The Tao of Christ

Beyond Relationship with God

August 10, 2022 Marshall Davis
The Tao of Christ
Beyond Relationship with God
Show Notes Transcript


Many Christians talk about having a relationship with God. Evangelicals in particular speak of the importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They say this begins when one “receives Jesus into your heart” or “accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior.” This relationship is thought to continue after death in heaven, where one will have a relationship with God and Christ forever. 

Evangelicals frequently distinguish themselves from other Christians – like mainline Protestants and Catholics - by saying that these groups only have religion, but “born again” believers have a relationship with God, and that makes all the difference. The slogan goes something like this: “It is not a religion. It is a relationship” or “It is not about religion; it is about a relationship with God.” You can even buy t-shirts, mugs and caps with that slogan, if you are so inclined. 

I go one step further. I say, “It is not about religion or relationship. It is about realization.” By “realization” I am referring to Self-realization or God-realization, waking up to the Spiritual Reality that Jesus called the Kingdom of God. Others call it spiritual awakening or enlightenment. 

Many Christians talk about having a relationship with God. Evangelicals in particular speak of the importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They say this begins when one “receives Jesus into your heart” or “accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior.” This relationship is thought to continue after death in heaven, where one will have a relationship with God and Christ forever. 

Evangelicals frequently distinguish themselves from other Christians – like mainline Protestants and Catholics - by saying that these groups only have religion, but “born again” believers have a relationship with God, and that makes all the difference. The slogan goes something like this: “It is not a religion. It is a relationship” or “It is not about religion; it is about a relationship with God.” You can even buy t-shirts, mugs and caps with that slogan, if you are so inclined. 

I go one step further. I say, “It is not about religion or relationship. It is about realization.” By “realization” I am referring to Self-realization or God-realization, waking up to the Spiritual Reality that Jesus called the Kingdom of God. Others call it spiritual awakening or enlightenment. Jesus referred to this as being “born of the Spirit” and “born again,” by which he meant something very different than the evangelical experience. Jesus also called it eternal life, which is likewise very different than popular Christianity’s fantasy of a heavenly theme park. 

Mainline and Evangelical Christianity don’t go far enough. They do not go as far as Jesus invites us to go. There is nothing wrong with religion when it is psychologically and socially healthy religion. There is lot wrong with authoritarian religion. There is pandemic of toxic religion and abusive religion in our nation today and it is gaining strength.  It preys on the vulnerable and gullible. When God is pictured as an abusive divine patriarch, it naturally leads to abusive religion run by church authorities, who gladly stand in for an invisible God. But healthy religion can be a good thing for individuals and society. 

Likewise there is nothing wrong with having a relationship with God and Jesus when it is a healthy relationship. It is unhealthy when it tries to coerce others in society into this relationship. When offered in a society with true freedom of religion, having a relationship with God can be a good thing. At worse such a relationship is no more harmful than having an imaginary friend. At best it is a genuine encounter with the Divine. 

But even at its best, a relationship with God is not the best type of spirituality. It falls far short of our spiritual potential. You have heard the saying, “The good is the enemy of the best.” A relationship with God can be the enemy of the best. Jesus invited this followers to go beyond religion and relationship to realization. 

According to the Gospel of John, on the night before his death Jesus offered a lengthy prayer, which is often referred to as his High Priestly Prayer. First he prayed for himself, and then he prayed for his apostles. Finally Jesus prays “not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.” He is talking about his followers in future generations, which includes us. This is what he prays for us:

“that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” The prayer goes on, but that is enough.

Do you hear what Jesus prayed? He prayed that we might know oneness with God, the same type of oneness that he knew. He prayed: “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us….” Let those words sink in for a moment. Meditate upon them phrase by phrase, and see where they take you. If you are a Christian think about your Christology – your understanding of Christ. That is what Jesus wanted for you. That is what Jesus prayed for you. 

Jesus says that we are meant to know the same oneness with God as he knew. He makes that clear in the following words: “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one….” The word glory is hard to define, but it refers to that essence of God in Christ. That is what we have according to Jesus. That makes many theologians uncomfortable because it compromises the boundary between divine and human that theists do not want to breach. 

Preachers downplay Jesus’ words in this high priestly prayer. They cannot believe that Jesus really meant what he said, that we might be one with God in the same way that Jesus is one with God. So they ignore or water down his words in order to confirm to dualistic theism. They say he was just talking about a closer relationship with God, but stull a dualistic relationship. I take Jesus at his word. Jesus was not espousing dualistic theism. He proclaimed – and prayed – nonduality. 

Jesus is talking about something more than having a closer relationship with God. He is speaking of transcending relationship. He is speaking about union with God, which is something Christian mystics have always said is possible. Eastern Orthodoxy teaches this, calling it theosis. Sometimes it is called apotheosis or deification. I am very grateful to listeners who have written to me and reminded me that Christianity in the East has always taught nondual Christianity, even though Catholicism has downplayed it and Protestantism and especially Evangelical Protestantism has ignored it completely.

Jesus wanted us to have more than a relationship with God or him. He wanted us to know union with God. Relationships are dualistic by nature. Union is nondualistic. Union with God does not negate relationship with God; it fulfills it. It is analogous to when Jesus said he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it. Realization of oneness with God fulfills religion and relationship. 

There is more to the spiritual life than most Christians realize and most Christian preachers preach. There is much more to the gospels than mainline and evangelical Christians know. Christian spirituality is more than religion or relationship. It is realization of oneness with God.  Jesus prayed that we might know this realization. The First Letter of John says that if we pray anything according to the will of God, it is done. Jesus prayed according to the will of God. It is the will of God to know oneness with God. Jesus prayer is already answered. Now it is just a matter of it being realized in our lives.