It is popular to think that one’s relationship with Christ is personal, yet clarification is needed as to what this means. Personal often carries with it the connotation of a private and/or unique relationship that excludes others. Thus, to an inquiry about a delicate topic, someone might reply that it is “none of your business” on the grounds that it is personal. However, personal can also mean particularly involved or connected to someone or something. Thus, to say you put in a personal appearance at an event or received a personal invitation does not necessarily mean that it was private but was specific and particular.
It is important that a relationship with Jesus Christ be personal in the sense that each Christian is specifically and particularly connected to Jesus through His gracious sacrifice on his/her behalf and his/her faithful response to His invitation. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:26,27). The intimacy of trust (faith) “in Christ Jesus” to the extent that we “put on Christ” in baptism certainly conveys that one is personally connected with Christ. “As many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death…we were buried with Him through baptism into death” (Rom. 6:3,4). Our relationship with Jesus is nothing if it is not personal. However, Jesus never intended His relationship with us to be private, secret, or unshared with others.
A personal relationship with Jesus, while critical for our own salvation, actually connects us to others who are also personally connected to Jesus. This is clearly illustrated in what Paul refers to as “the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:12) of which Christ is head (v. 15) and Paul further describes as, “the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, caus[ing] growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (v. 16).
This describes the unity to which all followers of Christ are called in “one body” (vv. 1-6). Being united with Christ means being united with others. We can’t have a personal relationship with Christ without being a part of His body, His people, His church (1:22,23).
Our personal connection to Christ impacts our connections to one another. In writing to the carnally-divided group of Christians in Corinth, Paul had to remind everyone that because Christ is not divided, neither should they be divided (1 Cor. 1:10-13; 3:3,4). Yet division was (and still is) rampant among professing Christians because of worldly attitudes and behaviors which do not conform to Christ.
Paul also used the “body” imagery to illustrate and remind the saints in Corinth of the practical value of diversity of function even as there is unity of faith and purpose (12:12-31). So, while “by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body…the body is not one member but many” (vv. 13,14). Christians always need to remember that we “are the body of Christ, and members individually” (v. 27). Paul is not saying that the group in Corinth (or any such group) constituted “the body of Christ,” but he is using the saints’ professed common connection to Christ’s body to challenge them to work together with one another in a way that is Christ-like and in accord with the mind of Christ.
Being reminded of our personal connection to Christ in His body equips us for the work of service in the many other relationships we have including our marriages, households, working relationships, local congregations, and even those outside of Christ (cf. Col. 3:1-4:6). One’s relationship with Christ is personal but not private because, ideally, it connects Christians to one another and seeks to share the gospel so that others will likewise connect to Jesus Christ.