Religion Without Relationship - Life Lessons From CaiaphasSample

You can recite the right words, yet not know Jesus

Every Sunday in churches around the world, many recite the Apostles' Creed and say “I believe”, yet live lives during the week as if they do not believe.

The creed was never meant to be a substitute for personal faith, for a trusting relationship with God. The creed, rather, gives substance to our personal faith. We profess our faith not in the words but in the reality to which they point.  

Reciting the creed does not make us Christians, but it reminds us of the truths of our salvation and gives us an opportunity to personally affirm them. 

It is not what you say you believe that matters, but how you live your life based on what you believe that really matters.

In John 11:50, we read about Caiaphas saying “It is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people” 

Caiaphas realized that the priests, Pharisees, and the Sanhedrin, who were the ecclesiastical rulers of the people, must suffer in their characters and revenues and would have to lose their honourable and gainful posts and places if Jesus became popular among the people each day. Therefore, he thought that the main thing to be considered at the council was that Jesus should be killed.

Caiaphas proceeded entirely upon the political principle that a public good ought to be preferred to a private one. He meant that it was better that Jesus should die, whether He were guilty or not, rather than the displeasure of the Romans should be incurred and the whole nation be destroyed.

But he did not realize that when he spoke the profound truth of Christ’s death as a substitute for sinners, he echoed the words of Isaiah, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

Jesus said, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:31).

This was true of Caiaphas because after the death and resurrection of Jesus, when Peter and John were brought to the rulers, elders and teachers of the law, we find in Acts 4: 6, Caiaphas was present. Yet he did not believe the evidence but threatened Peter and John and let them go. 

You can know the words from the Bible without receiving any benefit from them! You could read the Bible each day and even quote verses from the Bible and yet not have a personal relationship with God. That was the case with Caiaphas. He knew the right words, but they had absolutely no effect on his life.

Quote

“Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. It is the belief that God will do what is right.” - Max Lucado

Prayer

Lord, I know that you don’t consider what I say with my lips, but what I mean in my heart. Help me to be honest with You. Amen