We can do the simple Christian basics, but how do we seriously develop our personal relationship with God?

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘God’s Glorious Plan for Creation’ (2007).

A very good and practical question. 'We can do the simple Christian basics.' What, like loving one another perhaps? And that is absolutely basic, as Paul has reminded us. How do we develop our relationship with God? Well we use the means of grace to start with—that's very, very important. Our Lord Jesus knew what he was doing when, on the last night, he took bread and wine, gave it to his disciples and said, 'Take this and eat it and drink it.' You will notice he didn't say, 'Offer it.' He didn't say, 'Take this bread and wine and offer it to God.' He said, 'Take this bread and wine and eat it and drink it.'

'What for?'

'In memory of me.'

Why did he ask us to remember him in that form? He could have asked us to remember him by getting up, when we meet as Christians, and rehearsing all his miracles, and we should have remembered him as a miracle worker. Well he did miracles and they were important, but he didn't ask us to do that. He could have asked us to read his Sermon on the Mount. That would remind us of his moral teaching, and he was an important moral teacher, of course. He didn't ask us to do that in remembrance of him.

What he asked us to do was to take bread, eat it, and to drink wine in remembrance that, at Calvary, he gave his body and his blood for us. We want to make progress in the spiritual life. 'Do what I say,' says Christ. 'Meet with your fellow Christians and remember me in the way I have told you to.' Why? Because that takes us back to Calvary, the mainspring of a Christian's devotion to Christ. Listen to Paul saying, 'the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me' (Galatians 2:20). So Christ brings us back constantly. We call it the means of grace, don't we, to remember him? I must remember him personally. He gave himself for me. He loved me and gave himself for me. Now if Christ gave himself for me and died for me, the Bible says then I belong to him. He's bought me. I'm not my own anyway. He bought me. 'If one died for all, then all died that they which live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died and rose again for them'. Hence the mainspring of our devotion to Christ, constantly to be renewed, to remember him that he gave his body and blood for us and now lives, and we're his and we are his to serve him. And then, as we can, let his word be our guide.

You say, 'Do we need all that knowledge?' Well half a minute. These letters in the New Testament I've been reading from, they were written by apostles, for instance, and they were sent to churches. As you will see from the letters, a lot of the people in those churches were slaves, many of whom wouldn't have had much education. Some of them would have had, but many had little education. Those letters were written to them amongst the others. People in the church who could read got up and read the letters, and the teachers explained it to them, even to the slaves, so it's not all that difficult. For us in our day who are much better educated than the slaves in that day, it shouldn't be difficult to get a Bible or to meet as Christians, and to start to read it and study it, and let the teachers in the church teach us and help us to understand it. For every believer has the Spirit of God and God is able to communicate himself to each one, according to their particular abilities. So that is how we seriously develop our personal relationship with the Saviour, by using a means of grace, by attending a reading and preaching of his word, by personal prayer of course, and talking to the Saviour regularly and every day.

but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)