What can I do to get closer to God ?

If you were to ask most Christians “How close are you to God right now? most would immediately begin to think about all the things that they should be doing in order to get closer to God, things like reading the Bible more , helping out more, witnessing more , giving more , doing more . Many would say ” well I know I’m not as close to God as I should be and that I should be living better , doing better and doing more but I’m doing the best that I can, but can I tell you a secret?  did you know that if you’re in Christ that your  already as close to God right now as you ever will be ?  The Bible says that when you received Christ  that you were actually baptized into Christ and joined to Christ , that you were created new in Christ and even seated in heavenly places in Christ ! I mean how much closer to God can you get than being In Him? Lets look at a few scriptures to confirm this truth

Ephesians 2:4-7 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not of works, lest anyone should boast.

We need to understand it is not what we do to get closer to God but what God by His incredible Grace has already done for us and to us ! God actually forgave us of all sin, made us righteous and then took us and put us into Christ and then He sealed us with the Holy Spirit !

Closeness to God is not a matter of what we do but its a matter of what we believe God has already done! In Christ is your new permanent  spiritual  address and your new Identity .

I use to physically live in Charlotte North Carolina but today I live in Myrtle Beach . Myrtle Beach is my right now physical address, Likewise the Bible tells me at one time I use to spiritually live in Adam and in Sin but after I believed in Christ I was  then baptized into Christ! What does it mean to be baptized into Christ? It means that I have been submerged into Christ. My new experience with Christ is not separate from but one with.

Let me give this little illustration to explain what it means to be baptized into Christ. As I said earlier I now live in Myrtle Beach . If I  were to go down to the beach and stand on the beach and from the beach I look at the ocean my experience is different than if I actually get into the ocean and go down into the ocean. If I’m on the beach I  can see the ocean and I can believe in the ocean that I see but if  I take the next step and go down into the ocean then in essence my experience with the ocean has changed. Instead of being separate I  have now  become one with the ocean. Today we are not standing on the shore looking at Christ from a distance , We are actually now in Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:13  For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

Galatians 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

2 Corinthians 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Now In Acts 17  Paul makes a  pretty radical statement  and says this “In Him I live and move and have my being!.  In Him I live and move and have my being? I mean once again how much closer to God can you get than being in Him?

 Once again your  closeness  to God has nothing to do with your works , your discipline or your religious striving and effort  but it has more to do with Gods Mercy and wonderful Grace  who took you and baptized you into His Son . Never allow Religion to make your closeness to God an ongoing progressive thing based on your own works and  self effort . It  is by Gods great Grace that you have been baptized and  united with Christ and  you are now one Spirit with Him. If you make it about your works and performance than its no longer Grace but works.

Our works did not get us into Christ and our works do not keep us in Christ. To think this way is called very foolish. Galatians 3:1

Our feelings of closeness can often be like a swing. Sometimes we feel closer to God than at other times but our feelings do not change our position or our new identity in Christ.

