The Friendship of Christ

The Friendship of Christ

We wonder how many of our readers have ever heard a sermon or read an article on this precious subject. We wonder how many of His people are accustomed to think of Christ in this blessed relationship. If the answer be, "Few," that is indeed pathetic and tragic! Christ is the best Friend that the Christian has, and it is both his unspeakable privilege and bounden duty - to regard Him as such and to treat Him accordingly!

Our Scriptural support for those statements is found in the following passages, among others. "There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother" (Prov. 18:24). That can refer to none other than the Lord Jesus, the Lover of our souls. "This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem" (Song 5:16). That is the language of His Spouse, the testimony of the Church, avowing this most intimate and blissful relationship.

Add to these the witness of the New Testament when in the days of the flesh, Christ was termed "a friend of publicans and sinners!" (Luke 7:34), and our warrant is clearly established.

There are many and varied relations in which Christ stands to a believer, and he is greatly the loser if He be ignored in any of them.

Christ is the God, Lord, Head, Saviour of the Church.

Officially - He is our Prophet, Priest, and King.

Personally - He is our Kinsman-Redeemer, our Intercessor, our "Friend." That title expresses the close union there is between the Lord Jesus and believers:

They are as if but one soul actuated them - indeed, one and the same Spirit does, for "he who is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17). "Christ stands in a nearer relation than a brother to the Church: He is her Husband, her Bosom-friend." "For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones" (Ephesians 5:30).

But even those relations fall short of fully expressing the nearness, spiritual oneness, and indissolubleness of the union which exists between Christ and His people. There should - then, be the freest approaches unto Him and the most intimate fellowship with Him. To deny Christ, that is to ignore the fact that He is our best "Friend."

"There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother" (Prov. 18:24). That endearing title not only expresses the close relation there is between Him and His redeemed - but the affection which He ever bears them. Nothing has, does, or can, dampen - much less quench - the outflow of His love for His friends! "Having loved His own who were in the world - He loved them unto the end" (John 13:1). That blessed title of Christ's tells of the sympathy He bears to His people in all their sufferings and sorrows, their temptations and infirmities.

Let us consider more definitely the EXCELLENCIES of our best Friend.

Christ is an ancient Friend. We fell in Adam - but Christ ceased not to love us; nay, He became the last Adam to redeem us and laid down His life for His friends!" (John 15:13).

Christ is a constant Friend, One who "loves at all times" (Prov. 17:17). He continues to be our Friend through all the vicissitudes of life. He is no "fair-weather friend" who fails us when we need Him the most. 

Christ is a faithful Friend. His grace is not shown at the expense of righteousness; nor do His mercies ignore the requirements of holiness. Christ ever has in view both the glory of God and the highest good of His people.

Christ is a powerful Friend. He is not only willing - but able to help us! No situation can possibly arise with us, which would be beyond the resources of Christ.

Christ is an everlasting Friend. He does not desert us in the hour of our supreme crisis: "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil - for you are with me" (Psalm 23:4). Nor does death itself sever us from this Friend who "sticks closer than a brother" - for so far from calling upon us to sojourn in a popish purgatory, we are with Him that very day in Paradise. Death will have separated us from those on earth - but "absent from the body" we shall be "present with the Lord" in heaven (2 Corinthians 5:8).

And in the future Day of judgment, Christ will manifest Himself as our Friend, saying, "Enter into the joy of your Lord" (Matt. 25:21, 23).

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)