Relationship with the Unseen God

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal.2:20)

Pastor Dan Salvesen says that when people ask him, “What is your religion?” he likes to say, “I am in relationship with the God of the universe.”  Whoa! Powerful stuff!  Relationship with God is indeed what Jesus Christ has made possible for all who would follow him. Following Jesus is not like following any other great leader who ever walked the face of the earth.  Jesus put it this way:  "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. (Matt 16:24-25). 

When Jesus spoke those words the crucifixion still lay ahead of him, but a few years later, when the apostle Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me,” the cross was behind him, and the meaning of ‘taking up his cross’ comes through with apostolic power!

The apostle Paul says he has died with Christ on the cross. But how can that be, Paul is very much alive as he is writing those words! Paul is simply obeying Christ. He is denying himself and taking up Christ’s cross, which has now become his.  Paul has forsaken the old Pharisaic life he had been living, with himself Saul of Tarsus on the throne. Saul is now dead and the Apostle Paul is living a brand new life by faith in the Son of God who loved him and gave himself for him. The Spirit of Christ now indwells Paul, occupying the throne of his life, and enabling him to follow Jesus.  Paul now lives the life God purposed for him when he was chosen ‘in Christ’ before the foundation of the world, and the apostle is telling all believers how we too can live the lives God purposed for each of us, in relationship with the unseen God, Creator of the universe.

Experiencing the Unseen God

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. (Psalm 139:9-10)

This morning I rose on the wings of the dawn and God came to me here in 21st century America just as He came to David in 10th century B.C. Israel. It was the same unseen God who is everywhere and everywhen. This morning He spoke words to me that David did not have the privilege of hearing, because in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son…through whom he made the universe…and who is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. (Heb1:1-2a) This morning the words the Son spoke to me were, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father and I too will love him and show myself to him.”(John 14:21) Then he reminded me that his commands are not hard because the greatest of them is to love God with my whole being. The unseen God shows himself to all who love him with their whole being. But who can love him like that? Only those who have been crucified with Christ, who have chosen to relinquish the throne of their life, giving themselves over to the one who created them, who knows them better than they know themselves, and is the only one qualified to guide them and hold them fast.

Faith in the Unseen God

Hebr 11:1,6  (NASB) Now faith is the assurance of [things] hoped for, the conviction of things not seen…And without faith it is impossible to please [Him], for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and [that] He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

As one who Christ has set free from the foolishness of atheism, I love to meditate on passages in the Bible that address those who have trouble believing things they cannot see. When our resurrected Lord appeared to ‘doubting Thomas’ and he finally believed, Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). When Jesus spoke those words he was thinking of you and me. None of us living today has seen Jesus the way the disciples did during the 3 years of his ministry on earth.  Toward the end of that earthly ministry Jesus told his disciples, “Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me…” He went on to say that he would then “manifest” himself to all who love him and the Father. (John 14:19,21). He was preparing the disciples for the apostolic ministry when they would be proclaiming the truth of the gospel to people like you and me who would begin to see Jesus because he would manifest himself to us. The unseen God does reward those who diligently seek him. What is our reward? The apostle Paul tells us in his prayer for the Ephesian seekers: “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,” (Ephe 1:17-18) When we choose to believe, even though we do not see with physical eyes, God gives us faith…the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. I am so grateful that the Father has opened the eyes of my heart so I can see Him ... the unseen God!