Can a faith look good and secure on the outside and still be dying? In Revelation 3:1-6, Jesus writes to the church in Sardis, a city whose acropolis was viewed as impregnable yet was conquered five times, twice through lack of vigilance. This message names three marks of dead religion: self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, and self-preservation. We all drift toward it unless we recklessly abandon ourselves in dependence and devotion to Christ. The good news is that Jesus offers to clothe us with white robes of his own righteousness and to give us eternal security in place of our own. The heart of the matter is the condition of our heart.
