It Is All About Relationship
(An excerpt from the book The Ikon of God)
This is central to understanding everything that God
does: it is all about relationship. God created everything because He wanted a
community larger than Three. This is why everything in the cosmos has meaning.
This understanding provides the proper lens to view everything: the Garden of
Eden was a venue for relationship; the Fall was a breach of relationship, not
just breaking a commandment. Every law God ever gave was for the purposes of
preserving relationship; God never gave any law just purely for law’s sake. Think
of all of the Old Testament rituals: it defined how people were to properly
relate to God. Think about the Ten Commandments, they all define how
relationships are to work.
Because everything God does is
motivated by relationship, everything in Scripture is relational in nature: it
is all about how created Man is to have relationship with the unlimited,
uncreated God. This obviously requires protocols on how this relationship is to
function. Think of it like this: God’s presence is the very Life that is to
animate Man. To misjudge God’s heart toward Man is to miss the meaning of
everything. God’s Word is not to be read like the periodic table, but as
protocol for relationship.
All of the parables the Jesus
spoke revolved around relationship: a man’s relationship to God and other men.
Consider the fatted calf in the
parable of the “Prodigal Son.” It speaks (a sign) of Christ, not so much in His
role in the mitigation for sin, but as a package of benefits that serve as a
catalyst for fellowship. Most humans misunderstand the Father’s predisposition
for a party. To God, the prodigal-ness of humanity is only a prelude to the big
dance! And nobody can dance with themselves; a partner is required. In a
variation of “Dances with Wolves,”[i]
an easy three word definition of the meaning of the universe could be well
stated as “Dances with God.”
Judgment is not God’s heart but
God’s necessity. Judgment serves to preserve relationship, because it punishes and
eradicates relational dysfunction at every turn. Many— even believers—, see God
as being all about judgment. Yes, God does have and God does employ judgment.
But we must understand the purpose of judgment. God’s judgment preserves and
sanctifies relationship. Here is an example: if a man commits adultery, his
wife is crushed. God gave Man the commandment not to commit adultery. Why?
Because to commit adultery is to desecrate the marriage relationship and wreak
unimaginable devastation on spouses.
Keep this in mind when reading
the Bible, engaging in worship, or reading this book.
[i]
1990 western movie starring Kevin Costner, about an isolated solder who
develops a relationship with the native people and a wolf and is named “Dances
with Wolves” by the native people.
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