Closer to God, Closer to One Another
Survey the stories of Genesis 1-22 focusing on God's call and man's response.
These two things are the theme of all of scripture. They are the greatest of all human quests. Love God and love your neighbor are not only the highest and best we can do, they are the greatest commandments and they are the summation of all of the word of God.
Sadly, the human race seems to do everything possible to find meaning elsewhere!
Let’s answer some questions and the lesson is yours.
First, what do we learn about closer to God and closer to one another from Genesis 1-22?
The next questions help us explore this: 2. What’s the tendency? What do most people do as regards growing closer to God and one another? We all grow. We develop. We form. We all have a natural tendency.
I used to believe that left alone, a human being, born with a clean slate would develop into a decent person with character and qualities that are honorable. I no longer believe that. No, we are as Ephesians 2 says, “We are by nature objects of wrath.” Or as God said after the flood, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.” From what? From childhood. Every inclination of his heart is only what? Evil. From when? From childhood. Woah!
Genesis 8:21. Eph. 2:3. Also, Psalm 58:3 Even from birth the wicked go astray. From the womb they are wayward spreading lies.
It seems from these scriptures that wickedness gets a jump start in our lives. Kids are born naturally self-centered, foolish, stingy, selfish, impatient and sometimes mean. As Joe Beam once observed, “Two year olds may not be sinners, but it’s not from lack of trying.”
Left to ourselves, we would not naturally grow up to be disciplined, honest, humble, obedient, and loving individuals. These things are trained into us, or NOT. Human beings are the most dangerous creatures on planet earth. Made in God’s own image and likeness, we carry with us a lot of potential power. But that power must be submitted to God and shaped and disciplined by His word or it will express itself in destructive and evil ways.
A cursory reading of Genesis 1-22 reveals that. We have fallen short of God’s glory into sin. We need desperately to grow closer to God and be restored by His grace.
That answers the next question too. How does sin affect us? It separates us from God first. Then it begins to destroy our relationships with one another. That’s exactly what we see in Genesis 1-22. When we are trapped in sin we will want others to join us. The end of Romans chapter 1 says this:
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
They what? They approve of those who practice them. Practice what? Things that deserve death!
Romans 1 is clear about another thing. When people continue to reject God and embrace sin, God will reject them and give them over to deeper and darker conditions. Verse 21 puts it succinctly, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God, nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
Question number 3. Why does God call us?
First of all, we need to realize and thank God that He does indeed call us! God calls all men everywhere to repent! God’s call to all is the gospel of Jesus Christ! Just like Adam in the garden, God calls us today!
Where are you?
Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, CALLED to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—
Romans 1:6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are CALLED to belong to Jesus Christ.
Romans 1:7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and CALLED to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:28 God works all things together for good of those who love him, who have been CALLED according to His purpose.
1 Corinthians 1:2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and CALLED to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:
1 Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful, who has CALLED you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Corinthians 1:24 but to those whom God has CALLED, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Second we need to know HOW God calls us.
2 Thessalonians 2:14 HE CALLED YOU to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the call of God to the world lost in sin. It is God’s voice of hope to the hopeless outside of Christ. It is God’s appeal of love to those trapped in a world of hate. It is light shining in the darkness, truth in the midst of lies. It is the fragrance of life to those in the stench of death. It is God’s call to every sinner hiding in shame and fear.
Finally, to answer the question, why does God call us? Because He loves us. He is not willing that any should perish but that all come to repentance. All we like sheep have gone astray and the good shepherd comes calling, seeking the lost. God knows that some will come. Some will hear and heed the call. God knows that many will refuse. Many will, like Cain, reject the only hope they have. Or like the crowds during the days of Noah, many will mock and turn a deaf ear to the call of God. And when the day of judgment comes they will face the wrath of eternal punishment.
Last question:
What does God call us to?
First, God calls us to Himself. We must come to Him on His terms, not our own. We are called to grow closer to God. This is the first and foremost commandment. We come to God through Jesus Christ, His Son. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Him. John 14:6 You are called to God.
Second, we are called together. As we come to God we come together in Christ. We become one body, in one church, with one hope of our calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all who is over all and in all and through all. This is a call together to grow closer to one another.
You can’t grow closer to God and not grow closer to one another. It doesn’t work. The substance of faith is the love of God, the evidence of faith is loving one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, said Jesus, by your love for one another. Is that true? Yes. How will others know that we belong to God? By our love for one another. What if I love God but hate my brother? Can’t do it! Anyone who says they love God but hates their brother is a liar and the truth is not in them.
So… First we are called to grow closer to God, second we are called to grow closer to one another and third, we are called to declare God’s call to others.
You are a chosen people, you are a royal priesthood, you are a holy nation, you are a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His glorious light.
So listen carefully to God’s call! He’s calling you by name. He’s asking you, “Where are you?” Are you close to God? Are you close to your Christian family? Are you helping others come to Him as well?
