Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?

In the garden, Adam walked with God before the fall of man. Later in Genesis, God spoke to Abraham and made a covenant with him and his descendants. Then God spoke to Moses and the prophets, who served as emissaries to His people, often with the preface, “Thus says the Lord.” Moses led His people out of Egypt, Isaiah told of the coming of the Messiah, and Jeremiah warned them of the exile to Babylon.

With the Incarnation of the Son, God walked among us once again. Jesus Christ was not only the Messiah, but also the ultimate and final prophet. He breathed the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, and at Pentecost the Holy Spirit birthed His Church to serve as a shepherd to His flock until His promised return.

While Moses and the prophets communicated directly with God, their purpose was to guide the people of His covenant. The Israelites entered this covenant through circumcision. At eight days old, male infants were circumcised and later presented at the temple, as Jesus was. In the New Testament, the Covenant of Christ is entered through Baptism.

Exaulting a “personal relationship with Jesus” is a progressive perspective. While the call to know, love and follow Christ is orthodoxy, the idea of a solo relationship would have been foreign to the ancient Jewish people and to the early Church. They lived in community, and on the Lord’s Day, they gathered to pray and listen to readings from the Old Testament scriptures and letters they received from the apostles. They lived a communal life, sharing resources and ensuring each other’s well-being, physically and spiritually.  

Catholics today understand all members of the Church as abiding in Christ’s body, where He is the head. This concept acknowledges a relationship with our Christian brothers and sisters in Christ, both personally and in community, in our relationship with Jesus.

With an overemphasis on a personal relationship, many modern Protestants devalue the Church and the related sacraments instituted by Christ. Even baptism is rejected as necessary, and the Eucharist is considered purely symbolic.

This modern misconception of the Church overlooks the fact that nowhere in Scripture do the words “personal relationship” occur. Jesus even taught us to pray to “Our Father” and referred to us as His flock. Ironically, the Christians who hold most strongly to this view often also subscribe to “Sola Scriptura,” another misleading teaching of Protestantism.

The Catholic Church retains the teachings of the apostles and the spirit of the early Church, with its emphasis on the “Body of Christ” as the communion of all Christians.  We also recognize the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist where we truly receive Him.  Through the Sacrafice of the Mass, Catholics definitively have the most intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

Please see the article “The Dangers of the Five Solas of Protestantism,” also on Catholic365.