Letting Go of Legalism by Mel Wild

Letting go of Legalisim Legalism is insidious and deceptive. Some of the most legalistic people I know swear up and down they’re not legalistic. After all, who would actually admit such a thing? Why do we have such a hard time embracing grace and letting go of legalism? Why are we in such denial? There is a popular myth believed by many sincere Bible-believing Christians that the New Covenant is just an extension of the Old Covenant. This is simply not true. Our life in Christ is a “new and living way,” unprecedented and never before seen or experienced on the earth before Christ. Jesus was the firstborn, the prototype of this new creation (Col.1:15). While the Old Covenant gave us types and shadows, how you walk out grace under the New Covenant is very different than how the people of Israel walked out the Law. The Old Covenant was based on obeying laws, the New Covenant is based on believing promises. Does the Good News sound too good to be true to us so we feel the need to dial it down with some of the Law (e.g., moral law)? Didn’t we get the memo from James? (James 2:10) Why don’t we trust being managed by the Spirit instead of by outward restraint? How do I know if I’m still hanging on to legalism? When you think you’re saved by grace through faith but must keep your salvation by works. This is textbook legalism, what Paul called “another gospel.” You have actually fallen from grace. (Gal.1:6-9; 3:1-5; 5:4) When you think your behavior will cause you to lose your salvation, which means you actually believe that your behavior saved you. When your gospel message is based on what you have to do instead of what He has already done. Legalism is what it looks like when one is living on the wrong side of the Cross, not seeing our old nature buried with Christ and our new life alive in Him. Legalism sucks the life out of Christianity, grace empowers the crucified life in Christ. Legalism imprisons us in a humanistic struggle with sin, grace supernaturally frees us from the power of sin. One problem you may have to face when you let go of legalism, you’ll need to let go of controlling other people through fear and manipulation. You’ll have to be okay with freedom. What really puzzles me is why we make it all so complicated. Jesus Christ is our theology, and His finished work on the cross is the interpretative lens by which we read the whole Bible. In one sense, I do understand why letting go of legalism is so hard for us. We live in a world that’s based on performance and not grace. That’s why we need our minds renewed, but it doesn’t help that we’re being inundated with a confusing grace-law mixture that’s been called “grace” in our churches. Law and grace are actually polar opposites. They are the old and new wineskins. As Jesus tried to tell us, they are completely incompatible. I wrote about that here and here. The whole thing is really quite clear. The New Covenant made the Old obsolete. Period. So let it go. Does this mean that I think the Old Testament is obsolete? Certainly not. But we must read the Old Testament through the lens of this New Covenant reality in Christ. When you come to Christ you’re no longer under the Law. (Actually, Gentiles were never under the Law at any time.) Don’t believe me? Let’s see what the Scripture says (bold type added): “I mean the law was the guardian in charge of us until Christ came. After he came, we could be made right with God through faith. 25 Now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law to be our guardian.” (Gal.3:24-25 ERV) A couple of points here. First, notice that under the New Covenant we are made right with God through faith. Behavior doesn’t save us, and it doesn’t condemn us. By faith is how we are saved and how we are to live. Second, if we have come to Christ we no longer need the Law to be our guardian. Did you come to Christ? Then the Law is no longer relevant to you. I wrote about this “living by the fence” here. This doesn’t make us lawbreakers or give us license to sin. It simply shows us that we have two very different ways to be managed—Christ or the Law. Again, you can’t be managed by both. You must pick one. Some say that Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it, and that the Law will not pass away until every jot and tittle is fulfilled. That’s precisely my point—Jesus DID fulfill every jot and tittle of the Law! “When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.” (Heb.8:13 NASB) We know that the New Covenant was established with Jesus’ death (Rom.7:4-6). The Old did “disappear” in 70 AD when all vestiges of keeping the Law and the Temple were destroyed by the Roman armies. Christ fulfilled the Law, thus ending it as a way to live. This was Paul’s point (bold-type added): “Christ ended the law so that everyone who believes in him is made right with God.” (Rom.10:4 ERV) The word “end” (NASB) or “ended” here is the Greek word τέλος (telos). It means “an end attained, consummation; an end, closing act.” Telos is most commonly used in the normal definition of “the end” (See Matt.10:22; 24:6, 13, 14; Luke 1:33; John 13:1; 1 Cor.1:8; 10:11; 15:24; Phil.3:19; Heb.3:14; Rev.21:6; 22:13). It can also mean the ultimate goal, but either way you look at it, Christ fulfilled the Law’s ultimate goal and forever ended it as a way to relate to God. So let’s embrace the freedom of grace and let go of the religious bondage of legalism. It’s really quite simple. If you have come to