So far, we have seen the first three parts of the Gospel. Part one, Royal, showed us how God is the King over all, infinite and eternal, holy, righteous, and deserving of all glory. Part two, Rebel, showed us how we are sinners to the core who have made everything about us instead of giving God the glory due His name. Part three, Reconcile, showed how God was gracious and sacrificed Himself so that we could be freed from the and power of sin.
What we have gone through so far is the story of the Gospel. It is the story of a Holy God and a sinful people who have been brought together through the cross of Christ. But our articulation of the Gospel has five words, so if we have gone through the Gospel story, what is left? The Gospel response. The Gospel is more than just history; it is a continuing story that we are called to join. We can talk about the story of the Gospel all we want, but if we want it to do anything then we must respond. Our first response is Relationship. There are three very important things for us to learn about relationship in the Gospel.
"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." Phil 3:7-11
1. A relationship with Jesus is to know and experience Him.
Paul makes it clear that above all else he wants a relationship with Jesus. For him this means "know[ing] Christ...sharing in his sufferings [and] becoming like him in his death." Any relationship in which we are currently involved we both know the person and we experience life with them. And those we are closer to, we know more of them and we experience more life with them. It's the same with Jesus. To be in relationship with Him means to know Him deeply and intimately, to know what He is like and what He loves. And it means to experience life with Him. First, we experience part of His life, His death and resurrection, then, He walks with us through our new lives.
2. We have been saved for this relationship.
Too often when we think about our salvation we think about action. We have been saved to do good works, to glorify God, or to spread the Gospel. These are all true; God did save us for a mission. But we were primarily saved for relationship and we are involved in mission for the sake of increasing this relationship. The ultimate downside to sin was that it broke the possibility of relationship with God and ultimate wonder of the cross is that it restores that relationship.
3. Our highest value is this relationship.
Since we were saved for this relationship and since Christ is the incredibly glorious, we value this relationship above all else. If we ever put anything above this relationship, even good things (seer Phil 3:4-6) then we are missing the point of our salvation. And not only would we miss the point but we would miss the glory of our salvation since the ultimate reward and treasure of our salvation is God Himself. So we strive to deepen this relationship by spending time with Him because that is our greatest desire.
How about you? Are you working to deepen your relationship with Jesus?
