Man was created so that he could come into a loving relationship and fellowship with God, His Creator. But there was one thing man needed first. God wanted the ones He created to make the choice of showing their love for Him by obedience to Him through faith in Him. Man therefore had to be able to exercise choice.
Confession of Sins is a Prerequisite to a True Godly Relationship
“…the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die [a spiritual death]” Genesis 2:16-17). But His people can’t have a true relationship with Him until they confess their sin. “…your sins have separated you from God” (Isaiah 59:2).This meant that Adam and Eve would lose their relationship with God. The Lord has always desired to be among His people in right relationship and fellowship with God. In fact, the uppermost relationship any person can have is having fellowship with God Almighty.
The Lord still wanted fellowship with man, but as long as sin was there, man wasn’t able to fellowship with Him.
A Substitute Was Made to Take Man’s Place
God’s purposes for man were frustrated, therefore. And if nothing is done about man’s sin, no fellowship is possible. The Lord still wanted fellowship with man, but as long as sin was there, man wasn’t able to fellowship with Him. God therefore made a way to renew His fellowship with man. During the time of the old covenant with the Israelites, God established a method by which man could take the guilt of his sin and transfer it onto an animal instead, believing by faith that God would accept it. The animal would then be his substitute to die in man’s place and he would no longer be considered guilty of sin.
Faith in God Only Comes Through Trust in Christ and the Cross
People are all too often more concerned about keeping up their outward appearance than they are about the inward and hidden relationship of faith in God. What is faith in God? Basically, it’s total trust in what His Son, Christ, did at the Cross of Calvary, where every sin of mankind was washed away. The shed blood of Jesus Christ is the foundation of this faith. And it’s our faith in what God’s Son did for us that brings us into personal relationship with God the Father. We can have fellowship with God only through Jesus’ shed blood—which we accept today by faith.
Fellowship and Relationship With God Is Through the Cross
Without God, man is totally lost and undone. The Cross made it possible for us to be brought back into fellowship and relationship with God, which is what He’s looking for. And what has brought us both fellowship and relationship with Him? The death of Christ on the Cross. But the power of the Cross of Christ is not an example of Him becoming a martyr, but is one declaring uttermost victory!
Christianity is not a “religion”—it’s a personal relationship with God based on what He said in His Word, the Bible, and on what His Son did for us on the Cross.
Christianity is a Relationship With God— Not a Religion
The word “salvation” means deliverance from the power and effects of sin. It also means that we have a living, loving relationship with our heavenly Father because He “saved” us from a life of sin. But “religion” is not salvation. And Christianity is not a “religion”—it’s a personal relationship with God based on what He said in His Word, the Bible, and on what His Son did for us on the Cross.
The Supernatural Power of God’s Spirit is What Changes Us
Therefore, followers of Christ aren’t “religious” people—we’re people who have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. No human teacher is able to open our heart and persuade and convict us of the truth of God’s Word and how it applies in our life. Only the Holy Spirit of God can do that, and Him alone. It takes His supernatural power to change us. And as He does it, we’re actually experiencing God when we receive salvation.
Christ Died So That We Can Live in Fellowship With God
We need to experience being in God’s presence and having fellowship with God! We can’t make it in this world simply by using our own human ideas. This relationship we’ve entered into with God is supernatural! Jesus Christ didn’t die on the Cross just to take us to Paradise. He died so that we could enjoy deliverance in this present world and live in close fellowship with our Heavenly Father. God is telling us, “When you come into My presence, focus your attention on fellowship with Me.” But not many Christians come into God’s presence to simply enjoy the pleasure of His company.
If the Cross is not at its core, any worship or fellowship or anything else that calls itself “church” is nothing more than idol-worship.
Worship Centered Without the Cross is Worthless
The Cross of Christ is the very heart of the gospel—which is the message concerning God the Father, Christ, His Son, and salvation. If the Cross is not at its core, any worship or fellowship or anything else that calls itself “church” is nothing more than idol-worship.
Disobedience Means a Loss of Fellowship
When there’s no disobedience or mistrust to hurt the fellowship between Christ and His bride, her voice becomes very pleasing to Him. But we often lose our fellowship with Christ because we postpone being obedient, which actually comes down to being disobedient. We’re not supposed to simply arouse a fleeting feeling of love toward God. We need to rise above the intellectual level of knowing Him and enter instead into true spiritual fellowship and relationship with Him.
Only Daily Fellowship With Christ Will Keep Us From Falling Away
Whenever our religious power fails to be in fellowship with God and in obedience to His Word, it always leans toward overkill. But there’s no position in God’s grace, or high point of Christian experience, or sequence of spiritual victories that can keep our soul from falling. The only activities that can help a follower of Christ to keep from falling away from God are day by day fellowship with Him, meditating on His Word and obeying it, along with the ever-present power of His Holy Spirit living within us.
We Must Not Promote or Boast in Ourselves as Christians
We must give as well as receive—this is the requirement of Christian fellowship. When believers in Christ come together to worship and have fellowship, we don’t want to draw the attention of the other people to ourselves. But too many of us try to portray ourself as being a better Christian than we really are, or of having more knowledge than we really do. Superficial fellowship will be the result in order for us to avoid embarrassment or humiliation.
A Fellowship With God Must be Unselfish
An unforgiving spirit between Christians can also bring on broken fellowship. Today’s fellowships need people with unselfish concern for others, who are openly friendly and responsive in their service for Christ. If we could only have this kind of love and caring and warmth of fellowship in the church today, what a difference it would make!
