TRUE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

TRUE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

^11-12 The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: “The person who believes God, is set right by God—and that’s the real life.” Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: “The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by them.”{Galatians 3:11-12 MSG}

The only possibility of having a true relationship with God is via faith in Christ Jesus. No man can sustain a satisfying relationship with God the father by keeping a list of rules. Without faith it is impossible to please God. 

Our fathers of old and the heroes of faith had true relationships with God but it wasn’t based on the number of commandments they could keep. In fact the majority of them had a lot of short comings. God overlooked their faults and took into account only their faith to put them right with Himself. He justified them simply by their faith.

 I am now going to discuss the faith and faults of some of these heroes and explain how God related with them. You must not forget that the ultimate sacrifice that will take away sins forever had not been paid as at then. If these Heroes were accepted when Christ had not died, I wonder if we will not be more accepted now that He has paid the price for sin.

To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. ² It was by their faith that people of ancient times won God's approval.

³ It is by faith that we understand that the universe was created by God's word, so that what can be seen was made out of what cannot be seen.

⁴ It was faith that made Abel offer to God a better sacrifice than Cain's. Through his faith he won God's approval as a righteous man, because God himself approved of his gifts. By means of his faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

⁵ It was faith that kept Enoch from dying. Instead, he was taken up to God, and nobody could find him, because God had taken him up. The scripture says that before Enoch was taken up, he had pleased God. ⁶ No one can please God without faith, for whoever comes to God must have faith that God exists and rewards those who seek him. {Hebrews 11:1-5 GNT}

How did the people of ancient times win God’s approval? The answer is right there in verse 2. It didn’t say they won God’s approval by keeping commandments. In fact there were no ten commandments as at that time. The commandments came during the time of Moses. 

They simply were declared righteous by their faith. God approved of them and accepted them by their faith. They had true relationships with God by faith.

Let’s start our discussion from our patriarch Abraham, a name that every Christian, Jew and Muslim knows very well. The father of many nations and the source of the three major religions of the world, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. This man was so blessed that God had to extend his blessings to the gentiles via faith in Christ Jesus. The bible stated that whoever will have faith like Abraham will be as blessed as Abraham was.

^9-10 So those now who live by faith are blessed along with Abraham, who lived by faith—this is no new doctrine! And that means that anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure. Scripture backs this up: “Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the law. {Galatians 3:9-10 MSG}

What shall we say, then, of Abraham, the father of our race? What was his experience? ² If he was put right with God by the things he did, he would have something to boast about—but not in God's sight. ³ The scripture says, “Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous.” ⁴ A person who works is paid wages, but they are not regarded as a gift; they are something that has been earned. 

 ⁵ But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself. ⁶ This is what David meant when he spoke of the happiness of the person whom God accepts as righteous, apart from anything that person does:

⁷ “Happy are those whose wrongs are forgiven,
    whose sins are pardoned!
⁸ Happy is the person whose sins the Lord will not keep account of!”

{Romans 4:1-8 GNT}

^13-14 Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. Do you remember the Scripture that says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”? That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse. And now, because of that, the air is cleared and we can see that Abraham’s blessing is present and available for non-Jews, too. We are all able to receive God’s life, his Spirit, in and with us by believing—just the way Abraham received it. {Galatians 3:13-14 MSG}

You see my dear friends, Abraham became father of nations by faith. He trusted in what God can do for him not in what he can do for God. He accepted what God arranged for him and so God accepted him. The bible states that Abraham believed God and it was accounted as righteousness. That belief is what has made him so blessed that the blessings could even extend to uncountable generations after him.

Does it mean Abraham didn’t have any faults, was he completely without sin? If he had any sin, how come God didn’t take his sins into account in the New Testament? Let’s check the scriptures for answers.

^1-2 Sarai, Abram’s wife, hadn’t yet produced a child.

She had an Egyptian maid named Hagar. Sarai said to Abram, “God has not seen fit to let me have a child. Sleep with my maid. Maybe I can get a family from her.” Abram agreed to do what Sarai said.

^3-4 So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took her Egyptian maid Hagar and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. Abram had been living ten years in Canaan when this took place. He slept with Hagar and she got pregnant. When Hagar learned she was pregnant, she looked down on her mistress.{Genesis 16:1-4 MSG}

First offence by Abraham was that he slept with Sarai’s maid, Hagar. If you decide to say that Sarah gave Hagar as a wife to Abraham, then we can say Abraham married more than one wives and besides I doubt if he paid her bride price.

