What ABOUT a personal relationship with Jesus?
Recently I casually mentioned to someone that the Bible doesn't use terminology about, "Having a personal relationship with Jesus". Unfortunately, this person misunderstood completely the point I was trying to make, and it was reported back to me the ridiculous idea that I said you could get to heaven without a relationship with Christ. Several lessons learned. Number one, when you're having a philosophical discussion with someone, make sure the person you are discussing with KNOWS you are having a philosophical discussion! You might have to simplify to make sure they understand what you are meaning. Lesson number two: Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of gossip. Now I know why Jesus was silent before Pilate. Pilate didn't care what Jesus had to say. He already had all of the "evidence" he needed. His mind was made up. He was already committed to delivering up Jesus. He was just looking for a way to divert the blame and responsibility. Barabbas was a carrot dangled to make Pilate look good. As far as Pilate was concerned, his hands were washed. But we also must learn from how Jesus handled himself when the sentenced was passed down. His model of integrity in the face of false accusation is how it should be for all of us. Oh, that we would all have the grace and humility to love so well.
Now, back to the "personal relationship with Jesus" idea. Go ahead; I challenge you to find any reference or phrase in the Bible that says we need to have a "personal relationship" with Christ. I looked. There is nothing, Zero, Zippo, Zilch. Not one mention of that combination of words in any concordance search I did. Not even the word "relationship" (By the way, this IS a philosophical discussion).
So where does that leave us? Where did the idea come from that we acquired eternal salvation by having a "personal relationship" with Jesus?
We have to look back in time several hundred years to the era known as Romanticism to find our answer. Romanticism was the 18th and 19th century idea that emphasized imagination, emotion and freedom of the spirit. It encourages personal introspection and individuality rather than community or intellect. The period came about as a sort of revolt against classical and ordered. You might call it the 1960's in the 1820's! Up until that time, the theological emphasis on salvation centered on the judicial guilt of completely sinful man standing before a holy and righteous God. The bible says That "if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved" (Romans 10:9) Jesus declared we must "believe" in Him (John 3:16)to be saved. Jesus was the substitute, or the "propitiation". He not only was declared guilty for us, but He also paid the just penalty due to us. Romans 8:1, while talking about "no condemnation" means that the penalty of our sin (eternal death) was removed by Jesus. It's not even a matter of going to trial and being found innocent. It's as though there are not even any charges brought against us.
The concept of "personal relationship" tends to diminish the holiness of God and the unbelievable price Jesus paid for us. It seems to equate us on a level with God. I believe this attitude comes about because of our western individualism and self focus rather than a more biblical concept of serving community. God may call us friend, but it is His doing, because of his mercy, not because we are deserving of it. Jesus is not our "Homeboy" or our "buddy". God is not "hip", "happenin", or "cutting edge". He is a holy God who demands a judicial declaration of righteousness that can only occur when our wicked, sinful existence cries out for his mercy and forgiveness that was so graciously made available by His Son.
God does bridge the gap between himself and us through Jesus, and I understand in principle what the concept of a "personal relationship" means. Essentially it means, "Have you confessed Christ as Savior, repented of sin, and are you serving Him in obedience?" But that probably doesn't sit well with our "touchy, feely," emotion driven western model of Christianity.
-Perhaps we in the body of Christ should consider eliminating the phrase "personal relationship with Jesus" from our Christian vernacular, and return to a more Biblically accurate representation of salvation.
-Perhaps we in the body of Christ should do a better job of explaining what we mean when we pick on accepted Christian terminology.
