The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Most Important Relationship"
Our relationship with God is not the most important relationship in our lives. Salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ confirms this truth, as does the life God calls us to live as believers.
"But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name" (John 20:31).
"Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" (I John 5:5).
The relationship in God whereby we are saved and empowered through faith provides the most important bond and fellowship of love in our lives. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit comprise the fundamental and eternal reality of relationship. We are born again by believing that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God. We live the Christian life by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who reveals in us that "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6). God's purpose and working in our lives proceeds not primarily from His love for us, wondrous and blessed as such devotion is. Relationship with God rather flows with the current of love that has forever flowed within His triune being, and that spiritually births those who believe as its tributary of grace. The Lord Jesus prayed accordingly just before He suffered and died on the cross of Calvary:
"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me. Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world." (John 17:20-23).
If the Gospel declared that salvation is received by believing God desires relationship with us - true as that is - such a lesser faith would leave us in self-centeredness. "God loves ME!" would be our tainted emphasis. God rather offers salvation by calling us to believe in the Father/Son relationship in Him, as revealed to us and within us through the Holy Spirit. This also supplies the power whereby we live the Christian life as we realize that our Father's acceptance of us is based on who Christ is to Him. "He hath made us accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6). Knowing this truth encourages us to approach God with confidence as we "come boldly to the throne of grace" because we realize the relationship between the Father and the Son forever provides our access to God. "For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (Hebrews 4:16; Ephesians 2:18). This results in a progressive growth and deliverance from our native tendency to view ourselves as the hub of our existence rather than the triune God who made us and redeemed us through His Son.
How wondrous that God loves us! We will never fully fathom such grace, and we should live this day and forevermore in remembrance and affirmation of His devotion to us. However, this truth is not primary, nor does it provide salvation or the power to live the Christian life. The love of God in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit alone supplies this grace. The unholy trinity of "I, me, and my" dies on the altar whereupon we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and from which we go forth to live as God's beloved sons and daughters because we look away from ourselves unto the triune glory of love that existed "before the world was" (John 17:5).
"That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ."
(I John 1:3)
"Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love."
(II John 1:3)
Weekly Memory Verse
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
(I Timothy 1:14)
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