Is it preposterous that you could have a relationship with God that exceeds the loyalty of those of men who fight as comrades at arms?
14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would abide, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. – John 15:14-16
To add further emphasis, the previous verses are the famous, “12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
Not only do you the honor of calling Jesus Christ “Friend” as a believer, the more you understand the relationship, it is much like being joined at the hip with the greatest hero you’ve eve experienced or read about in truth or fiction.
The most amazing and humbling reality is, you didn’t choose Jesus, but Jesus chose you.
The average congregant needs that act of love and grace to be put into perspective, and this Is made clear through the truth laid out in Scripture.
A Holy and Righteous God seeks to redeem the people He created. Created in His image, the image of a God whose three key persons share a relationship of unity and love created a people to share that holy and intimate relationship with. Given a freedom of choice, however, the imperfect humans fell into sin and become unholy and unrighteous to such a degree that a great chasm exists between a HOLY, RIGHTEOUS and JUST GOD and UNHOLY, UNRIGHTEOUS and UNJUST people.
God sets out to solve the problem by sending His Son, as a man to earth, a person who is both Truly Man and Truly God, to die for our sins. Jesus Christ, a man without sin, takes upon sin upon Himself in sacrificial love, absorbing the Father’s righteous wrath in place of those who are the chosen. The chasm is so great, only the sacrifice of God himself can bridge that immense gap, a gap that human effort has no chance to achieving reconnecting.
He pick you and me like the little kid who was the last one along the fence when picking sides in elementary school. Each of us was made in His image and we were weaved together into a miracle of life.
There is a bit of a mystery, we were given the power of choice, to love or not to love, to honor God or not to honor God. Love cannot be forced.
One of the best ways I’ve heard the mystery explained is, since God is omnipresent, He knew the unfolding of the future in a moment as soon as he created and cast the first atoms into motion that became the universe. Spoken into existence by the power of His Word. He knew who would choose to love God and who would remain estranged and hostile against Him.
Death became the result of sin, as much as a “wage” or consequence (Romans 6:23), as much as it would become a mercy for every human corrupted by sin, death can be seen as a merciful curtailing of a life handicapped by sin, because our corruptible bodies will be transformed afterwards in the Resurrection of the dead into glorified bodies that are unhindered by sin. The Resurrection of those who are saved by Christ will be unhindered by sin, pain, sorrow, disease, and all the corruption and imperfections we grow weary of in this mortal life.
One might think that that the Christian life being analogous to fighting on a battlefield might be far fetched. I have three things to say,
One: Nigeria.
Two: Most western churches avoid the subject sin and moral depravity, the utter damnation it will result in without repentance and humble contrition. Sin separates us from God unless we place our faith in His Grace through Jesus Christ. When Christ gave His Sermon on the Mount, He had much to say about the meek, the poor in spirit, the humble, those who suffer, because it is when we are in those states we are stripped of our self-pride and self-righteousness that we have a chance to better see the reality of the chasm that separates us from a Holy and Righteous God and how God’s grace, Him reaching out to us, is crucial.
Three: The more I understand the realities of the Gospel and Salvation and what being saved means and what immortal souls are saved from, and how the battle of faith is in the spiritual realm, the battlefield analogy is quite apt. Saving souls from eternal separation from all that is good is and ought to be a constant battle if you are filled with love for others. A sense of urgency and sobriety must undergird all believers. “Onward Christian Soldier” resonates in a way that is inconsistent with much of the modern church.
The war is quite tough, because the enemy is a master of deception. The ultimate obstacle to faith is a spiritual blindness that causes unbelief.
As believers, your choices do make a difference, your prayers make a difference, your trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ makes the biggest difference. Christ is like the finest Company Commander who leads his men with courage, skill, and genuine camaraderie into the face of the biggest battle in the most consequential war for spiritual lives and immortal souls.
Christ is your friend, though not just any friend. He’s that kind of friend you would know through fighting together in combat, hence, why there is such a high level of camaraderie of those who join in a fight shoulder to shoulder.
Esprit-de-corp is a common grace of God that occurs because we are made in His image and why we resonate with great leaders, though some may not know the greatest of them all.
Yet Christ is so entirely greater than who we identify as our comrade-at-arms, He is one with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is the great Shepherd, Loyal, Faithful and True. He is the one who will never leave you and show you that way home after the battle is over and the war is won. He is the One who is preparing a place in heaven for all who love and trust Him when we finally retire from this battle, from this earthly life.
For a one minute explanation of the Gospel from the late Pastor John MacArthur, watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCP9UcC7BzE
For a review of the Ten Commandments: https://www.challenyee.com/the-ten-commandments/
All quoted excerpts have footnotes removed, usually from Legacy Standard Bible (LSB), sometimes from New International Version (NIV), on rare occasion the Amplified Bible (AMP).
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