This morning at our men’s Bible study part of our discussion entailed the calling of the 12 disciples in the gospel of Luke (6:12-16). It’s really a fairly straight-forward listing of the disciples starting with Simon Peter and finishing with Judas Iscariot who became a traitor. As I read those words pertaining to Judas, I immediately reflected on the phrase we hear so regularly in the evangelical church today, “having a personal relationship with Jesus.” It was convicting to read and apply because I do know there is some aspect to the personal relationship statement that is true but there is also some that is clearly not true. Let’s try and unpack it together.
What it’s not…3 years of living together:
So here is a man, Judas, who gave up his previous life and for 3 years interacted directly with Jesus personally. Yet the New Testament authors seem pretty convinced that he is not spending eternity in Heaven with Jesus. If having a personal relationship with Jesus is simply Jesus “hang-out time” or slapping a bumper sticker on our car that says “Jesus is my co-pilot” (thanks Steve) then there is not much to separate that from Judas’s personal relationship with Jesus.
Nowhere in Scripture does it discuss an individualistic lifestyle of relating with God. While solitude was important part of how Jesus interacted with the Father He did not remain in solitude. Even Abraham who was intentionally called out of his people group by God lived in such a way that it was an undeniable testimony of God to the people groups he came into contact with in his journeys.
The chorus of the traditional hymn In the Garden sings of this personal relationship model as the author comes into the garden to seek God alone and affirms that:
And he walks with me
And He talks with me,
And He tells me I am his own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
The final verse, however, shows staying in the garden forever is not what a relationship with God looks like:
I’d stay in the garden with Him,
Tho’ the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go;
Thro’ the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.
Somehow 3 years of proximity to Jesus was not enough for Judas to acknowledge that He was the Son of God who had come to take away the sin of the world. The personal relationship that Judas had was not transformational but rather it was superficial and it should not be the sort of personal relationship with Jesus that we foster.
What it is…3 days of living together:
On the other hand we have Saul the Pharisee who believed he had a good relationship with God yet Jesus struck him blind on his way to Damascus. A man who was dedicated to the persecution of Christian believers is incredibly transformed over 3 days of blindness and solitude in preparation for Ananias to come and lay hands on him (Acts 9:1-19). We read that Saul received the Holy Spirit and was baptized while also recovering his sight. His immediate response was to spend time with the other disciples in the city and then to begin professing Jesus as the Son of God in the synagogues.
Somehow what Judas couldn’t submit to over 3 years took place in Saul’s heart in 3 days. The personal relationship with God that Saul had was transformed when Jesus spoke to him on the road to Damascus. This transformation is summed up perfectly in his letter to the Corinthians:
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:14-21)
The personal relationship that the man who became known as the Apostle Paul involved more than a new name, it was a total recreation of his identity. Like Paul, a personal relationship with Jesus is abandonment of who I am and transforming into who Jesus calls me to be. We move from a ministry of focus on our personal kingdom to a ministry of focus on God’s Kingdom. I encourage all of you to foster a personal relationship with Jesus but I exhort you to make that personal relationship public…fellowship with each other in church, service to the community, sharing the Gospel with those around you. May we truly be His ambassadors to the world! Blessings to you all!
