replica religion

Go to any market town on market day and you'll find all sorts of goods for sale.

Some bargains, for sure. But some slightly dodgy stuff as well, I guess. Some DVDs, for instance, which seem to be on sale for a price that's well below the 'recommended retail price'. And if you start to wonder where they're from, most times the best advice will probably be - don't ask!

Loads of what's offered for sale are actually 'replica' goods.

Copies. Not the authentic original things. Just cheap and replica copies.

In the market place of religion the same phenomenon happens. Replica goods abound.

And because the replica up for sale looks near enough the same as the original, but is vastly less costly to have, it's always very popular.

It's called 'folk religion'. And sadly, it's very prevalent. Very.

To the casual first glance it looks much the same as the real, authentic thing.

It makes the right noises. Its practitioners declare a simple belief in God.

They pitch up at worship each Sunday - and are keen to ensure it's a comfortable one hour therapy session, with hymns that they know and nothing that taxes their minds or their hearts and nothing to challenge their conscience.

They give very gladly of time and of money. They're good and respectable, hard-working people, who are quick to respond to the needs of their neighbours and play their full part in the local community life.

As I say, it looks quite impressive and ... well, what can there be to find fault with?

It's replica religion, that's what.

It's a copy which sells on the cheap. It's the gospel without any cross. It's religion without real relationship. It's the church without her Lord. It's good works without God's grace. It's righteousness without repentance. It's salvation without Jesus.

And at heart it's pure idolatry. It idolises, gratifies and panders to your self.

This folk religion is fake religion. A replica. The sort of thing you pick up in the market place. A cheap (and passable) version of the real authentic thing.

The gospel is hugely costly.

It's our dying to self. It's our humbly repenting; our acknowledging sin; our embracing the cross. It's our bowing before Jesus Christ. It's our opening our lives to his Spirit, submitting our lives to his lordship.

The first king of Israel got rapped on the knuckles for opting for a cheap and easy replica religion which he purchased from the market-place: "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams." (1 Sam.15.22).

The Lord isn't fooled by such replica religion. Sacrifices (including all the sacrifice of time and money made by practitioners of this replica 'folk' religion) - sacrifices look quite impressive. But they can't ever be any sort of substitute for the real thing.

The gospel is a Jesus-centred, God-exalting, self-denying, costly, costly thing.

We get to walk with God. Humbly, gladly, obediently.

"Burnt offerings and sin offerings you do not require. Then I said, 'Here I am .. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart." (Ps.40.6-8).

Here I am. My life abandoned to him. Utterly, for always, and with a glad and thankful sense of lasting wonder, I give myself to Jesus, the risen, living Son of God who came before I ever had a thought for him, and gave himself for me.

Folk religion simply will not do. It doesn't wash with God.

It is, so far as he's concerned, anathema.

An insult to his mercy. A challenge to his majesty. A snubbing of his gospel. A scorning of his Son.

It doesn't work and it doesn't wash and it won't do us any good.