The gospel of personal relationship (part 1)

Phrases (or something similar) I frequently hear and have also uttered myself:

• “Christianity isn’t a religion. It’s a relationship.”
• “Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?”

1. Language not found in Scripture
It’s interesting that ‘personal relationship’ isn’t taught in Scripture. None of the New Testament authors say that our biggest need is ‘to be in a personal relationship with Jesus’. Instead, they speak of forgiveness, reconciliation, justification, covenant, life, and adoption – language that we prefer to skip over and leave to egg-headed theologians. Rather than speaking the language of the Bible and accept God’s definition, we prefer to use our own language to suit our own interest. Yes, the Bible speaks of us, "knowing God", but that needs explanation, too. Oftentimes, it gets mutated into a subjective feeling that people call 'intimacy', when they know next to nothing about what He accomplished.

2. Language that is vague
I remember a friend of mine, who had just finished an evangelistic conversation, having used a well-known gospel tract, telling me that she was totally stuck when a non-Christian asked her what it means to have a personal relationship with God. To the non-Christian, it sounded like a dating relationship or as if my friend was claiming that God spoke directly to her, apart from the Word and Sacraments (i.e., unmediated). What does it actually mean? The fact that it's a 'personal relationship' will mean that one's definition will be, largely, personal...