In Genesis 3;7-10 there is a lot of hiding and covering going on. Suddenly levels of intimacy and closeness are lost because the man and woman ate of the fruit. They are not told this is how it must be. Simply their eyes are opened and they see each other and God differently. Distance comes between God and man. Man has been hiding from the presence of the Lord ever since.

 

This is a separation that legal declarations alone will not fix. When we disciplined our kids, they felt a separation; it was always important to not just proclaim they were forgiven and explain the wonderful process of reconciliation that happened if they were truly sorry. It was important to give them a hug and express continued affection and affirmation. They knew they were forgiven and relationally close again through experience.

 

Jesus was aware of this and promised the disciples he would not leave them as orphans (John 14;18), orphans feel alone, even in a group. There is an inner sense of abandonment, a loneliness that nothing quite fills. God new a legal solution was necessary for law had been broken, but he supplied much more in the coming of the Spirit. We are welcomed experientially into family trinity (John 14;18-20 and Acts 2 and Romans 8;15-17), and He never leaves us or forsakes us.

 

Much teaching rooted in Romans can end up strongly focused on the legal restoration of relationship with God- redemption, reconciliation, Justification and even the legal aspects of adoption. But no adopted kid feels like part of ‘family’ at the moment the legal papers are signed. Experientially for the child at that moment nothing has changed, although legally everything has changed! No slave feels real freedom when the price is paid to free him, although he can see it coming and anticipate the moment. Someone has to break the chains and bring experiential release to him.

 

Without experiential union with Christ we can rejoice in our legal position but live as if distance still existed. A legal gospel alone will always produce legalism, even if it proclaims freedom from law. This is because without the establishing of profound intimacy, we resort to principles, propositions and prescriptive leadership. These fill the vacuum left by lack of intimacy and encounter. Jesus wasn’t told what to do by the Father; he didn’t have a wrist band which reminded him to think ‘what would the Father do’. He didn’t draw on His extensive on his experience and knowledge. He simply ‘saw what the Father was doing’ and joined in; it was even the Father’s work, not his.

 

We need a great understanding of our position in Christ propositionally, and doctrinally. The Legal Gospel is part of the gospel. But we need hugs from heaven. Encounters with the Father; we need to keep seeing, hearing and feeling Him, so that we know by experience we are not alone. Encounter breaks us free from our deitistic tendencies, where God is all powerful but parked at a distance in heaven (see John 14;23, John 10;27, John 17;24 and Acts 2 for examples of the Biblical expectation of seeing hearing and feeling the presence of God).

 

I believe the schismatic history of the protestant church will continue until we come to experiential unity with the God head. When we see and know and share in his glory, we can be relationally one as a body. Any attempt at doctrinal unity will fail without experiential union with God first. (John 17;20-23)