Regardless, I was thumbing through the catalog and a particular book description hit me. It started, "How would you define your relationship with Christ? Are you a die-hard fan? Devoted follower? Don't know?"
How does one define their relationship with Christ? I posit that this question is invalid. According to the totality of the Holy Scriptures, you don't get to define your relationship with Christ.
Christ is the one who has defined his relationship with you.
Does anyone, any character in the Bible, Old or New, do the defining of the relationship? Or is it that God is the one doing the defining, the choosing, the sending? Christ has defined His relationship with you. His definition is Himself.
"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."
- Romans 6:3-11
Jesus has defined his relationship with you in your baptism. In Baptism, God has claimed you as His own and has attached you to the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. He molds and shapes you into who He intends for you to be through His Word, and ultimately, at your resurrection. In Word and Sacrament, Christ defines you with himself as he binds himself to you.
So rejoice and take heart. You don't have to busy yourself with worrying how you are or aren't defining yourself and your relationship with Christ - buying the latest "how to" book about what YOU need to do to improve your relationship with Jesus. He has done that heavy lifting for you. Christ has forgiven you through the cross and empty tomb. You are His through water and the Spirit. And your life as a Christian is defined by Jesus.
You are "in Christ." Go and be who you already are!
