Jesus, He’s my friend.
He took me by the hand;
Led me far from this land.
– Arthur Reynolds from the song, “Jesus is Just Alright”
I got a friend in Jesus.
– Norman Greenbaum from the song, “Spirit in the Sky”
When we call Jesus our friend, we’re not being overly chummy. We are not being inappropriate about God. We are not understating or overstating the case. We are doing what He asked. “I no longer call you servants,” he said in John 15:15, “because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” Jesus said it first. He called us His friends.
How does it feel to be a friend of Jesus? A little presumptuous? Does it seem a little cocky to claim to be a friend of Jesus? Well it shouldn’t be because it was His call. If He called us His friends, then we can certainly call Him ours. It’s what He wants.
We are not like slaves to a master who are just supposed to obey what the master says — anything more is none of our business. No, His business is our business because He has made His Father’s business known to us. We are not being kept in the dark. We are friends, co-workers with Christ. We are walking this road together. Jesus desires our company and our availability to His Spirit.
We know God’s business. We know the gospel. We know what Christ accomplished on the cross and why He wants everyone to know about it. We know all about His grace and forgiveness. Everything God gave to Jesus, Jesus gave to us, and He gave it to us to give it out to others. It’s all about grace turned outward.
We also know that He was called a friend of sinners and He had no objection to the reference. He rather liked it, in fact, since it was sinners He came to rescue. So not only did He rescue us, He made us His friends. How good is that?
So it’s settled. Norman Greenbaum sang about it. The Doobies sang about it. And they were right. Jesus … He’s your friend. There’s no argument and no question.
Write me and tell me what it’s like to have a friend in Jesus. And give me an idea of what it’s like to know and be in the Father’s business.
Leave a Reply