We Have a Very Relational God!
January 9, 2017
Faith-based, God's Love, Life purpose, Relationship BuildingThe idea of mankind was first conceived in the mind of our relational God as He desired to father offspring whom He could parent into His image and likeness. While God created the almost fathomless time and space universe with all its life forms, He relates to each of us as a parent. His declared intention to birth and grow offspring into mature children is recorded in Scripture:
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man [mankind] in Our image, according to Our likeness.’” (Genesis 1:26)
While God reveals Himself to us in multiple ways, He relates to us primarily in three ways: God relates to us as a Father who oversees our birth and growth (Matthew 7:7-11); He relates to us as a Son to demonstrate His desire for us as His children (1 John 1:1-3); and God abides with us as a Spirit presence, to lead and guide us though our life processes (John 16:13). God is very relational!
God also created us as relational beings. What we have is a composition of body, soul, and spirit. Our soul consciousness is a blend of mind, will, and emotion. And our heart’s character, attitude, and personality illustrate who we are as expressive persons.
Understanding what we are as a being and who we are as an expressive person
allows us to begin to examine why God created us.
God declared His creative plan in the first chapter of Genesis, and then the second chapter describes how He made the first individual and remolded the one into two, making male and female. Together, they could be a better “one”- a relational completeness.
“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man [individual] to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.’…So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man…then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place…fashioned into a woman…and brought her to the man.’” (Genesis 1:18,21-22.)
God declared one was “not good” because singularity, in His sight, is a sign of incompleteness. He created the one as a first step of a two-step process. Then He restructured the one into two. The first was simply a precursor to God’s relational intention-completeness in relationship.
God utilized the relational first two to begin the ongoing process of making and forming His additional offspring through the human birth process.
“The God who made the world and all things in it…made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth…for in Him we live and move and exist.” (Acts 17:24-28)
The spirit of life in each of us came from God. Without His Spirit we are unable to live much less function. This is why the Apostle Paul said, “In Him we live and move and exist.” This is true whether we realize it or not, even if we go so far as to deny it.
The first Adam was not perfect. There are verses in Scripture that appear to encourage us to be perfect. Perhaps this has been hard for you to understand. Stay tuned for our follow-up posts “Mature Not Perfect” where we discuss the difference.
-Keith Carroll, Relational Gospel Founder
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Resources to help
We share resources about our relational God here on our website. Both of my books, Created to Relate, Insights Into Our Design and Purpose, and The Christ Culture, A Way of Life Like No Other are available for your devotional read, and for purchase in printed or eBooks.
Many folks are finding my books to be insightful reads, excellent for personal understanding and to share in small groups. We provide a Leader’s Guide to facilitate discussions.
Relational Gospel – we want to understand what we believe.