I Have Called You Friends

I have called you friends . . . —John 15:15

This is one of the most amazing statements in scripture. He is God, Savior, and by His own words, friend. He proved His friendship by surrendering His life for us.

Our friendship with Him is confirmed the same way, by surrender of our lives to Him. For many reasons, we resist.. Control is a powerful feeling. In our world today, it seems we have lost control of much, our government, our day to day lives, our families. We are, therefore, reluctant to give up control of anything. We fail to see that surrender to Christ is joy, the greatest joy we can know. We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do.

Our surrender is aided by the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our greatest desire is to lay down our lives for Jesus. Yet the thought of self-sacrifice never even crosses our minds, because sacrifice is the Holy Spirit’s ultimate expression of love.

“I have called you friends. . . .” Our friendship with Jesus is based on the new life He created in us, which has no resemblance or attraction to our old life but only to the life of God. It is a life that is completely humble, pure, and devoted to God. It is a life of pure blessing.

Nick