Relationship With God

I believe that Christians should take the opportunities they receive in their daily lives to speak the good news of God to others they meet. 

In this post I will be trying to lay out one way of understanding what lies behind such witness. 

It's common to represent initiation into the Christian walk as the beginning of a relationship with God. And there's nothing wrong with this conception as long as we keep in mind some important differences between human relationships and relationships with God.

1. God Is Not A Person

It's common to hear folk say that God is a person. In the evangelical world it's almost a fundamental doctrine and taken for granted. 

However, although God relates to us in a personal way for we are persons, his being--to use C. S. Lewis' graphic term--is 'super-personal'. What Lewis meant by this language is that God transcends or is beyond what we describe as a person.

And we begin to comprehend the supra-personal nature of God through God's revelation of himself as Triune Being: as Three persons (e.g., Matt 3.13-17)  in One Being (substance)(e.g., Deut 4.35; 1 Cor 8.6).

Bruce A Ware (2005) in speaking about the Trinity says:

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not identical persons, but they are harmonious in accomplishing the one undivided purpose, . . . since they each possess fully the one, undivided divine essence (p. 42).

So seeking a relationship with God is to seek a relationship with a 'three-person'd God' (John Donne), where each divine Person is related to each of the others in One Being ('substance'). 

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth and he spoke often of the love between the Father and himself, and of their intimate, unique knowledge of each other (Matt 11.27; Jn 10.15; 13.3; 14.9-11; & etc.). In addition, Jesus is God's 'only begotten Son' (Jn 1.14, 18) which means that Jesus is not made but begotten and has the same nature as the Father (Heb 1.3).

Furthermore, Jesus had an intimate relationship with the Spirit from conception (Lk 1.35), at his baptism (Jn 1.32-33), inauguration of his ministry (Lk 4.18-19) and also throughout his earthly ministry (Acts 10.38). The Spirit is said to 'proceed' from the Father (Jn 15.26) and to be sent by the Son (Jn 16.7; Acts 1.33). 

The Spirit is definitely a Person because he can be lied to (Acts 5.3), he commands apostles (Acts 10.19, 20) and uses personal pronouns of himself (Acts 13.2; 10.20). And the Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth will be the One to teach them further when Jesus has gone from them. Further, Jesus says that He will send another 'comforter' (John 14.16) with the Greek for 'another' meaning 'another just like me' (not 'another similar to me' as Jesus could have said in Greek).

Now what is amazing about all of this is that Jesus invited his disciples into this relationship he has with the Father and the Spirit (Jn 14.10-11, 20-21, 23, 26). All mankind is also invited and drawn into relationship through the death, 'the lifting up' of Jesus (Jn 12.33-34).

2. A Major Barrier To Relationship With God  

The major barrier to this relationship with God is our many sins we have committed. Or with more sophistication, it's the 'fallen' nature we exhibit, passed on to us as children of Adam and Eve's unfaithfulness to the relationship they had with God in the Garden of Eden. This fallen nature or 'heart' leads us into all sorts of sins and into a complacency towards the things of God.

a) What is the good news about Jesus? 

The good news is that Christ (i) died for our sins according to the scriptures, (ii) was buried, (iii) rose again the third day, (iv) was seen by various individuals, by the eleven and then twelve disciples/apostles, then by over 500 believers at one time many of whom were still alive when Paul, Christ's apostle to the Gentiles, wrote his letter to the church at Corinth in circa AD 55. Finally, on the road to Damascus, Jesus appeared to Paul, at that time a fanatical, persecutor of Christians (1 Cor 15.1-11) and changed his life around.

Let us enlarge upon this Bible passage in First Corinthians 15 because it is a concentrated snapshot of the gospel that Paul had received and preached. We must remember that the text was written to Christians in the first century AD.

i) Christ died for our sins

Some bible texts (e.g., Jn 3.17) use words like 'saved' and 'save' implying that God's only Son came into the world to 'save' mankind in some sense. Other verses go further directly linking his coming with 'sin' and 'sinners' (1 Tim 1.15; Heb 9.26).

Before Jesus came into the world, coming to God was blocked by our sinfulness, our desire not to do God's will but to go our own way. 

Sin is essentially lawlessness (1 Jn 3.4); choosing to live the way we want to without any wish or care as to how our Creator wishes us to live. A lawless lifestyle is run by wilfulness and pride, themes we will return to later.

We were in a deathly state (Eph 2.1) because of our 'trespasses and sins' but Jesus willingly died a shameful death in our place; he was our substitute (Isa 53.5).

He died our death because our sin required that we should be punished for our sins with death (Rom 6.23); this death was eternal separation from God.  

But the Trinity knew mankind was doomed forever: hence, the Father 'planned' humanity's salvation (Eph 1.4-6); the Son executed the Father's plan by taking upon himself the sin of the world (Isa 53.5-7; Jn 1.29; 2 Cor 5.21; 1 Jn 4.10) and the Spirit continues to apply the work of Christ to this day (Jn 16.13-15; Eph 1.13-15).

ii) Christ was buried

Jesus was buried in a sepulchre and that's important because it tells us he really died. The Romans only buried people who were dead and being a culture of death, they made sure Jesus was dead. They even allowed for a guard to be placed at his tomb (Matt 27.64-66) to ensure his body was not stolen by his disciples.

iii) Christ rose again the third day

One theme running through the preaching of the apostles after Jesus finally left them is that: Jesus was dead but now He is alive. Peter, the apostle, voices this clearly on the Day of Pentecost after the disciples have all received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2.4, 24, 32, 36).

