The Relational God

Christianity is built on the belief that the God, the Father is approachable, Jesus visited us, and his Spirit remains with us. God is a relational God. He isn’t a distant God. The bible makes that perfectly clear. Here are four pictures of God I’ve found so powerful.

God, our Father

“Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8:14-16)

God is wanting to be our ‘daddy’. Cliche as it sounds, that is what ‘Abba’ means. It’s the most intimate title a child could use to speak to his or her father in that culture. God wants us to approach him like that, with that same father-child intimacy and trust.

Bride of Christ

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her… ‘A man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:25; 31-32)

I’ll just quote John Piper for this one: “King Jesus came into the world to take a wife. Not a harem. And not for sex. But to give her pleasures that make sex taste like cardboard. He paid for her with his life. And he is now at work by his Spirit and by his word purifying and beautifying her for himself and for her joy.”

A Torn Curtain

“And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” (Matt 27:51)

The curtains were very thick, intended to hide God’s glory from the people. It separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place where God is said to dwell. But at the moment Jesus died, it was torn, it revealed the Most Holy Place to anyone who wanted to enter in. God became approachable in a way most people then, and even now, couldn’t fathom.

A Sacrifice

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10)

Probably self-evident in the text, but God didn’t just tell us he loved us. He showed us he loved us. “God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for use.” (Romans 5:8) God didn’t wait until we approached him, pleading for some kind of mercy or compassion. He approached us with mercy and grace. All we have to do is accept.