"His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem." (Songs 5: 16)
"A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." (Proverbs 18: 24)
Jesus did not come to make us His disciples, but rather to call us into His Family, to majke us sons and daughters of the living God. By taking us from lost and orphaned to family, He becomes our friend, as well.
"Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." (John 15: 15)
When we realize that Jesus Christ did not die on the Cross to make bad men good, but rather to make dead men live, we receive not just a greater revelation of Himself, but all that He wants to continue doing for us, as well.
"15For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8: 15)
God who made the Heavens and the Earth now becomes our "Daddy", the most intimate and affection relationship which anyone of us can hope for.
Forget about father wounds. Receive this new standing of sonship, which we receive by resting in Christ:
"16The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." (Romans 8: 16-17)
We inherit everything in Christ, because we live in Him and through Him:
"11If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.." (Colossians 3: 1-4)
Because of His death and resurrection, Jesus has taken us from dead in our trespasses to alive and seated in heavenly places with Him (Ephesians 2: 4-8)
We reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ because He has paid for all our sins, and the sin in our flesh, that we may reign in life as we keep on receiving His gifts of righteousness and grace (Romans 5: 17)
Jesus Christ did not die on the Cross so that we could be better servants, but rather that we may receive His Spirit of adoption and become sons of God:
"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:" (John 1: 12)
Later, John would affirm to his readers in his first epistle:
"1Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 3And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." (1 John 3: 1-3)
Jesus is the Friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18: 24), and in Jesus we have this friend who fights for us, who champions us in all ways!