Religion and Revelation

Religion teaches what man must do in order to be acceptable to God or some higher power. Revelation declares what God has already done through Jesus Christ to make men acceptable to God. Religions are the many varying concepts and ideas of what men have devised to please God. Therefore, religious people do not always agree concerning which ways please God. Revelation, coming from one God, shows the true and only way in which men are made acceptable with Him.. That one way is Jesus Christ.

Both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible are God’s revelation. From the beginning God has revealed that there is but one sacrifice that will atone for man’s sins. That one sacrifice is the substitutionary death of the God-Man Jesus Christ. To clothe Adam and Eve following their sin, God killed an innocent animal to make them coats of skins. That animal was evidently a lamb because Abel brought a lamb from his flock as a sacrifice, having learned from revelation what was required. Cain, being religious, substituted his idea for the teaching of revelation. Consequently, God rejected Cain but had respect unto Abel and his offering, because it was offered by faith (Gen. 4:1-5; Heb. 11:4)

From that time, true believers offered the sacrifice revelation required by faith. At no time did they believe that the blood of lambs could take away their sin. These animals were a type of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:29). Each sacrifice declared their faith in God’s revelation that He would send His Son, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8), to be the one sacrifice that would take away their sins forever (Heb. 10:12). That one offering perfected forever those set apart by the Lord to Himself (Heb. 10:14). By this means and this means alone, men are made acceptable to God. It is by faith that they know their acceptance before God (1 John 5:9-13).