Lead:

Every worldview tries to answer the big questions of life...and "religiosity" does, too. What's the difference?

Intro:

Have you ever thought about atheism as a religion? Or someone’s political perspective as a religion?

To address that, let me review the idea of “worldview.”

A worldview is the lens through which we see the world — four or five foundational perspectives that literally explain or influence every other perspective we have — questions of origin asking “where did we come from?”, questions of meaning and identity — “who are we and why are we here?”, questions of morality — “why is there evil in the world, and what do we do about it?”, — and questions of destiny — “where does this all go?”

Today we wrap up the book of Genesis, and in and of itself is a really big deal. It lays out the foundation of the four essential elements of the Christian worldview, even if not all of them are explicit. But that opening religiosity question? You can see that atheists and secularists and buddhists and social justice warriors and anyone and everyone has a perspective that tries to provide answers to these most basic worldview questions.

And here’s the thing. Religion, or more accurately, religiosity, is the attempt of human beings to get to God (or whatever it is they worship with their time, attention, and money). But the Gospel — the Good News that the person and work of Jesus came after us on a rescue mission — is exactly the opposite. It’s not about what we do to get to God…it’s about what God did.

Besides finishing off Genesis, today also wraps up Paul’s argument to the Galatians when we heard him say, “You idiots, you became Christians because you trusted what Jesus did for you, so now you think you can get to Jesus or God because you do all the right religious things that the Jews are trying to get you to go back to?”

These, my friends, are good reminders. Jesus loves me, this I know.

Sponsor:

Would you kindly give a shout out somewhere? Like maybe telling someone about the weekly Sunday newsletter that has extras in it? Thanks for spreading the Word.

Old covenant:

Passage: Genesis 49-50
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 59
Words: ~1398

Wisdom:

Passage: Psalm 105
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 48
Words: ~788

New covenant:

Passage: Galatians 4:8-5:12
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 36
Words: ~725

Commentary:

Love you!

-R

ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.

Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.

Sources and resources:

#1012: Genesis 49-50 | Psalm 105 | Galatians 4:8-31