RELATIONSHIP teaching has never been given its rightful place on many of our pulpits.
We have never thought of ourselves as the very sons and daughters of God.
In many instances, we’re coming from teaching of servants under the Old Covenant.
Freedom from the law has not materialised in many.
We have to go from forgiveness to redemption, from pardon to remission of sins.
Sin Consciousness has given us a wrong picture of God and a wrong picture of the New Creation.
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It has made us see God as a holy, just, austere, and unapproachable.
Being who is ever on the alert to discover sin in us and condemn us.
That conception has made us afraid and caused us to shrink from Him.
The conception is wrong. He is a Father God.
The Godhead, that is, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit dwells in us.
We’re the residence of the Godhead and we’re family.
Jesus tells us in John 14:23, “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”
That’s a family affair.
Jesus is emphatic about this and doesn’t mince His words.
We read John 16:27, “For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.”
Quite assuring and settling.
He goes further in John 17:23, “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”
We’re a full and complete family.
This is a complete repudiation of the modern theological view of the Father God.
When we know Him as a loving, tender Father Who longs for our fellowship and longs to live with us, the whole picture is changed.
I repeat and emphasise, we’re children not servants.
The child of God is not only recreated and born of the Spirit of God, but he is also legally adopted.
Romans 8:15 testifies, “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”
We’re not in bondage and we don’t live in fear.
The relationship with God the Father is sweet. We have a double relationship with Him.
On one hand it’s a legal relationship and a vital relationship with the Father God on the other hand.
We have covered this in depth in this column.
The New Creation fact has never been brought to the fore.
We need to do that.
Always relate with God as your Father.
He is God to the world and Father to the born again believer.
Hebrews 1:3-4 tell us, “[3] Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; [4] Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”
Jesus could not have been accepted by the Father and been given that seat at the Father’s right hand unless He had made possible the New Creation, a perfect fellowship, and a perfect standing with the Father for all who believe in Him.
Scripture further tells us that Christ carried His blood into the Heavenly Holy of Holies and made an eternal Redemption.
We read Hebrews 9:11-12, “[11] But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; [12] Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
If that is done then our redemption is a complete, finished thing.
God declares that it is. Satan's dominion over us is broken.
That’s the Gospel of Christ which is His finished/accomplished work.
Sin was put away.
We’re therefore righteousness conscious and not sin conscious.
The Bible exhausts the topic and goes further in Hebrews 9:24-26, “[24] For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: [25] Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; [26] For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
Jesus is in the Father's presence on our behalf, after putting sin away by the sacrifice of Himself.
Hebrews 7:25 nails it, “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
The word save also means heal.
In His mind, there are no incurables.
He climaxes the whole thing by declaring that He made one sacrifice for sins forever, so that the man who accepts Him as his Saviour becomes God’s child.
As His child, man becomes the righteousness of God in Christ.
Now we can approach the.
Father at any time or anywhere with a quiet certainty that we have an audience.
Faith has ceased to be a problem.
Sin has ceased to be a problem.
Righteousness has ceased to be a problem. Sonship has ceased to be a problem.
We are now in Christ, New Creations, children of God.
1 John 3:2 drives it home, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Grace and peace be multiplied to you through knowledge.