The Pharisees loved their religion, but God's Word instructs believers to develop a serious relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Moreover, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for this in Matthew 23:1-12. God doesn’t want us to have a religion; He wants a relationship:

 

"Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them ono men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments." (Matthew 23:1-5)

 

God cares about the relationship He has with His children through faith in Christ and that relationship is where Christians find the foundation of faith. In relationships there is spiritual and emotional growth. With legality, however, it’s all about scoring points and following regulations; love has nothing to do with it, and hence, there is no growth. And we know God wants us to grow, as we read in Galatians 5:22-25:

 

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." (Galatians 5:22-25)

Jesus also warned that we ought not allow our house to be built on sand, but on Him, our solid rock; a perfect illustration of our relationship with God and stability through Him in Matthew 7:24-26 & Luke 6:46-49.

 

 Yet another illustration of relationship is recorded in the Book of Revelation:

 

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens th door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." (Revelation 3:20)

 

Moreover, a lasting relationship with God isn’t just a perk to being a Christian, but the proper order of things according to Christ and necessary for salvation, otherwise entrance into Heaven would be much like earning an A+ grade on a school report card. And we know that our salvation can never be found through any sort of merit or earning on our part. We need to know Him and He needs to know us. (In fact, in the Bible where God doesn't acknowledge someone's name, that implies that He does not know them due to their lacking relationship with Him. And this we see in places like Genesis 19:26, when God does not call Lot's wife by name for example.): 

 

"Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in Him." (1John 2:3-4)

 "I am the good shepherd; I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep." (John 10:14-15)

 

Also See Psalm 139:1-24

 

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

 

When the Lord instructs believers of His Word to believe in Christ Jesus, that doesn’t just mean acknowledging that He is real, even the devil knows that, that is not faith. Faith is believing in Him; in His Power and His Kingship, much more than just head knowledge.

 

VERSES ON RELATIONSHIP with God through Christ:

 

"And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." (John 17:30)

"how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him," (Hebrews 2:3)

 "Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you--The sure mercies of David." (Isaiah 55:3)

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)

 

And Jesus has also put it succinctly:

 

"For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingedom of Heaven." (Matthew 5:20)

Moreover, Jesus at no point ever uses the names of the Pharisees or the scribes, which also indicates His displeasure with them and their countenance before Him.

The New Testament believer follows the laws of Christ that God puts on our hearts through our conscience (Romans 2:14-15), but we also need to learn more about the doctrines of Christ through the reading of the Word. This list is also outlined in Hebrews 6:1-3 and Jesus’ concluding Sermon known as “The Beatitudes” in Matthew 5:21-28.

 

The Scriptural evidence of the vital importance of relationship can also be seen through Jesus’ parable in Matthew 25. The Words of our Lord express this noteworthy precept; for God, relationship is everything. Those who do not know HIM, and even more noteworthy, those whom He does not know are in grave danger:

 

“Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’  “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” (Matthew 25:11-13)

 

Jesus did say that those who are not for Him are against Him in Matthew 12:30 & Luke 11:23. That’s because with God there is no middle road; whatever is of God is good and whatever is not of God is evil.

 

The following verses reflect the Longsuffering Mercy of our God. He works with us through our difficulties and understands our shortcomings and the reason why we do what we do and the fact that we are grieved by that wrong-doing and are actively working with His Spirit to make those changes within us that He Desires for us as His sons and daughters and is what matters most to Him.

 

AND isn’t it wonderful to know that He cares takes into account the motives behind our actions and the reasons why we do what we do and even changes us in our error, if we cooperate with Him?

 

SEE: Jeremiah 17:10, 1Samuel 16:7, Proverbs 4:23 & Psalm 51:10

 

And through the Apostle Paul it is clear that no one is above all human propensity for weakness:

 

“For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.” (Romans 7:19-20)

 

And we all need to lean on God if we are to do anything worth doing at all, as Jesus has informed us in John 15:1-4…..

 

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

 

And clearly, it would not be possible to obey these instructions from our Lord if it were not for the relationship God provides through Christ. The mere following of rules could never accomplish such a task!

 

Therefore, knowing all these things to be true, relationship with God through Christ should be treated as the highest priority of our lives……now and forever….

and live with confidence of our eternal salvation. 

 

 

 

NKJV