Often, we don’t appreciate friendship until a good one gets damaged or we lose it. Typically, quality friendships are desired by most of us, and the same is true of God. James 2:23 tells us that Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness – and he was called a friend of God (cf. 2 Chronicles 20:7). In fact, in Isaiah 41:8, God calls Abraham, my friend. What an amazing privilege, especially when we understand that Abraham was far from perfect, and his contribution to friendship with God was faulty and inconsistent at best.
But here we see God’s grace in Abraham’s life, just as it is in ours. James points out the disproportionate gift from God in response to Abraham’s belief in Him. God credited a right standing, transferring righteousness to Abraham far greater than could ever be earned. God assigned a new and permanent status, one that would never get downgraded when Abraham failed to live out his belief as He should have. And it was God’s gifted righteousness which qualified Abraham to be called a friend of God.
While the pattern of Abraham’s life was obedience flowing out of his belief in God, there were periods of time when his belief was weak and misplaced for selfish reasons. Abraham struggled with consistently prioritising the Lord over self. Yet, the Lord never walked away from him, He didn’t ignore him, nor did He transfer the righteousness and friendship to anyone else.
We see the same grace shown to the 12 disciples by Jesus when He said to them, No longer do I call you servants… but I have called you friends (John 15:15). At best, these 12 disciples had faltering belief. They were inconsistent, doubting, fearful at times resulting in them walking away when needed the most. Jesus even included Judas Iscariot in His declaration of friendship, which is astounding considering He knew Judas was the betrayer.
For us, like Abraham and the disciples, we are dependant upon the Lord’s grace to operate in our lives to produce belief in God through His Son Jesus. And today, the result of genuine belief in Jesus Christ is that we are credited with righteousness and called a friend of God.
Romans 3:21-25 explains that through belief in Jesus as our substitute taking God’s wrath on our behalf, we are forgiven and placed in a righteous standing of innocence before God. But there’s more. Ephesians 1:5 tells us that this was always God’s plan for us, to adopt us to Himself as His children. This is a massive upgrade from friendship, as wonderful as friendship is. John 1:12-13 (NLT) repeats these truths by saying, all who believed him (Jesus) and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn – not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
For the Christian, adoption by God, with the friendship of Jesus Christ being administered within us by the Holy Spirit transforms our lives (2 Corinthians 3:18). Some days our transformation can barely be recognised, while other days its really obvious. However, it is faithful God who graciously perseveres with us, for the LORD loves justice; he will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever… (Psalm 37:28. Cf. Hebrews 13:5). On both the good and difficult days, remember there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24), and this friend loves at all times
(Proverbs 17:17). His name is the Lord Jesus Christ, and I encourage you to walk with Him by faith today.
