For some time now I have been pondering what is the meaning of all this? What is the meaning of being “saved” and being a Christian? What is my purpose in life? Why did Jesus come? What is the bottom line purpose of everything? Is it so we can have prophesy and the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Is it so we can “save the world for Jesus”? Is it so we can make more money in our businesses and give to the poor in Africa or Asia? Is it so that we don’t have to feel pain and suffering anymore?
Well, in all my meditation I was pondering Hebrews 11, the Heroes of Faith. The faith of all these men was to what avail? It clearly says that they did not receive their promise. Suddenly, I felt the whisper of the Father, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness so that he was called a friend of God. Everything that I did was so that we could be friends, like I was with Abraham and with Moses.”
And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. James 2:23 ESV
Inside the Tent of Meeting, the LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Exodus 33:11 NLT
Wait a minute! Believing God leads to friendship. God wants to be my friend? What does this look like in my life? I do not often see this modelled in other people’s lives. I felt like Mary talking with the angel or Nicodemus talking with Jesus and asking, “How can these things be?” My mind was not able to comprehend in that moment the depth of what God was saying to me. I began to see that I was not purely here for God’s service as His faithful servant, but to be in an intimate relationship of two equals in love with one another. He was talking about a relationship where both parties contribute in conversation and sharing of heart.
No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you. John 15:15 BSB
Friendship with God is reserved for those who reverence him. With them alone he shares the secrets of his promises. Psalm 25:14 TLB
In fact, it now becomes so clear to me that everything Jesus did when He came to the earth, died and rose again is for our relationship and friendship with God. God had no other motive for us, but to bring us into equal fellowship and relationship with Him.
For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. Colossians 2:9 NLT
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. 2 Corinthians 5:18 NLT
For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross. Colossians 1:19-20 BSB
A quick look through history reveals and confirms that His original intention was always for an equal, like-minded relationship with mankind. We were made in His image and likeness, which is LOVE, for the purpose of relationship with the divine.
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…" God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it. Genesis 1:26-28 NASB
Abraham and Moses were the two examples that the Father whispered to me, but there are also Jacob and David who encountered God face to face and heart to heart, before Jesus came on the earth as a man.
So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” Genesis 32:30 NKJV
You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.” Psalm 27:8 ESV
What does it look like for us to be face to face with God, the Lord of all creation? How do we even begin to understand this kind of significance of relationship? The most intimate relationship on earth is the marriage relationship between a husband and wife. But this is still only a mystery of God’s intentions towards us.
Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Ephesians 5: 24,25, 28-30, 32 NKJV
The picture of marriage holds a deep mystery for us to pursue continually into the depths of revelation of His great love for us. In the same way, let’s look at this verse.
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV
As we look at this verse, we see that God sees marriage as an equal yoking, a partnership. Righteousness has no partnership that which is not also righteous. So in light of God’s relationship with us, we see His deep intentions of partnership and relationship again in Revelation. He talks about a bride being prepared for the Lamb of God. She is beautiful and perfectly His equal.
Let us rejoice and celebrate and give Him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. Revelation 19:7 BSB
And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So your God will rejoice over you. Isaiah 62:5 NASB
What a stunning picture of God’s love and intentions for us, to be His equal, in His likeness! His desire is for us to have face to face and heart to heart relationship with Him, as a bride with her bridegroom. This is our journey to discover by our own time spent with God in His presence.
The secret [of the sweet, satisfying companionship] of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its [deep, inner] meaning. Psalm 25:14 AMP