Experience Friendship

You Can Experience Friendship with God

By Rick Warren

“Since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life”(Romans 5:10 NLT).

Your relationship to God has many different aspects: God is your Creator and Maker, Lord and Master, Judge, Redeemer, Father, Savior, and much more (see Psalm 89:26, 95:6, 136:3; Isaiah 33:22, 47:4; John 13:13; 1 John 3:1; Jude 1:4).

But the most shocking truth is this: Almighty God yearns to be your friend!

In Eden we see God’s ideal relationship with us: Adam and Eve enjoyed an intimate friendship with God. There were no rituals, ceremonies, or religion—just a simple, loving relationship between God and the people he created. Unhindered by guilt or fear, Adam and Eve delighted in God, and he delighted in them.

We were made to live in God’s continual presence, but after the Fall, that ideal relationship was lost. Only a few people in Old Testament times had the privilege of friendship with God. Moses and Abraham were called “friends of God,” David was called “a man after my own heart,” and Job, Enoch, and Noah had intimate friendships with God (see Genesis 5:22, 6:8; Exodus 33:11, 17; 2 Chronicles 20:7; Job 29:4; Isaiah 41:8; Acts 13:22; James 2:23).

But fear of God, not friendship, was more common in the Old Testament. Then Jesus changed the situation. When he paid for our sins on the cross, the veil in the temple that symbolized our separation from God was split from top to bottom, indicating that direct access to God was once again available.

Unlike the Old Testament priests who had to spend hours preparing to meet God, we can now approach God anytime. The Bible says, “Now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God—all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God” (Romans 5:11 NLT).

Friendship with God is possible only because of the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus. “All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends” (2 Corinthians 5:18 GNT).

An old hymn says, “What a friend we have in Jesus,” but actually, God invites us to enjoy friendship and fellowship with all three persons of the Trinity: the Father (1 John 1:3), the Son (1 Corinthians 1:9), and the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:14).