If you’re reading this, I’m assuming you have some form of a relationship with God. I’ll even assume that you want to get “closer” to Him. While I’m at it, I’ll make one more assumption—that you desire to have a real and intimate relationship with God your Father.

Well, what if I told you that your relationship with God is as “close” and intimate as it could ever possibly be.

Follow me . . .

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Let’s start with Jesus’ relationship with God. Jesus, God the Son, walked this earth displaying an incredible relationship with God. He was so intimate with God that He called Him Father. Jesus considered God His “Dad.” The apostle John even tells us that Jesus lives in the “bosom of the Father.”[1] Bosom means “chest” or “heart,” so the image being conveyed is basically Jesus getting hugged by the God of the universe, His Dad. John tells us that this is the relationship that the Father and the Son have had forever—even before the universe existed.[2]

So guess what . . . The Gospel, rather offensively, proclaims that you are “in Christ.” In his letters, Paul told people that they were “in Christ” 83 times. The point of the Gospel is that God has chosen to reveal His Son in you and you in the Son.[3] In other words, you are not left alone to have your “own” relationship with the God of heaven and earth. God has placed you “in Christ” and now you get to freely enjoy the Father’s relationship with the Son in you.

“As He is, so are we in this world.”[4] In other words, just as Jesus is to the Father, so are you. “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God.”[5] In Christ you are everything Christ is. You are righteous, holy, blameless, altogether lovely…in the bosom of the Father, just like Jesus.

You have to get this idea out of your head that the Father and the Son are somewhere in outer space in heaven and you are down here waiting for Jesus to come back one day. Every idea about yourself must line up with the simple truth of being “in Christ.”

Is Christ in heaven?

Yes.

So then where are you?

God “raised us up with Him (Christ) and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”[6] Our truest reality is that we are seated at the right hand of the Father—that means right in the center of His heart.

We need eyes of faith, because this is what it means to believe the Gospel. And hence, this is truly good news.

You are called to lean on Jesus’ bosom just like John did.[7] You are leaning into a Person who has already accomplished a complete work of redemption for the whole world. Everything you could ever think you need is already “in Christ.” As a result, you are called to let yourself rest in the Son.

Think about the fullness of joy and eternal pleasures[8] that fills the love between the Father and the Son. This is an affectionate love we are talking about. It’s a love that kisses, dances, hugs, and throws parties in your honor.[9] And this kind of love doesn’t ever stop. The Father is full of passionate energy toward His Son. This is what the Scriptures speak of when it talks about God’s “zeal.” It’s the Father’s unrelenting delight and pleasure towards His Beloved Child.[10] The Father sings forever over His Son, “My chosen one in whom My soul delights.”[11] And by virtue of you being created and redeemed “in Christ,” you too are the delight of your Father’s soul.

If you’re looking for a reason as to why the Father delights in you, it’s because you are an “image” or “reflection” of God just like Jesus—the true and Original Image.[12] So then, His delight in you is also a delight in Himself, since you reflect His Glory, Beauty, and Splendor.

Now here’s something practical. How then shall we live under the delight of our Father’s unending love?

Be free to love yourself and be yourself.

You are a unique “reflection” and “image” of your Father in which He fully delights. Sometimes when the world says to “be yourself,” it is a license to sin. Not here. Listen to what your Father is saying here. Within the safety and beauty of holiness, purity, and the Spirit, be free to be your creative free-flowing self.

There is a church culture where everyone looks and talks the same. It hides under the guise of “unity” but really people are afraid to be a little different. They don’t know that the Father delights in them just as He delights in Jesus. Jesus loved the Scriptures, loved the Father, lived in purity, and yet He lived outside the “religious norm” of His day. He put coins in the mouths of sardines, multiplied people’s cheeseburgers, and turned well water into Chardonnay. He did stuff on the Sabbath that people didn’t like and He hung out with people that other people didn’t like.

Jesus lived a unique life. He was holy, loving, and spoke the word of God. Yet He was also creative and outside the box. Some might even say he was crazy.

Was Jesus intentionally rebellious? Absolutely not. But His Father’s delight empowered Him to a creative life that sometimes overstepped the boundaries of what His “religious culture” expected Him to do. Jesus is all about unity: unity in faith, knowledge of God, and love. That’s not the same thing as having to conform to every little man-made creed and “unspoken rule.”

I once got in trouble for taking too much communion at church. I was truly just enjoying Jesus in that moment. I also got talked to by leadership for saying that Jesus died for animals and not just humans (see Colossians 1:20!). I also know there are people who are concerned about my “walk with the Lord” because I enjoy Kanye West’s music. But it’s okay. I know how much my Father delights in me and I’m not going to obey all these little “unspoken rules” of Christian culture just because it’s the thing to do.

I will live in unity, I will love my brothers and sisters, I will share the good news of Christ—but I am also a unique son of God who was created to express the unique expression of the Spirit within me. It’s not supposed to sound like everyone else. And the same goes for you. You need to express your unique and creative New Creation heart because the world needs something genuine and outside the box. They don’t need more regurgitated “Christianese” that falls on deaf ears. You are uniquely fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of your Father: So express yourself.

The mystery of the Gospel is this:

The Father has loved us just as He loves Jesus!

It literally says that in the Bible. Jesus prayed to the Father saying, “You have loved them even as You have loved Me.”[13]

Above all else, remember this:

You have been graciously placed into the extraordinary love relationship between the Father and the Son. Now you are a unique reflection of the Father, which He absolutely delights in.

[1] John 1:18

[2] John 17:24

[3] Galatians 1:16

[4] 1 John 4:17

[5] Galatians 3:26

[6] Ephesians 2:6

[7] John 13:23

[8] Psalm 16:11

[9] Luke 15:11-32.

[10] Matthew 3:17

[11] Isaiah 42:1

[12] Colossians 1:15; Genesis 1:26

[13] John 17:23