Do We Get Close To God or Are We Already Close To God?

Sometimes we hear the phrase “you need to get close to God.”

Sometimes we say to ourselves, “I need to get closer to God.”

But is it possible for us to get close to God or closer to God?

I used to think that I needed to get close and closer to God through religious practices, spiritual disciplines, and daily confession of sins.

I was told that by having daily quiet times/devotions I could be close to and get closer to God.

Each day I would seek to have a “daily quiet time” or “daily devotion.”

I was told that if I had unconfessed sins in my life that I would not be close to God but “out of fellowship with God.”

So to maintain closeness (fellowship) with God, I tried to make sure all my sins were confessed so that I could be forgiven and in fellowship with God.

Each day I would confess all my sins.

If I missed my daily quiet time/devotion, I would feel distant from God.

If I failed to confess my sins, I would feel dirty before God.

But when I began to understand what Jesus did for me when he shed his blood on the cross, I realized I was already close to God.

Ephesians 2:13 says,

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near (close) by the blood of Christ.”

Look at what this verse says.

We have been brought near (close) to God through the blood of Jesus.

It’s the blood of Jesus that brings us close to God not our daily quiet times/devotions.

It’s the blood of Jesus that brings us close to God not our daily confession of sins.

What is it about the blood of Jesus that brings us close to God?

Through the blood of Jesus, we are cleansed from all sins.

No more being dirty before him.

Through the blood of Jesus, we are forgiven of all sin.

No more being distant from him.

With this realization, I stopped trying to get close to God and started trusting I was close to God through the blood of Jesus.

With this realization, the feelings of being dirty before God and distant from God begin to fade away.

I now enjoyed being close to God.

So let’s go back to the original question.

Do we get close to God or Are we already close to God?

According to Ephesians 2:13, we are already close to God because of the blood of Jesus.

We simply need to believe it to be true.

This is what we celebrate when we remember the crucifixion of Jesus and celebrated his resurrection.

We celebrate that through his blood we have been brought close to God through the cleansing and forgiving of our sins.

This is what we celebrate when we partake of the Lord’s Supper/Communion.

We are celebrating that through the blood of Jesus our sins have been cleansed and forgiven, and as a result we are close to God.

If we can get close to God by something we do, then we do not need the blood of Jesus.

The good news of grace (the cross/blood of Jesus) is that we do not get close to God by something we do, now that we have been brought close to God by what Jesus did for us.

So let’s answer the question.

Do we get close to God or Are we already close to God?

According to Ephesians 2:13, we are already close to God through the blood of Jesus.

We just need to believe it to be true.