It has always been God’s desire to have a relationship in fellowship with His people. The work we do for Him has its own value, but our companionship and relationship we enjoy with Him is more important. There is no way to make our standing with God better because it is already at its best through Jesus, Who has perfect intimacy with the Father. Jesus has made a way for every person to have closeness with Him. 

The Crucified Life of Jesus

Jesus is the only begotten and beloved Son of the Father, but He couldn’t return to Him and heaven’s glory until He had surrendered to death first. His heavenly life derived power and glory from the fact that His life was a crucified life. He is therefore able to pass on a crucified life with victory over sin and power to all who believe in Him, in order for them to have direct admission to the presence of His Heavenly Father. 

Surrendering to the Cross

What is guaranteed to weaken our life and communion with Jesus? Having worldly religious zeal in fellowship with worldly Christians. We cannot possibly share the life of Jesus until we have surrendered daily to die to sin and to the world. Then we are able to experience unbroken intimacy with our crucified Lord, making life with Him possible in the fellowship of the Cross. What a blessing! Imagine being united with Christ and the fellowship of His cross every day for the rest of our life! Then we can truly say, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

Entering God’s Family

We are brought into the family of God when we first believe on Jesus. It is then that we can know closeness with Him in His Father’s House. Sin in our life, like the terrible sin of unforgiveness, begins to become very disturbing to us, because it cuts off our communion with our heavenly Father. Whenever we ignore or rationalize our sin, it also separates us from fellowship with Him. 

“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have intimacy one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). The cleansing power of Jesus’ blood brings us into the Most Holy Place, in the light of His glory.

The Foundation of Fellowship

Our fellowship is made possible only because of His shed blood placed on the altar there, which establishes our peace with God. Outside of it, there is no fellowship. But it is all founded on how precious Jesus’ shed blood is, not on saying how worthless our life is. If we feel anxious at times, we need to recall our blood relationship to Jesus. Then we should stop and worship the Father. The very reason He made us was to have fellowship with us, which was established through Jesus’ shed blood. 

Maintaining Pure Faith

But if we are secretly unclean, we cannot rightfully claim to have faith in Christ and what He did for us on the Cross. The Father’s will is for us to be certain of our faith in Him, which can only come through our experience of fellowshipping with Him. Yet we can be certain that we will lose our faith in God and our fellowship with Him if we permit secret uncleanness or any connection with idols.

Note that the worship at any church that does not center on the Cross is the worship of idols. But we can also rest assured that we can trust other faithful ones who do worship Christ through the Cross, regardless of how dark and dangerous the times may become.

The Cross: God’s Offering

The Cross is not man’s cross, but God’s. It is God offering Himself in order to bring the human race back into relationship with Him again. At the altar of fellowship, it is possible for us to offer back to the Lord the best of what has been given to us by Him.

Avoiding False Associations

But He will not have fellowship with false doctrine or evil conduct. We cannot associate with Him in darkness. “…what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness…what communion hath light with darkness? …what concord hath Christ with Belial?” (2 Corinthians 6: 14, 15). Today’s world has replaced the order of God with the disorder of man. He is now calling us to fellowship with Him and other believers, but only if we will have no association with the unfruitful works of darkness.

Preventing Backsliding through Fellowship

If we want to judge morals and doctrines correctly, we absolutely must maintain a close, unending fellowship with our Lord. The only way to be kept from backsliding is by daily fellowship with God, along with meditating on and obeying His Word. Then the Holy Spirit can keep us from falling away. If we hold back on being obedient to God because of the suffering and loss it may bring, we can compare it to desiring the treasures of Egypt more than the reproach of Christ (see Hebrews 11:26). We are not to shrink back from being obedient because we might end up standing by ourself. This shows more concern for our relationship with man than with our heavenly Father. 

The Outcome of Fellowship

What will the outcome of fellowship with our Redeemer be? We will be resurrected to eternal life and heavenly glory! “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies…” (Romans 8:11), so we can share His divine life. Paul wanted to know Christ in the power of Jesus’ resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings—not Paul’s sufferings, or those of anybody else.

Freedom through Fellowship

We can reach the highest point of freedom when we become free from fooling ourself, our convictions and our inclinations, and begin to realize that we now have fellowship with our heavenly Father and His heavenly Son! 

Invitation to Divine Fellowship

We can have fellowship with God Himself! Let’s tell Him that we want this and that we want to serve Him. Then He’ll come and invite us into fellowship with Him. Our goal is to be in such close fellowship with Him that we no longer live, but He lives in and through us instead—until He appears again! 

[Additional image credits: Featured image (when applicable) Joddy Setiwan on Pexels; Opening photo by Mathias Reding on Unsplash]