9.5.24
This week we are starting a new series on the Attributes of God. And we begin with looking at how God has made himself knowable to us. He reveals himself to us that we might know him. God is not interested in a formal relationship of Deity and peon. But he wants a personal, intimate relationship with us. And what does that look like?
A personal relationship has two key aspects: truth and love. In order for a relationship to work, we must listen to the other person and receive truth from them…and we must be willing to speak the truth back to them. But a personal relationship also requires that love flow in both directions as well. And that is what God says he wants with this new covenant that he has established with us.
God tells us in Jeremiah 31, “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” There he shows us his desire to communicate with us (putting his law on our hearts) and his desire to show his love (I will be their God and they will be my people).
In order for us to have the personal relationship with God that he desires, it requires that we listen to what he has to say to us. And we have to receive and trust his Word as the communication of God to us. We have to see that it’s reliable and personal and trustworthy. But God also desires that we communicate back directly with him ourselves in prayer. He wants to hear our hearts, our desires. He wants us to lay our fears and concerns at this feet. And he wants us to know that he really hears us and has a deep passionate commitment to meet our needs.
But a relationship can’t just be based on cold truth. There also has to be love. And so God sets his affection on us by coming to earth to live and die for us - to rescue us from ourselves and our rebellion against him - and to reclaim us as his sons and daughters. And for that personal relationship to work, he asks that we love him in return. Religion focuses our attention of obedience - doing the right things. But what God wants from us is our hearts - our passion - our love.
What kind of relationship do you have with God? Is is a formal business relationship of doing your duty and expecting God to do his in return? Or is it based on love and intimacy? That’s what God wants with us. And that is why he instituted a new covenant based on personal relationship.