“Religion is people trying to reach out to God, while the truth of the gospel is God himself reaching out to men to restore them back to the very relationship for which they were created”.
In the Garden of Eden, before sin entered the world of Adam, God spoke to them face to face. That’s the kind of relationship He had with them. They lived in the very presence of God.
Bible teaches that it is through our spirit, we can have communion with God, “God is a Spirit, and his worshippers must worship Him in spirit and truth - John 4:24”.
Man was created to be a triune being, not just a physical being. Man was created to have a body a soul and a spirit.
• Body consists of five senses
• Soul consists of mind, will and emotions
• Spirit consists of conscience, communion & intuitive knowledge
God had told Adam that if he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die. When Adam ate of the fruit he died spiritually. That death actually meant separation from God, which later led to his physical death. Sin separated us from God.
Communion with God gives life, while separation from Him brings forth death.
Jesus the sacrificial lamb paid the price on the cross for our sins making a way to restore us back to God Himself. Jesus redeemed us and now through the cross we can have a relationship with God. Only through the cross can we have this relationship with God, because only at the cross God made the eternal payment for us.
The fundamental difference between ‘relationship with God’ and ‘religion’ is the issue of knowing and being known by God versus merely knowing about Him. In fact, the only thing more important than knowing God is to be known by Him. Jesus made that clear in the Gospel when He warned that the Father would say to some, “I never knew you; depart from Me” – Matthew 7:23
Knowing about someone is not the same as knowing him or her. You might not know him/her or He/she might not know you, although you might know about each other. For getting to know each other you would need to spend time together, and allow each other into their lives.
While God knows everything about everybody, He does not know everyone. He can give more facts about a person than anyone could ever know of himself. But a relationship takes mutual consent and cooperation. For Him to know me I must open up my heart and give Him access to the secret things of my life. Relationships are built on trust, communications, honesty, and time spent together. It is no different with knowing God. And it is from that place of knowing God that we find our greatest purpose in life.
Yet being known by God is the most important thing in life, and it won’t happen without our surrender and response to Him.
Religion on the other hand is the antithesis of the kingdom of God. And the kingdom – the realm of the King’s domain – is what every person actually longs for deep within their heart. Religion creates appetites it cannot fulfill. By nature it carries a value for form without power, information without experience. It makes outward appearance a priority over the issues of the heart. For this reason religion does not provide an opportunity to actually know God, and it is therefore cruel, powerless, and boring.
Religion kills but Jesus gives life and life in abundance.
This was the heart of God for His people, for everyone to have access to Him.
Rejecting His voice is rejecting Him, as it rejects the opportunity for an authentic relationship with Him, and you are left with only religion that speaks about Him.
God reached out to Moses and the Israelites alike to have a relationship with them. However, the Israelites were afraid that they would die if they heard God’s voice, not realizing that the death they feared was in the very absence of His voice. They not only rejected a relational encounter with God, but to top it up, they also chose to have a mediator.
Relationship with God calls for obedience to Him, as it challenges our lifestyle. However, religion is a cover up behind the traditions for the fulfillment of our own agenda’s.
There can be no authentic relationship with God for people who prefer a mediator over and above personal encounters and relationship with God Himself.
The degree to which we perceive God through the manifestations of His presence is largely determined by what is in our hearts. There is a great contrast in the way Moses experienced God and the way the people of Israel experienced Him. Moses’s heart to know God gave him access to revelation that the people of Israel never perceived. Moses was allowed to see God’s form, and Israel wasn’t. Also Psalm 103:7 states that Moses knew of God, and Israel knew His acts.
Knowing God, helps us know the ways of God, while others just know His acts.
The ways of God are discovered through the acts of God, but they are only recognized by those who are hungry for Him. Our value system places more importance on what God does than who He is – if we are religiously motivated rather than relationally motivated – we will not be drawn to recognize the greater revelation behind God’s acts. The sad reality is that some are satisfied with what God can do and have little concern for who God is. Such a preference is wrong and costly in the long run. Many have missed out on the purpose for their creation by settling for the acts of God, thus failing to come under the influence of His presence which is the ultimate quest and our ultimate destiny.
Jesus demonstrated this lifestyle while He moved the streets of Israel. Remember Jesus said, ‘I only do what I see my Father do”. Jesus while on earth, did lot of signs, wonders and miracles. But He only did what He saw His father do. Although Jesus left all His godly attributes and was human, yet He functioned and lived in this lifestyle of completely depending on the Father. Having such relationship with the Father that He only did what He saw His Father do.
Jesus demonstrated that if He was able to have such a lifestyle, we too could live in such a relationship with the Father and fulfill the very purpose of our life.
