That’s great, but here’s my issue with that. When some guy on the street asks me “do you have a personal relationship with Christ”…exactly what definition of relationship is he using? It can be different for every one of us! Catholics don’t use this terminology so we often don’t know how to respond. I’d have to ask each person “well, how do you define relationship. Tell me and then I can tell you if that’s what I have with Christ.”
It’s a loaded question and no one has ever asked it to me in friendship, only as a challenge. Sometimes followed or preceeded by the accusation that I worship Mary.
If you’ve ever lost a friend, had an argument with a familiy member, or been hurt by a loved one, you might be able to understand how some of us feel “relationship” cheapens what we have with the Trinity. God will never turn his back on us, hurt us, deceive us, or get so angry at our wrongdoings that he stomps off in anger. So how does that equate to a human “personal relationship”?
The words “personal relationship” are not really found in Scripture, so let’s consider whether the whole idea is. To break it down, let’s look at the idea of “personal” first. Cat posted some thoughts about that word:
Cat:
Of course, a lot of teenagers get through Confirmation and have no clue about Jesus. But nevertheless, the Holy Spirit keeps working and many Catholics eventually make a genuine PERSONAL decision to follow Jesus.
That’s what the term “personal” means–your own personal choice, of your own "free will."
**I think that’s right. It does involve a “PERSONAL decision to follow Jesus,” but maybe more. A “relationship” speaks of how one person is related to another. In a family two people may be related by blood or by marriage—brothers, sisters, brother-in-law, etc. What sort of relationship does Jesus want to have with us? Certainly Master and Servant/Follower, and God and worshipper, but perhaps even before that, Savior and savee, if I may coin a phrase. Perhaps when some guy on the street asks you if you have a personal relationship with Jesus, what he may be asking is, Have you received Jesus as your personal Savior? or, Are you saved?
Where does he get those words? The idea of “receiving Jesus” would come from John 1:11-12:**
** 11. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
12. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name: **
**Some versions use the word “accept” instead of “receive.” Same idea. Jesus came to His own, i.e., the Jewish nation as a whole, and it rejected and crucified Him, but as many as received or accepted, or did not reject Him, He gave them the right to become children of God, to those who believed in His name. That would be all his initial disciples, all Jews, who did believe in Him.
Okay, so “receiving Jesus” or “accepting Jesus” are scriptural ideas, but what about “as your personal Savior”? What does that mean? Is it scriptural? The expression “personal Savior” is not found in the Bible, but is the idea scriptural?
1 John 4:14 says, “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.”
Does that mean the whole world is saved? No, we already saw that some did not receive or accept Him, and though their sins have been paid for at Calvary, that payment is of no effect if it is rejected by the sinner. Whoever rejects and does not receive Him remains lost and liable to pay for his/her own sins for all eternity. Only the one who receives Him or accepts Him is “saved” or rescued or delivered from his/her sins which He paid for at Calvary. So the idea of “personal Savior” goes back to the idea of a PERSONAL decision, as Cat pointed out, but in this case to make Jesus your own Savior, i.e., accept what He did at Calvary as paying for YOUR sins. And that makes it personal—applying to you personally, making Him not just “Savior or the world” but your Savior personally, hence, your personal Savior. When that is done, you are “saved” or rescued or delivered, and you can answer the guy’s question with a “Yes!” (Whether you can lose it, gets into OSAS, which I need not go into here.)
**
