Relationship and Fellowship

There are 2 apparently contradictory sets of Scriptures, one of which says we are already fully righteous (justified) and fully forgiven in Christ by His grace (Rom 5:1, 2Cor 5:21, Eph 1:7, 4:32, Col 1:14, ), but the other says that we are lacking in righteousness and so need to seek God for more of His righteousness (Matthew 5:6, 6:33), and that we need to ask for forgiveness, when we sin to be cleansed of all unrighteousness (1John 1:9, Matthew 6:12-15, Mark 11:25-26). How can both sides be true? Many take a simplistic approach of embracing the verses they like, and ignoring or explaining away the rest, for example by saying the teaching of Jesus no longer applies (in contradiction to Matthew 5:19, 7:24-27, 28:18-20). Derek shares that the full truth is found by embracing all the Scriptures as fully true, but there are 2 related realms of truth – relationship truth and fellowship truth. Relationship truth describes what God has done for us in Christ when we received Him as Lord and Saviour. This was all done by God’s grace at the moment of salvation and is unconditional, absolute, and unchanging. All our sins are forgiven and we have been justified (declared righteous) before God. Before salvation, we had no relationship with God, we were in the realm of the Courtroom, guilty before the Judge, but when we trusted in Christ, who paid the penalty for us, we were not only forgiven and placed into right-standing with God, but also adopted into His family as His son. So, we now have a new relationship with God by His grace, which move us out of the realm of the Courtroom into the realm of God’s Family, where the truths of family fellowship and forgiveness apply. As far as the Courtroom (and our salvation) is concerned there is no condemnation for us in Christ, but as far as our family life with God is concerned, when we sin, we need to confess our sins to God to receive His forgiveness (1John 1:9), in order to keep our heart right with God, and restore our fellowship with Him (see James 4:7-10). Whereas relationship is binary (you either have a relationship with God or you don’t), your fellowship with God (the level of the Light of His Presence in your heart) is variable, depending on how close your heart is to God. Moreover, fellowship by its very nature is reciprocal, depending on the will of both people, and therefore variable if one of them is human. Thus, Fellowship Scriptures are conditional, unlike Relationship Scriptures. Relationship truth is foundational, as our fellowship with God is only possible on the grounds of our relationship with Him in Christ. But fellowship truths are also important, for God’s purpose in establishing a relationship with us is so that He might have fellowship with us (Isaiah 43:25). Finally, Derek explains why the Relationship-Fellowship distinction is a fundamental part of reality because it originates in the nature of the Triune God, who has a 2-fold unity: (1) of relationship, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit being of one substance, and (2) of fellowship, since they fully give themselves to each other and interpenetrate each other in love (perichoresis).