God Is Relationship

Continuing my thinking of religion vs. relationship, I want to spend some time working through John's Gospel, as John focuses much of his attention on why Jesus came, and the nature of His relationship to the Father and to us. When we look at God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the triune Godhead, we are confronted with relationship. There is in the very heart of who God is, relationship. One could almost say that God is relationship.

Starting at the beginning of John, we see the following verses:
John 1:1-5, 9-14, 17-18 NIV
[1] "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John does his best to describe what is really a mystery. Jesus is the Word, the Word of God, there present as another entity, yet also the same. There is a depth and mystery to this relationship that we cannot fathom or fully understand

[2] He was with God in the beginning. [3] Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

Jesus has been present from the very beginning, and it is through Him that all is made. When God spoke in Genesis and said "let there be light" that was Jesus. The words were in the Father but when they come out they are Jesus. Its kind of like the Father starts a sentence, but Jesus finishes it.

[4] In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

Jesus is full of life, eternal life, and that life is what distinguishes man from everything else. Man is created in His image, and we have a little bit of His life in us as a result.

[5] The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. [9] The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

He came to the earth, to the world to bring revelation, to reveal the Father, to shine light on the truth.

[10] He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

The world did not recognize Him, partly because they could not comprehend His humility. They were looking for a great and powerful God, unapproachable in splendor, awesome in majesty, for that was their experience of God in the temple and tabernacle. When God's presence filled them, all were overcome by His presence - see Ex 40:34-40, 2 Chron 5:13-14.

[11] He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. [12] Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--- [13] children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

In receiving Him, believing Him, we are invited into divine relationship, as we become God's children, born of God, born again by the Holy Spirit. Our relationship with God is established by God, and we become part of His family.

[14] The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. [17] For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Jesus became man forever, and as a man, we relate to Him as another person, by establishing a relationship. We can observe Him, read about Him, study Him, but ultimately He wants to be in relationship with us. He is the source of grace (favour, blessing, life, pleasure, delight, loveliness, good will, loving-kindness) and all truth for us all. In our relationship wth Him, He pours these things into our lives. It was through Moses that the rules were given, Jesus gives us something very different, His favour and Truth.

[18] No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Jesus, because of the nature of His relationship with the Father, came and revealed the Father to us all. He is God, and He revealed God to us. He has the closest relationship with the Father, and invites us into that same relationship, extends that relationship to us. Jesus didn't come to reveal the rules (law) but the One, True Father. This new revelation supercedes the old. Where the rules were once sufficient, now there was a better revelation, a better relationship, a better way of living. We are all invited and welcomed into this relationship, why would we settle for anything less?