In a discussion on human relationships, you have to begin with one’s relationship with God.
When I speak of God, I am referring to the God of the Judeo-Christian Bible. I understand that some people hold a different view of God than what this Bible presents or reject the idea of God all together. Whether or not God exists and if He does what He is like and what He created people to be and do, are fundamental and important questions that every person must answer. In fact, they are the most fundamental and important questions every person must answer.
I know that settling on beliefs about these worldview questions often takes significant amounts of time, research and discussion. Such thought and discussion should not be taken lightly and I welcome such conversation, whether in the comments of this blog, in person or through any other medium.
I have given these worldview questions significant thought and I will be writing from a perspective that accepts the Bible as the literal words of God that are without error and are sufficient to teach men how God expects them to live. This Christian worldview is explained and advanced well by men like R. Albert Mohler Jr., Tim Keller and Ronald Nash.
So why must you begin with God in a discussion on relationships?
God the Creator
God created the world and everything in it (Ps 24:1-2). Everything means every beetle, saber-tooth tiger, oak tree, tulip, ocean, stream and every single human being who has ever, or will ever, walk the face of the earth. God made it all.
Being the Maker of all things automatically gives God authority over all things. Think about it: if you made a car you would expect it to do what you made it to do. You would expect it to reliably transport people from one place to another, keep them comfortably warm or cool and provide a smooth ride: you would expect it to act like a car.
But what if one day the car you made stood up on its hind wheels and said, “Enough is enough: today, I am going to be the person and you are going to be the car. Take me to the mall and, oh yeah, I’d like to grab a smoothie on the way.” You would be outraged. Incensed. After all, you made the car: what right does it have to define what it is and what it will do?
The same is true with God and us. As the one who made us, God is the one who has the right to define who we are and how we should live. Scripture says it is God who gives every man life and breath and everything else (Acts 17:25). His authority over our lives is absolute.
When we choose to do whatever we want with our lives, ignoring God and His Word, we are rebelling against the One who made us. Such rebellion separates us from right relationship with God, which is itself devastating and which leads to other devastating consequences.
The reality of God as our Creator should automatically drive us to realize that the way we live, what we do with our lives, is not a decision that can be made in a vacuum. It must be made with God in mind: He designed us and therefore knows what is best for us.
While God as Creator is fundamentally important when it comes to relationships, it is not the only factor to keep in mind. We must also understand what kind of a God our Creator is.
God is personal and relational
The Bible unpacks the story of a God who is not distant, but rather of a God who is personally involved in the lives of people in the world. God has designed people to enjoy right relationship with Him, which brings Him glory and us joy. It is thus both right and good to live in right relationship with God: He is our Creator and He has designed us for relationship with Him.
God Himself is a relational being who has relationship within Himself. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit - one God in three persons - enjoy perfect relationship. They each fill roles within what is called the Godhead: the Father has roles that are unique to Him, as do the Son and the Spirit.
As God the Father, Son and Spirit carry out these roles, they do so in perfect harmony, in perfect relationship, that the Bible gives us glimpses of in different places. In John 17, God the Son - Jesus Christ - prays a beautiful, heartfelt prayer to God the Father that He would make His people one, just as He and the Father are one. He also prays that God would sanctify, make holy and devoted to Him, His people in truth.
A chapter earlier, in John 16, Jesus had said that when He went to be with the Father, the Spirit would come and lead God’s people into all truth. So God the Son prayed to God the Father to unite His people, just as He and the Father were united, and it is through God the Spirit that God the Father is doing this.
Jesus’ baptism is another picture of God in relational unity as God the Son is baptized while God the Spirit descends and God the Father announces that He is pleased with Jesus, who is His beloved Son (Matt 3:16-17).
Part of being created in God’s image - as all people are (Gen 1:26-28) - is the reality that we are all relational creatures. Every human being has an innate yearning for relationship, which comes from the relational God who made us. And our most fundamental relational need is relationship with God.
Entering right relationship with God
God designed us to live in dependence on Him, in relationship with Him. The problem is that Adam, the first man, lived independent from God. God gave Him certain roles to carry out and certain parameters to live within, and Adam went outside those limits. In doing this, Adam rebelled against His Creator and broke right relationship with God (Gen 2-3).
Every human being after Adam has been born separated from God with a nature that is inherently sinful (Eph 2:1-3). Everyone acts out of this nature and does sinful acts that flow from our sinful nature. As we do this, we are living outside of right relationship with the God who made us, a reality that is both devastating and joyless.
Thankfully, in His mercy and grace, God did not leave us in this state. The Bible tells us that while we were still sinners, God sent His Son Jesus to reconcile us to Himself (Rom 5:8). Jesus lived a perfect life, died in our place and rose again from the dead, conquering sin and death. Everyone who repents of his sin and believes in Christ, submitting to Him as Lord, receives Christ’s righteousness and re-enters right relationship with God (Rom 3:21-26, Rom 10:9-10, 1 Cor 15:3-4, 2 Cor 5:21).
The Bible is clear that it is only through Christ that people can re-enter right relationship with God (John 14:6). Jesus is the means by which we enter right relationship with God.
The Bible is equally clear that once people have entered right relationship with God it is only through faith in Christ we can then live in right relationship with Him (Col 2:6-10). It is to this topic: living in right relationship with God as believers in Christ - that I will turn to next.