-Perhaps we in the body of Christ should be a better example, like Jesus on trial before Pilate, of not talking, so that any words we say cannot and will not be used against us in a court of gossip (or law!).
posted by AKA @ 4:56 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
We need to think as a body of beleivers in Jesus Christ. "Judgement begins in the house of God." We pick our pet sins. Yet, we do not deal with slander or gossip they are not so bad to us. Yet, twisting and slandering Gods word is exactly what satan did. As a whole, I see, as long as we feel good about ourselves and our church, we think we are ok, because we feel ok. Redemption shows us our sin and Grace leads us to Him. Who today will look at their sin?? Good post
People like to hear about a "personal relationship" with Jesus because it gives them the warm fuzzies or something. Knowing Jesus is more than fluff--it's something that goes beyond this world, through thick and thin, not "I love Jesus today because I feel good". Give me a break! Jesus gave everything for us, and we don't even want to come out of our comfort zones for Him. Skip the warm fuzzies--I want to dive into whatever He has planned.
The concept of a "personal relationship" is so like our times. Individualism is rampant. Personal morality is becoming the norm. "I" get to do what "I" want to do, and you just mind your own business. Maybe want people are really hearing in "personal relationship" is "private religion". Our salvation may be seen as a personal decision on our part to accept what Christ did for us upon the cross, BUT, our personal decision does not give us the right to a private relationship with Christ. Christianity IS NOT privatized, is is communitized, (if that's a word, well it is now). Anyway, I believe in the Supremacy and the Sovereignty of God, and His Son Jesus to empower us to do what we are created to do, by the Holy Spirit. True Christianity is lived out in close community with others young and old, not holed up in your home, (house-bound excepted), nor as a one-man personal religion. Christianity is not tolerant of everybody elses views. That's Americanism. We must be careful of portraying a Gospel other than what Christ gave us. May we live up to that challenge.
Hey to you ...Your wife and I comment one another ...so I thought I'd read your blog. My family attends a Bible Church in TN. Blessings to all the A's, ~Karen
I dont think that there is anything wrong with stating "Having a Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ." That is how one goes to heaven, by believing as stated in your blog, and in turn having a personal Relationship with Him. We as Christians are called to have a relationship with Christ, in order to know him. Having a "personal relationship" with Christ doesnt have anything to do with "Warm Fuzzies" as Kayla red said. But it has everything to do with exactly what it says, a "personal Relationship" with Christ. We are called to know our Lord and Savior. How does one know their spouse or loved ones? They know them, because they have a "Personal Relationship" with their spouse and family members. Even if there is no mention of us having to have a personal relationship with Christ in the Bible, that doesnt mean we shouldnt have one and arent called to have one.
Two things...first you state that you mentioned..."casually" then you state you were having a "philosophical discussion..." makes no sense! which one was it??
You say... “the ridiculous idea that I said you could get to heaven without a relationship with Christ.” So, are you saying that you believe we have to have a relationship with Christ??? Or not?? Because you say… “Now, back to the "personal relationship with Jesus" idea. Go ahead; I challenge you to find any reference or phrase in the Bible that says we need to have a "personal relationship" with Christ.”
Sounds like your "philosophical" or "casual" statement/discussion caused some confusion with the hearer, whereby it obviously caused the "gossip."
I don't know how I would "sup" with Him and not have a personal relationship with Jesus. If we knock, He answers...personally. If we call on Him...He answers personally...as we respond to His love, He continues to love us personally.... Sounds like a personal relation to me.
Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me
2 Corinthians 6:16
And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “ I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God,And they shall be My people.”
Psalm 63:8
My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me.
John 14:20
At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
Jeremiah 31:3
The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying:“ Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
Ezekiel 16:8
“When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord GOD.
Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
1 John 5:15
And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
Matthew 7:21-23
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
(they intellectually understood and knew who God was...but they obviously were not in a "personal" relationship with Him!!!"
Matthew 11:29
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
1 John 3:20
For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
Isaiah 61:10
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
(you can't get much more "personal" than in this marriage analogy..." What a beautiful description of how we have such a close intimate relationship with God!)
Whether or not the bible uses the word “relationship” or not, has no bearing on how we are to interact with our Loving God!! We are either in the place of knowing God and waiting for His triumphant return for us, His bride…or we do not know Him at all.
