Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers’” (Matthew 21:12-13).

Over turning tables in the Temple. Calling the religious people of His day “hypocrites,” “arrogant,” “a brood of vipers,” and “white-washed tombs filled with dead man’s bones.”

When I read this for the first time in Matthew 21-23, it struck me that Jesus hates religion. Why? Because religion keeps people, like me, who are searching for God from ever discovering His grace, love, acceptance, and forgiveness.

I came to realize that religion and faith are not the same thing. That’s good news if you’re like me and are burned out on rule keeping, feel ashamed for not doing enough, or hide in the shadows of regret haunted by long-past mistakes.

When I stopped trying hard to please God for His acceptance and realized religion would never save me or transform me, that’s when I discovered God’s free invitation to love, forgiveness, and grace in Jesus Christ.

Receiving Jesus into my heart, I began to live the kind of life I had been striving for. A life of purpose and meaning. A life fueled by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, humility, and self control. My faith in Jesus Christ gets me through whatever comes my way—good or bad—because He promises that He will never leave me or forsake me.

And that’s forever!