Is Religion a Tool to Force People to Obey?

Today I was doom scrolling through Facebook as I tend to do, and I stumbled across an interesting post made by an atheist friend of mine. This is what it said

”Religion doesn’t teach morality it teaches obedience. Do this or be punished. True morality is about doing the right thing because it is right—not because you fear hell or want heaven”

I thought this was an interesting take on religion. Sort of a blanket statement on religion being a tool used to control people. To keep them in line.

And for majority of religions I actually would agree with this sentiment.

Many eastern religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism preach doing good deeds for good rewards, and that doing bad things will reap bad consequences.

Karma if you will.

Some even teach that the more good you do, the better the reward you will have when you are reincarnated or enter into that religions afterlife.

But when it comes to Christianity, we see a very different approach to morality.

You see, Christianity doesn’t just teach morality, rather it teaches us about our IMMORALITY and the consequences of it.

Paul’s says in Romans 2:12-16

12For all who sin without the lawa will also perish without the law, and all who sin underAthe law will be judged by the law. 13For the hearers of the lawa are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.A 14So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law,a doAwhat the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. 15They show that the work of the lawA is written on their hearts.a Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse themB 16on the day when God judgesa what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.

What Paul is saying here is that, every human being, can, and will be held accountable to their actions whether they have heard Gods law or not because we have been created in Gods image. We are reflections of Who He is, and because we are in His image, His moral law has been written on our hearts and minds.

We all have a conscious, something within us that affirms or disapproves of our own actions. For example an atheist who just lied to his wife, would understand that, lying is inherently wrong. It doesn’t sit right with us.

Rather what Gods law, and what His Word shows us, is the consequential problem of our immorality, and the solution.

When God calls us to obey, He is calling us to accurately reflect His character. His perfect Character.

One big problem I have with the photo I just showed, is that it assumes that humans are able to be good, moral people by nature. However in my, and I believe many others experience of life, it’s been my understanding that humans tend to actually be immoral by nature.

We take, we survive, we put our selfish desires before another’s needs, we lie, we kill.

That being said, the Bible does still teach obedience, and there are certainly consequences to what we do, but that’s not all there is.

The Bible is very clear that we are saved by grace through faith alone. This is not of anything we do, but instead what Christ did on the cross.

In response to our salvation, we strive to obey God, and all the He says, out of worship and reverence because now, we are to be followers of a perfect God.

So our obedience to God, is actually proof of an inward change because our spirit desires to do what is good, while our flesh, still struggles with evil. This is why we need grace. This is why we need the sacrifice because our good deeds can’t save us, because for very good deed there are 10 bad ones.

Plus, wouldn’t you expect obedience from your child?

If I tell my son, not to break his sisters toy or there will be consequences, and he goes and breaks his sisters toy, should i be okay with that? Well of course not, the son would be punished.

For two reasons, one it has to be shown to the son, that there are consequences to his actions.

And two, it provides justice to the sister, who is the victim of her brothers toy breaking.

God must punish evil doers, and we are all evil doers.

But that’s why Jesus sacrifice is so important, because by taking on the cross, He took the wrath of God, so that all who would call on His name and accept His gift of grace, would be saved.

Lastly I just wanted to address the final part in the picture I showed where it states “true morality is about doing what’s right—not because you fear hell, or want Heaven”

And well, I actually agree with this. But it’s not the slam dunk atheists believe it to be.

It is true, many Christian’s are pretend Christians, people who do good to try to earn Gods favor so they can punch their ticket to heaven, but let’s look at what Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ 23 Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’

Jesus is talking about these very people. These people that believe their actions are what is saving them, this who do Gods will, and obey Him, will be with The Father. Jesus is calling us to a true relationship, a willing and loving one. So yes, true morality is not just doing something good to earn a reward, it’s making Christ your Lord, and obeying Him, because we are reflections of the Master.