Perhaps, you may believe it is the mindset of Christians today…the Christian “terminology”… But the scriptures just stated do not take away God’s holiness just because we are able to have a very intimate personal relationship with the One who bore our sins and shed His blood for us. This has absolutely nothing to with raw emotion! (or warm fuzzies)The reality of the Word of God goes deep into our hearts, whereby, once accepting of the work on the Cross by Jesus Christ, He now resides.
We need to be thankful, that He died for us each "individually" therefore, as I am the apple of His eye..as He knew me before I was in my mother's womb...I can be non-emotionally grateful for the price He paid, so not only will I not be separated from Him, but that I can live with Him for all eternity! That's a very loving, and very personal God to me!
How to Know God
The order of the Christian's assignment is: hear, do, know. If we hear the commandments and obey them, the Father will make Himself known to us. It is no use trying to know Him without doing what He says. To listen to one word and go out and obey it is better than having the most exalted "religious experience," for it puts us in touch with God Himself--it is a willed response.
"If you really love me you will keep the commandments I have given you." It is perilously easy to imagine that we love God because we like the idea of God, or because we feel drawn to Him. The only valid test of love is obedience. Take one thing commanded and start doing it. Take one thing forbidden and stop doing it. Then we are on the sure road to knowing God. There is no other.
"You are my friends, if you do what I command you" (Jn 15:14 NEB).
"The man who has received my commands and obeys them--he it is who loves me: and he who loves me will be loved by my Father; and I will love him and disclose myself to him" (Jn 14:21). There is the order: hear, do, know.
This is from Elisabeth Elliots devotional.
The scripture above is good. Yet I am not able to be physically with Christ in the same manner I am with my husband and in the world today, when divorce is over 50 percent-it is hard to imagine how precious marriage is or compare that analogy to a lost world, who may have no idea what a godly marriage is or looks like. When we learn to die to ourselves and live for Christ-Then we begin to shine for Him. But if we just seek our own personal comfort, forgetting that God is Holy and that there is order in the Kingdom of God and life is not about, in the words of Francis Shaeffer, personal peace and comfort.
Also, any conversation can be casual, whether it is philosophical or not. In fact, when it becomes heated, it ceases to be philosophical and becomes emotionally biased.
These are good things to think about.
Regarding the above comments with the scriptures, If the commenter that used all the scripture believes they/or someone else, have cause to sin maybe they should look into that " personnal relatioship" they know they have and see how God feels about choosing to have a cause to sin. This can be hard to do at 1:30 in the morning, when it was posted. (perhaps this is what is meant by praticing lawlessness) As stated: "Sounds like your "philosophical" or "casual" statement/discussion caused some confusion with the hearer, whereby it obviously caused the "gossip."
Gossip is never caused.... it is a sin/action to be repented from! Not justified but turned from and confessed. If we believe we have a cause for sin,it is our own heart that needs cleansing because we are never tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Corithians 10:17). If we are confused (as stated in the comment) perhaps the Love of God in us would cause us to seek the best and ask for clarification from the one who the conversation has occured. This is Faith and exhibiting a true love and knowlegde of Our Saviour,letting His Spirit flow we cease to sin and falsely accuse our brethren, as stated in the written scripture(John 14:15).
I do not see the author of the blog opposing any of these wonderful scriptures. Matthew 7 says practice "lawlessness".They were not loving their neighbors as better than themselves. The chapter begins with judging others without first having our own lives in order. It takes a knowledge of the Living God to do this. In verse 12 it states, "Do to others as you would have them do to you. Summing up the law and the prophets". So this "lawlessness" would mean, most likely, they are not practicing what they seem to be proclaiming, but rather that they are tickling the ears and eyes of the people with whatever the people wanted to see and attatching the name of Jesus to their show.