Secondly Abraham lied about Sarah being his sister. And even Sarah agreed to lie alongside.

^1-2 Abraham traveled from there south to the Negev and settled down between Kadesh and Shur. While he was camping in Gerar, Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She’s my sister.”

^2-3 So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her. But God came to Abimelech in a dream that night and told him, “You’re as good as dead—that woman you took, she’s a married woman.”

^4-5 Now Abimelech had not yet slept with her, hadn’t so much as touched her. He said, “Master, would you kill an innocent man? Didn’t he tell me, ‘She’s my sister’? And didn’t she herself say, ‘He’s my brother’? I had no idea I was doing anything wrong when I did this.”

^6-7 God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know your intentions were pure, that’s why I kept you from sinning against me; I was the one who kept you from going to bed with her. So now give the man’s wife back to him. He’s a prophet and will pray for you—pray for your life. If you don’t give her back, know that it’s certain death both for you and everyone in your family.”{Genesis 20:1-7 MSG}

Wait a minute! God, did you just call a liar a prophet? You see, God even asked someone who just lied to pray for a king. Not only that, He also intervened to prevent Abimelech from sleeping with Sarah. Even in their lies, God intervened to rescue them.

It is through the seed of such a man as Abraham that God said the whole earth will be redeemed back to Himself. The nations of the earth shall be blessed through the seed of Abraham “God said in thy seed shall the nations of the earth be blessed”.

¹⁵ And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,

¹⁶ And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:

¹⁷ That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

¹⁸ And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. {Genesis 22:15-18}

How can God swear by Himself to bless a man who had such faults? God didn’t even record what he did as sins. Just the single act of obedience by faith cancelled all of Abraham’s wrongdoings. He enjoyed a true relationship with God because of his faith. 

Therefore you must know that all that God requires of you is a true relationship by faith. You can’t win God’s favor by keeping the laws, only by faith in Christ Jesus.

Again let’s look at our mother Sarah. Don’t forget that she agreed to lie that she was Abraham’s sister. She lied again by denying she laughed when the messengers of God brought the good news that she would be pregnant and give birth to Isaac. Besides these two lies, she also doubted God but surprisingly her name appeared among the heroes of faith in the book of Hebrews.

 ⁹ Then they asked him, “Where is your wife Sarah?”

“She is there in the tent,” he answered.

¹⁰ One of them said, “Nine months from now^[a] I will come back, and your wife Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah was behind him, at the door of the tent, listening. ¹¹ Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah had stopped having her monthly periods. 

 ¹² So Sarah laughed to herself and said, “Now that I am old and worn out, can I still enjoy sex? And besides, my husband is old too.”

¹³ Then the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Can I really have a child when I am so old?’ ¹⁴ Is anything too hard for the Lord? As I said, nine months from now I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁵ Because Sarah was afraid, she denied it. “I didn't laugh,” she said.

“Yes, you did,” he replied. “You laughed.”{Genesis 18:9-15 GNT}

Why will God call such a woman who lied and doubted Him a hero of faith? My answer is this: true relationship. All that God wants is a true relationship. He pardons iniquities once there is a true relationship. The same Sarah was called the mother of us all and she was compared to the heavenly Jerusalem.

²⁴ These things can be understood as a figure: the two women represent two covenants. The one whose children are born in slavery is Hagar, and she represents the covenant made at Mount Sinai. ²⁵ Hagar, who stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia, is^[b] a figure of the present city of Jerusalem, in slavery with all its people.  

²⁶ But the heavenly Jerusalem is free, and she is our mother. ²⁷ For the scripture says,

“Be happy, you childless woman!
    Shout and cry with joy, you who never felt the pains of childbirth!
For the woman who was deserted will have more children
    than the woman whose husband never left her.”{Galatians 4:24-27}

Would you have ever thought that a woman who lied twice and doubted God will become the mother of many nations? Is it not shocking to know that she is also a hero of faith according to God’s judgement?

18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20 because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.”[c] 21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”[d]

22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.{Hebrews 12:18-24}

 God just wants a relationship with us. He is not so much as interested in our rule keeping as much as He wants our relationship.

DEPEND ON FAITH TODAY AND ENJOY A TRUE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.