Paul declares that faith in Christ is futile if Christ is not raised from the dead (1 Cor 15.12-19) adding that we are still in our sins (1 Cor 15.17) and therefore in danger of eternal spiritual death.

The importance of the resurrection of Christ Jesus is that it authenticates this Man and all he claimed about himself to be correct. He said he would die and rise again the third day (e.g., Lk 9.22) and that's what happened (Lk 24.1-45).

iv) Christ was seen by many

They all seem to be believers though we can't be sure of that because even Thomas one of the original twelve doubted until he was permitted to touch Jesus (Jn 20.24-29). And, on another occasion mentioned by Matthew, we read that 'And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted' (Matt 28.17).

In Acts we're told that 'he shewed himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God' (Acts 1.3). The very fact that Jesus appeared to the apostles over this period of time implies that the disciples required 'infallible proofs' of his resurrection and that Jesus was not reluctant to satisfy their desire for proof.

We note too that Jesus appeared to more than 500 believers at one time so we can definitely rule out hallucination because hallucination does not occur en masse. Furthermore, says Paul, many of these witnesses were still alive when Paul had written the first extant letter to the Corinthian church.

Lastly, Paul sees the Risen Lord himself (Acts 9.1-31) which changes his whole life around. He is no longer a persecutor of the Christian Church but the great apostle to the Gentiles.

b) What is the good of this news for humanity?

This news signifies that the punishment that mankind's sins required has been definitively borne by the Messiah, Christ Jesus, in his death and resurrection (Rom 4.24-25). The penalty incurred for breaking God's law has been paid!

So the good news is that the sin-barrier between God and mankind has been broken down by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

3. BUT . . .

The Bible says that those who don't believe the good news about Jesus the Messiah are alienated from God (Jn 3.16-18, 36) and subject to God's wrath and condemnation (Jn 3.36; 2 Thess 1.7-10).

a) Being judged

Being judged is an unpopular notion today to the point where even the idea of judgement of any kind is rejected. But all human societies, in one way or another, practice human judgement when serious laws have been broken. In everyday life too, only the gullible fail to exercise judgement. When faced with the many demands of living the exercise of judgement proves to be an inescapable feature of human life.

On the divine level, we cannot escape the number of references to God's judgement throughout the bible beginning as early as the first book of the Bible (Gen 3.16-19). In fact, judgement occurs in this life to us all because we are all part of the human race subject to the curse that came upon us for Adam and Eve's rebellion (Rom 5.17-18).

In the New Testament, many exist references (e.g., Rev 20.1-10, Rom 11.13-24). At the Areopagus in Athens (Acts 17), Paul spoke about God 'judging the world in righteousness by that Man whom he has ordained' and reinforced the credibility of this claim by citing the fact that the Man, Jesus was raised from the dead after his crucifixion (Acts 17.31; see also Matt 25.31-46; Rom 2.6; 2 Cor 5.10).

All eternal judgement for sin has been visited upon Jesus, the Son of God (even if in this present life we will still experience judgement of a temporal nature).

A final judgement will occur for believers to apportion rewards but not to condemn. But the rub is, such judgement will occur for believers (2 Cor 5.10).

If we are not believers in Jesus who is the only way to the Father (Jn 14.6) then we need to be 'saved' from the judgement leading to 'the second death' (Rev 20.6, 14).  

b) Being saved

To be saved in normal language may be defined as being rescued from something bad such as financial ruin or death. Hence, life-savers at the beach save bathers from drowning if they get into difficulties in the ocean by rescuing them from the water. This needed rescue is what Christians call 'being saved'.

So we could all be likened to drowning swimmers in the ocean waving our hands wanting desperately to be rescued. We need to be rescued because we live under the judgement of God as sinners who have broken his holy laws by 'leaving undone what we should have done' as well as, 'doing things we should not have done'.
 

i) by grace

Though hard to grasp from any human perspective, this God seeks for humanity. (We may think we are initiating a move towards him, but our moves are a sign that he has already inclined our hearts to seek him. When we think about that, it should encourage us even more to press on towards him!)

Being 'saved', experiencing God's salvation from sin, is by God's grace. The notion of 'grace', 'the unmerited favour of God to those who deserve the opposite' is the hallmark of Christian teaching and life.

ii) through faith

Our faith doesn't save us but it is the sole instrument God uses to bring about our salvation (Rom 1.16; 4.2-3). Without faith, that is, a wholesale trust and reliance on the truth of God's promises to forgive our sins and make us right with him, we 'cannot please God' (Heb 12.6).
 
God seeks us all loving us with a holy love (Jn 3.16; 1 Jn 4.10). The truth is he was moved with compassion for man's pitiful state to give His 'only begotten Son'  for the welfare of His creatures.

iii) for good works

Although we are not saved from the penalty of sin by doing good works, we are saved to do good works. This teaching abounds in the New Testament (Matt 5.16; 1 Tim 5.9-10, 24-25; 1 Tim 6.17-18; Titus 2.12-14; Jas 3.13; Heb 10.24; 1 Pet 2.12).

A beautiful summary of how grace, being saved, faith and our good works go together is given in this verse:

By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk therein (Eph 2.8-10).

Coda

In writing further on this theme which arose out of various contacts I've made and discussions I've had, I intend to draw attention to the limitations of presenting what I've outlined above to members of our post-Christian society.

The presentation of the Gospel always requires that we be sensitive to the context in which we present it. That doesn't mean we should compromise its message but we must do the groundwork so that what we say is intelligible to those with which we speak.