We have been exploring the Bible’s teaching on the friendship of God. Ultimately all friendships point to this deep relational reality. We saw last week how the Old Testament develops this idea, but what about the friendship of God in the New Testament? The New Testament advances this concept through the unique person and work of Jesus Christ.
The New Testament does something unique in the Canon. Yes, Jesus in his earthly ministry does have specific friends. The 12 are his close friends in general, and He has an inner circle with James, John, and Peter. But beyond this, we find that Jesus calls all His followers friends. All of those who put their trust in Jesus get to be included in friendship with God. John 15:13-15 gives us insight into this reality:
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
This is an amazing text. Here we get a reference to the cross and to the gospel in the terms of friendship. The gospel is, in one sense, Jesus extending His friendship to all sinners who come to Him. That’s profound. We often think of the gospel in terms of sacrifice and atonement; which it is. The Bible also frames the gospel in terms of propitiation. But here Jesus frames the gospel in the language of friendship. The greatest love, He says, is a friend laying down his life for another friend. Jesus identifies Himself as the truest and greatest friend!
And to add to this concept, his explanation that His followers are not servants but friends particularly because He has revealed the plan of God to them. You’re not servants, Jesus says, because a servant doesn’t get to know the master’s plans and intentions. But friends get invited into that intimate knowledge. Through His Word and His Spirit Jesus reveals that information to His followers such that they are called His friends.
All of this points to something utterly profound: the gospel creates an intimacy with God that is unlike anything in history or world religions. Jesus makes us friends of God! He does this, of course, by being the true friend. Jesus, after all is called the Friend of Sinners (Matt. 11:19; Luke 7:34). The Pharisees labeled Jesus this way as an insult. To them, being a friend of sinners was an unholy and impure thing to do. But to Jesus this was a testament to His love. He came to befriend sinners, and in so doing He doesn’t become unholy, but they become holy. Friendship with God is truly profound and accessible to all sinners through the person and work of Jesus Christ, the truest friend.
Sparrow & Heart Soul Care 