Left to ourselves we may think about God in ways that are abstract, remote, static and impersonal. However, we are not left to our own thinking about God because he has revealed himself to us through Jesus by the Spirit. Through this unveiling of God, we now know him as essentially relational.

The main focus of the Jesus story is the Father-Son relation. The Father is always moving towards his Son with delight as his beloved. The Son is always moving towards his Father returning his love with joyful thanksgiving expressed in trustful obedience. Jesus was always talking about his Father as he served his Father. He was always giving himself to accomplish the work his Father has given him to do. And the Father was always giving himself to Jesus, the beloved Son, with whom he is well pleased.

In this relationship of joyful love Jesus knows, is known by, and makes known his Father. As Jesus says, “No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” So now, in union with Jesus by the Spirit we share in this knowing. The Spirit of God’s Son brings us into living union with the Son so that we actually share in his relationship with the one he calls Father. We are not standing at a distance observing the Father-Son relationship we are actually sharing in the relationship on the inside. In this way, God draws us near to himself within the circle of his own knowing of himself.