Life WITH God

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As we study Colossians and see the pre-eminence of Christ, we have looked at four postures towards God, or four ways we can easily fall into as a way we relate to God, that fall short of what God has truly offered us thru Christ, life WITH God, being IN Christ and Christ IN us. We described these as:

Life FROM God – seeks to use God just to get the blessings, posture where you want God’s blessings but aren’t particularly interested in a relationship with God, use God to get something you want

Life FOR God – find your identity in some activity done for God rather than a relationship with God, act on your own strength rather than relying on God and the relationship, your identity is in what you do versus who you are IN Christ

Life OVER God – relationship with God is abandoned for proven principles and practices, best practices approach, feeling that God wound up the world and let it go and it is up to us to live by proven principles, in this posture we have no real need for or room for God in the every day affairs of our lives

Life UNDER God – sees our lives and service as a way to appease God, that our relationship with God has to be maintained by performing certain rituals, we end up serving God as a way to avoid calamity, our relationship with God is reduced to moralism

The problem with all of these is that they fall short of the communion, the relationship that God has offered us thru Christ, fall short of God’s desire to restore Eden if you will where God dwelt with His people. Christianity offers us a relationship WITH God. Something no other religion offers. Intimate communion and relationship WITH God. All other religions either force you to work and hope you do enough good to measure up, or they propose you will never know if you did enough good so they offer reincarnation, a re-do, or you must spend your life trying to appease some God and you never know if you have done enough. Bottom line- there is no real relationship, no communion with God.

Christianity is different – thru the gospel, we have been offered a sufficient payment for our sin and what we get is reconciliation to God, a relationship with God. Hear that – Christianity is knowing God, a relationship WITH God. We can know for sure we are right with God, that Christ’s work was totally sufficient on our behalf. Our substitute. The offer of being WITH God, or as we will see in Colossians, Christ IN You, the hope of glory. Our whole future depends on Christ’s work and our present is lived in light of that guaranteed future. Christ IN you believer. That is the promise.

Think on that this morning. Is that how you view your relationship with God - Adoption versus meritorious? Family versus employee? Father versus a vending machine? Grace versus works?

Do you enjoy communion with the Father thru all you do? Time in the Word, obedience, prayer, serving others, etc. Communion with God. May we start to see it this way as we unpack a posture of life with God. True communion in all we do. Time with our Father, enjoying being a child of God.