We Must See and Feel the Awfulness of Sin in the Eyes of God
Sin will separate us from God in the form of broken fellowship. It also separates us from the enjoyment and experience of fellowship with God’s people. But, through His work on the Cross, the Lord has declared to us that He’s already taken the first step to revive our broken relationship with Him. God wants us to see sin the same way He does, and to feel sin’s pain and distress the way Christ felt them.
“…our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him…”
Romans 6:6-8
We can’t afford to be indifferent to sin in our life in any form in our intimate relationship with Christ in His crucifixion. It’s His great desire for us to die to sin, and to never again know it as our way of life. Without a living relationship with Jesus Christ, no one can know or have true life!
Living in Rebellion is Contrary to Fellowship With God
There are many who claim that people can enjoy fellowship with God while they live in rebellion against Him at the same time. But this is completely untrue. It’s quite true that an experience of God’s blessing in the past—no matter how great and wonderful it may have been—is of no use to a heart out of fellowship with God.
We can’t persistently, continually, and deliberately walk in darkness while rightfully claiming that we’re having fellowship with God at the same time. And if we claim to have faith in the Person and work of atonement by Christ on the Cross, and also claim to have fellowship with Him while we remain secretly unclean, the wrath of God will be guaranteed in our life. Having fellowship with God exalts men. But if we’re out of fellowship with another believer, and out of fellowship with our Lord, how can we bring Him honor and glorify His name?
“If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
1 John 1:6-7
Fellowship With God is Possible Through Christ’s Shed Blood
The power of Christ’s precious blood to cleanse man from sin has made fellowship with God possible again for man. The Cross is where the Lord and the one worshipping were brought into fellowship with each other, which established peace (that Adam forfeited) between them. The eternal and unshakeable foundation isn’t how much the one who’s worshipping is worth—it’s the precious blood of Christ that’s worth it all! Therefore, by God’s grace, each and every one of us is able to walk in joyful fellowship with Him.
Jesus Wants a Relationship—Not Formalism or Religion
What people really, desperately need is a personal relationship with Jesus—not just a formal connection with a church or group. There may be more people in churches today than ever before, but, spiritually, they’re drying up. Jesus Christ is sick and tired of formalism and showmanship and “religion.” What He wants is a real, loving relationship with each one of us. We are not to become a church of “religion,” but of relationship to God through the Man Jesus Christ. But we must meet Christ for ourself and invite Him into our own heart and life! This requires having a personal relationship with Him, a relationship that is sincere, and not based simply on anything we can do ourselves.
A Real Godly Relationship Needs a Real Prayer Life
Right now, the Heavenly Father is calling His people to a closer relationship with Him. The most important purpose of our praying should always be having delightful fellowship with the Lord. But how can we have a real relationship with Him unless we have a prayer life? No prayer life, no relationship with God—it’s that simple. We don’t have to be crushed, to weep and sob as if we have nobody to help us! We’ve been brought into a relationship with God Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ—the One who brought man and God into a face-to-face relationship. Therefore, it is His face and His will that we should be searching for.
Christianity is a Relationship With Christ, Personally—Everyday, All-day
This isn’t easy to do, because a deep relationship of asking, seeking, and knocking at God’s door is implied. What we all need most is a maturing, flourishing, dynamic relationship with God Himself. His will is for us to accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior and to have a real relationship with Him. Christianity is a personal relationship with Christ, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! Just think—we can have a relationship with the One Who is everything and Who possesses everything! The message of forgiveness of sins and establishing a right relationship with God again is part of the Gospel of Christ. Having close, uninterrupted fellowship with God is absolutely essential for man.
When we are brought into a right relationship with God, it is due to His free, undeserved favor, also known as His grace.
It Is Only Through God’s Grace That Fellowship With God is Possible
The Bible tells us that one relationship is absolutely essential—the one between man and God. Can any other relationship ever be right until this most basic one is? And how can we know what’s right according to the Word of God? We can only know by getting godly wisdom through a living relationship with God, and this can only be established through His Son, Jesus Christ. When we are brought into a right relationship with God, it is due to His free, undeserved favor, also known as His grace. Through the ages to come, we’ll be rejoicing in the grace of God through Jesus Christ, whereby we have access to the Father—meaning we have fellowship with God!
We Are Sinners Hopelessly Lost Without God’s Grace
We would all be hopeless sinners if it were not for the grace of God. We all deserve His judgment. But God loved us even though we were sinners. And He sent His Son Who also loved us. He took the guilt and the responsibility for our sin and died in our place. Forgiveness, righteousness, justification, and fellowship with God have now been offered to us, if we’ll just believe in the sacrifice and in the work that He has accomplished on our behalf. We’re unable to boast in our own works or goodness, therefore. All these sacrifices were done in faith, because they were looking forward to the Ultimate Sacrifice that God was going to provide for man’s sins.
A True Relationship and Fellowship With God is Possible
The Lord wants us to be His companions in this new relationship of love. True Christians are genuinely concerned about their relationship with God and the world around them. And true life is about our relationship with God. But we don’t have anything if we don’t know how to live for God! Through the death of Jesus Christ, a new relationship with God has been made possible. Christianity is a relationship that will bring life. But no one can have true life without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ! Yet we can have a new life, a new beginning! If we will just ask, the Lord can and will make this happen!
For more information on having this fellowship with God please visit our page on The Way to God.
[Additional image credits: Featured image (when applicable) by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash; Opening image by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash]
