One of the biggest distinctions that needs to be made in the church today is between "Religion" and "the Gospel."
One pastor puts it this way: "As missionaries, we must not forget that if the gospel is ever going to reach people in our day it’s going to have to be distinguished from religion because “religion” is what most people outside the church think Christianity is all about—rules and standards and behavior and cleaning yourself up and politics and social causes and ascetic appeasement and self-salvation and climbing the “ladder”, and a whole host of other things."
In order to make proper distinctions, we need to define our terms. What do we mean when we say religion or gospel?
Here's a helpful comparison chart:
