Yesterday morning, we were thinking about how God graciously and lovingly chose Abraham to be the man through whose family God would bless the nations. This idol-worshipping pagan from Ur of Chaldeans who seemingly knew nothing about the one, true God of all creation – suddenly becomes God’s “friend” through believing God’s promise.
Jas 2:23... “And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God.”
What an incredible thought! We sing the song, “The Mystery of the Cross” which says:
By Your perfect sacrifice I’ve been brought near
Your enemy You’ve made Your friend
Pouring out the riches of Your glorious grace
Your mercy and Your kindness know no end
Perhaps one of the most difficult things for me to grasp a result of accepting God’s gift of eternal life through the selfless love of Jesus – is not eternal life itself (does that sound strange? – it shouldn’t because eternal life as a result of the gift of eternal life kind of goes with the territory, doesn’t it?) – but rather, the fact that I’ve become God’s friend. Eternal life I can understand (kind of!) – but me, God’s friend? What a thought! And yet, it’s true – right down to the very last drop. Jesus told His closest followers:
“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends.”
The entire concept of what the Bible calls “reconciliation” is built around the premise that we who were once “alienated from God and were enemies in {our} minds because of {our} evil behavior” – have now been “reconciled {to God} by Christ’s physical body through death to present {us} holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” (Col 1:21-22). In other words, we’ve become the “friends” God as a result of Jesus absorbing the absolute totality of God’s righteous and holy wrath toward our sins upon Himself. The theological word is “propitiation” – or the full satisfaction of God’s wrath in Jesus Christ.
Me – God’s friend? You – God’s friend? Absolutely – just like the idol-worshipping pagan, Abraham – when we believe God and it is reckoned to us as righteousness. Sounds a bit incredible, doesn’t it? Probably because that’s exactly what it is – but nonetheless, true! What do you think about that? Tell God – and then spread the word!
