The saying itself brings a smile to my face: “That’s the brass tacks.” I honestly had to look this up to see what the expression truly meant or referred to. Apparently, it means that you are getting to the core of the issue, and when it comes to the issue of religion vs. Christianity, we need to get to what is really the problem.
When folks receive the invitation to come to church, some people reply by saying that they have been looking to get some religion in their lives. As wicked a man as Karl Marx was, he was right when he said that “religion is the opium of the masses.” Religion feeds the humans need to feel justified by what they do in approaching God and morality. Christianity is quite different. Christianity, at its core, is the abandonment of all hope for self-justification, and is the final surrender of all self-righteousness at the foot of the cross as the individual begs for Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross to take the place of our punishment in hell. The only justification we can receive is the Lord Jesus justifying us by his blood based upon our free will to accept that gift of eternal life by his substitutionary death.
Salvation begins by saying, “God, I can’t. Will you accept me? I believe Jesus paid the price I had to pay. I believe he took my place.” Thanks to the “lovely” world of social media, everybody is engaged from a young age in comparing themselves to everybody else: everybody else, that is, except the only holy standard in the universe, Jesus Christ. Mankind has become asphyxiated with self approval, self-aggrandizment, self-promotion, and self-immunity from criticism. We are told that “we are the measure of all things,” and we create our universe as we go along. The teachings of “the Secret” has destroyed countless millions and held them in bondage to a way that seems right unto them. The Bible says that the end of those ways is death.
Yet, in a way that seems so straight and narrow, perhaps even repulsive to modern man, the Lord Jesus Christ arises above the ashes of man’s failures and says to repentant man: “There is a place by me, thou shalt stand upon a rock.” The hymn writer says “That rock is Jesus, yes, he’s the one.” Religion says that rock is Peter, and Peter yells back, “No, its my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” His testimony is that he was sinking when he looked at his frailty in the water. Then Jesus reached his hand down and pulled him up by his mighty hand. Listen, dear reader, if Jesus doesn’t take your hand, you are going to drown in this sea we call “life.” Go with the Lord Jesus. He is “THE way, THE truth, and THE life.” And THAT… is the brass tacks!
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