Christ, you are not under the Law.Legalism is insidious and deceptive. Some of the most legalistic people I know swear up and down they’re not legalistic. After all, who would actually admit such a thing? Why do we have such a hard time embracing grace and letting go of legalism? Why are we in such denial? There is a popular myth believed by many sincere Bible-believing Christians that the New Covenant is just an extension of the Old Covenant. This is simply not true. Our life in Christ is a “new and living way,” unprecedented and never before seen or experienced on the earth before Christ. Jesus was the firstborn, the prototype of this new creation (Col.1:15). While the Old Covenant gave us types and shadows, how you walk out grace under the New Covenant is very different than how the people of Israel walked out the Law. The Old Covenant was based on obeying laws, the New Covenant is based on believing promises. Does the Good News sound too good to be true to us so we feel the need to dial it down with some of the Law (e.g., moral law)? Didn’t we get the memo from James? (James 2:10) Why don’t we trust being managed by the Spirit instead of by outward restraint? How do I know if I’m still hanging on to legalism? When you think you’re saved by grace through faith but must keep your salvation by works. This is textbook legalism, what Paul called “another gospel.” You have actually fallen from grace. (Gal.1:6-9; 3:1-5; 5:4) When you think your behavior will cause you to lose your salvation, which means you actually believe that your behavior saved you. When your gospel message is based on what you have to do instead of what He has already done. Legalism is what it looks like when one is living on the wrong side of the Cross, not seeing our old nature buried with Christ and our new life alive in Him. Legalism sucks the life out of Christianity, grace empowers the crucified life in Christ. Legalism imprisons us in a humanistic struggle with sin, grace supernaturally frees us from the power of sin. One problem you may have to face when you let go of legalism, you’ll need to let go of controlling other people through fear and manipulation. You’ll have to be okay with freedom. What really puzzles me is why we make it all so complicated. Jesus Christ is our theology, and His finished work on the cross is the interpretative lens by which we read the whole Bible. In one sense, I do understand why letting go of legalism is so hard for us. We live in a world that’s based on performance and not grace. That’s why we need our minds renewed, but it doesn’t help that we’re being inundated with a confusing grace-law mixture that’s been called “grace” in our churches. Law and grace are actually polar opposites. They are the old and new wineskins. As Jesus tried to tell us, they are completely incompatible. I wrote about that here and here. The whole thing is really quite clear. The New Covenant made the Old obsolete. Period. So let it go. Does this mean that I think the Old Testament is obsolete? Certainly not. But we must read the Old Testament through the lens of this New Covenant reality in Christ. When you come to Christ you’re no longer under the Law. (Actually, Gentiles were never under the Law at any time.) Don’t believe me? Let’s see what the Scripture says (bold type added): “I mean the law was the guardian in charge of us until Christ came. After he came, we could be made right with God through faith. 25 Now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law to be our guardian.” (Gal.3:24-25 ERV) A couple of points here. First, notice that under the New Covenant we are made right with God through faith. Behavior doesn’t save us, and it doesn’t condemn us. By faith is how we are saved and how we are to live. Second, if we have come to Christ we no longer need the Law to be our guardian. Did you come to Christ? Then the Law is no longer relevant to you. I wrote about this “living by the fence” here. This doesn’t make us lawbreakers or give us license to sin. It simply shows us that we have two very different ways to be managed—Christ or the Law. Again, you can’t be managed by both. You must pick one. Some say that Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it, and that the Law will not pass away until every jot and tittle is fulfilled. That’s precisely my point—Jesus DID fulfill every jot and tittle of the Law! “When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.” (Heb.8:13 NASB) We know that the New Covenant was established with Jesus’ death (Rom.7:4-6). The Old did “disappear” in 70 AD when all vestiges of keeping the Law and the Temple were destroyed by the Roman armies. Christ fulfilled the Law, thus ending it as a way to live. This was Paul’s point (bold-type added): “Christ ended the law so that everyone who believes in him is made right with God.” (Rom.10:4 ERV) The word “end” (NASB) or “ended” here is the Greek word τέλος (telos). It means “an end attained, consummation; an end, closing act.” Telos is most commonly used in the normal definition of “the end” (See Matt.10:22; 24:6, 13, 14; Luke 1:33; John 13:1; 1 Cor.1:8; 10:11; 15:24; Phil.3:19; Heb.3:14; Rev.21:6; 22:13). It can also mean the ultimate goal, but either way you look at it, Christ fulfilled the Law’s ultimate goal and forever ended it as a way to relate to God. So let’s embrace the freedom of grace and let go of the
religious bondage of legalism. It’s really quite simple. If you have come to Christ, you are not under the Law.