when it comes to prayer, I think again I mentioned this earlier on the broadcast, praying with sincerity and praying with faith.

Those are the keys. Jesus gives us two warnings about prayer in Matthew chapter 6. He says don't be like the hypocrites when they pray, just to be seen by others and don't be like the Gentiles, superstitious when you pray. You can come before the Lord by faith in the name of Jesus and trust that He hears your prayer and the cries when you cry out to Him and that He loves you, brother.

Thank you for your question and may the Lord strengthen you and give you grace to relate well to your family and to continue to walk with Jesus. Thanks. Jose, we'd also love to send you our resource, Nine Things to Know About Depression. You mentioned you're struggling with depression and anxiety. If you give us a call at 833-THE-CORE, we'd love to send you that. Again, it's Nine Things to Know About Depression. And maybe you'd also enjoy our little booklet called Seeing Jesus.

It'd be very helpful to you. Let's go to another call. This one from Ken in Rogers, Arkansas.

Ken, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Thank you for taking my call. I'll be 70 in December, a Vietnam veteran. I have a 35-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old granddaughter. My daughter got mad at me Christmas will be six years ago. And she hadn't spoke to me since. And it's just, I feel my age and I feel like I'm going to die without reconciling my family.

I have a son that's two years younger than her and he and I have a good relationship. But this is eating away at me like a cancer. Ken, I'm going to pray for you. This kind of brokenness in relationship, I mean, I can hear how heavily it weighs upon you. And I know that you're not alone. I know there are a lot of families that struggle with this kind of thing.

I would encourage you, I don't know all of the details about the situation, why it is that six years ago your daughter stopped speaking with you. I think we search our hearts and we say, Lord, have I sinned in this area? What have I done?

What is it that has created this breach? And then we go to this person in humility and we ask for mercy. I mean, Jesus says this, Ken, in Matthew 5, again in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. And really he's just emphasizing the importance of us being reconciled with one another in the church especially, but also in our families. And so going to your daughter, and again, I don't know what the situation is. I don't know who sinned against who in this particular situation.

I know that oftentimes two parties are involved. And so what I would say is, you humble yourself, you go to her, you pursue her, and you tell her what you just told me, that this is eating you up and that you want there to be peace. And pray, brother. Ultimately we also need the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Lord, to soften hearts.

We know that when there's been hurt, when there's been pain, people feel betrayed. We start to build those walls because we don't want that to happen again. And sometimes, Ken, only Jesus can take those walls down. And so pray.

And that's what I'm going to do for you right now. Father, I pray for Ken, and I pray for this wall that exists between he and his daughter and his grandchildren. Lord, would you take those bricks down? Would you bring forgiveness? Would you bring healing? Would you bring reconciliation? And would you give Ken, I pray, wisdom to know how to speak to his daughter? And I pray, Lord Jesus, that you would bring peace in their relationship. Thank you for your mercy to us, Lord God, in Jesus' name. Amen. Ken, may the Lord bless you and give you wisdom and be with you, brother. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.