If we compare our salvation to God as a "marraige" relationship: Being that salvation is for all who receive Christ, He did send His son to die for all who will receive. Does that mean God is a polygamist? Certainly not! It means His love is everlasting and unconditional, as stated in the Scriptures. Does that mean that men who are saved will then become females when they are in heaven, as in "bride"??? Will God look just like a man? Having all man's physical attributes and thus be able to perform physical intimacies in heaven just like a man with everyone who is His bride?? (Psalm 63:8. The scripture about God holding us in His right hand). The list of twisting things could go on and on.
I see very clearly how comments, thoughts or words, when we are only looking out for our own interests and being self-centered can get so out of line. Also, if we have a malicious intent towards people who may not have the same viewpoint, things can be warped and misconstrued. We can take what someone says and if we don't like it we can twist it to make them look horrible and ourselves look holy and good.(Perhaps this is a form of the lawlessness spoken of). So, if I think this is what the above commenters meant by their statements about an intimate and personal relationship, if I knew their names, I could run around and tell everyone I know that they believe that God is a polygamist and that men will be women in heaven and God will be performing marital duties with everyone in heaven!!!!! (I am reiterating/expounding on the gossip/slander which will and can run rampant. I do not at all believe this to be true!! I am not proclaiming those statements as true--only showing how pride and hatefulness can go against anyone.) This is not what the commenter with the scripture meant either (or at least I hope not). Hopefully, It is not what they meant or believe at all.
So, I see your point. I am trying to believe the best. If we are confused, perhaps the Love of God in us would cause us to seek the best and ask for clarification from the one who the conversation has occured. But as the blog states, "anything can and will be used against you" by people not full of His love. When I read the blog, to sum it up, I see this; that salvation is not for our own comfort but to enable us to love beyond ourselves. It is to bring comfort to others through the work of Jesus unto Salvation. We have a "relationship" with God because we are lost in our sinful state, hopeless without God and His mercy saved us from our state. Which all the above scriptures indicate.
Let's all just take a deep breath and calm down a bit. Ok,let's take a look at the word relationship. Webster's Ninth New Collegiate defines it, "the state of being related or interrelated; the relation connecting or binding participants in a relationship." How about the word relational; "Of or relating to kinship." Now a look at the root word relate; "to give an account of; to have relationship or connection." A "personal relationship" with Jesus has absolutely nothing to do with "warm fuzzies." You are right, that a "personal relationship" with Jesus does not save me. However, by accepting that Christ shed His blood for me, brings me into a personal relationship with Him and I am saved(by the way, as an i-n-d-i-v-i-d-u-a-l not a collective, I accepted Christ and entered into a personal relationship with Him). I believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the rapture but the words trinity and rapture are not found in the Bible either.
I believe it is dangerous to bring philosphy into how you interpret the Bible. Let me tell you why. When Jesus began to choose His disciples he did not seek out the men who were "philosphical," or the ones asking the intellectual questions. He chose a few fishermen. And if there is anything completely different from a philosphical man, its a fisherman.
1Cor 1:27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise;
also....
The man (criminal) hanging on the cross next to Jesus had no time to keep the laws of the Bible.
Luk 23:39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!"
Luk 23:40 But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?
Luk 23:41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong."
Luk 23:42 And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
Luk 23:43 And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
The criminal simply asked for Jesus to remember him. Thus desiring to know Jesus and experience a relationship with Him.
How did Enoch get into heaven? Genesis tells us that Enoch was taken up because he walked with God. Where is there a better example of a relationship with God than this?
Lastly, the bible is constantly refering to Jesus as our shepherd. And we know that when a shepherd would leave his flock to find the one lamb that wandered off, he would break the lambs legs and carry the lamb on his back until the lamb's legs healed. This forced the lamb to develope a bond with the shepherd, and when the lamb healed it would not desire to run off again.
Let us not worry about if the words relationship is not found in the Bible, or if the Bible specifically says we have to have a relatinoship with Christ to get into heaven. Let us instead know that the Bible teaches that Jesus wants to have a relationsihp with us. Why would we not desire to have a relationship with Him? Is not His sacrafice all about reconciling us back to Himself?
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