Does the Bible teach the need for an initimate personal relationship with Christ?

[Berserk]

Your over thinking the simplicity of the concept. "My sheep hear my voice..." you either Know him intimately or you do not. These are not complicated theological concepts, but ones that are based on childlike faith. By trying to overcomplexify these things you are doing a disservice to the body. Your mind is thinking in carnal terms not in the Spiritual. Spiritually, we are sheep, he is the shepherd, Spiritually we are sons and daughters by adoption, And He is our Father to whom we cry "Abba, Father". He disciplines us as sons and daughters, not as bastards, he Loves us as his sons and daughters and we know his love. These are all "relational" concepts and very scriptural and literal and Spiritually discerned, a concept which you seem to be lacking if you cannot see nor defend this concept. The Problem is with you, not with concept of having a personal relationship with Christ, this whole post in fact is pointing to a deficiency in your own doctrine, a lack of Spiritual discernment.

I say this not to "put you down", but to get you rather to seek that which you are missing. Read James 4:1-10 carefully.
God Bless.

If you read my OP, you would realize that I believe in "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ" and indeed experience it. Reread the OP and you will see that the issue raised is that the Bible never uses the expression and indeed the texts commonly cited to defend this experience don't explicitly do so. More importantly, 3 out of 4 evangelical young people lose their faith in college precisely because they have never had such an experience t sustain them in times of doubt. They previously relied on confession of sin and faith in the Gospel and assumed, wrongly, that that automatically bestowed the indwelling Holy Spirit on them. For them, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the Good Shepherd discourse, and stree on our status as "sons of God" amounts a head trip--just enough spirituality to inoculate them against the real thing! In my next planned post, I will finally identify the
biblical solution to this problem.

 

[Curtis]

Good post Berserk.

"God's ways often seem inhuman as judged by normal human sensibilities about how a loving heavenly or human father should act."

God's ways are inhuman IMHO. He is Spirit, and perfect in ALL His ways.
"Personal relationship" with Christ is actually impossible if you think about it. He is NOT natural, He is SUPERnatural We are still flesh, and He is Divine still, and always. We cannot compare an earthly father to God The Father as, He always has our best interests at heart...our "natural" fathers acted out of their humanness... God The Father acts ONLY for our best interests. To obey is to Love Him.

"Mike is well aware of verses like John 14:23, Rev. 3:20, and Colossians 1:19, but thinks such verses express faith conviction and doctrine, but not necessarily a discernibly valid experience of a "personal relationship" with Christ."

I totally agree with Mike here, "personal relationship" with Christ is such a buzz phrase anymore that it has become meaningless...as I think it is anyhow.
He does deal with us personally of course, when we...trust. "what is impossible for man..."!

I will be watching this thread bro.

You are commanded to love God with all your heart. That’s a personal relationship to love anyone with all your heart. We are therefore commanded to have such.

 

[Nancy]

You are commanded to love God with all your heart. That’s a personal relationship to love anyone with all your heart. We are therefore commanded to have such.

Yes we are, and to Love God is to obey Him.

 

[Curtis]

Yes we are, and to Love God is to obey Him.

And of course that includes, what?

 

[Nancy]

And of course that includes, what?

Not al ALL sure what you are after here but, to obey God is pretty clear in His word.
Love God, Love Others and the rest of the law hangs on those two things.

 

[Daniel Veler]

Such a relationship something you 100% need. And no, that doesn't equate to thinking every little thing is divine action/inaction, cause it's not. But Christ loves each individual, and died for each individual, and we should indeed have a person relationship with the one we call "Lord".

Mike is right. Read John 17 and see how Christ defines eternal life. Then read john14 and see how this is accomplished.

 

[Curtis]

Mike is right. Read John 17 and see how Christ defines eternal life. Then read john14 and see how this is accomplished.

You’re commanded to live god with all your heart - which means a personal relationship.

And you know Jesus per John 17 by having the personal relationship that comes from the new birth and having Jesus and the Holy Spirit dwell in us.

You have to take all scripture on a subject, not just isolate 1 verse about knowing God and ignoring how we come to know Him in the many others.