What a friend I've found
Closer than a brother
I have felt your touch
More intimate than lovers
Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!
Friend forever.What a hope I've found
More faithful than a mother
It would break my heart
To ever lose each other
Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!
Friend forever.*
The first time I heard Delirious sing these words with their beautiful and simple melody, I was profoundly and emotionally touched. I was also shocked at the intimacy of the language.
Can we speak with such intimacy of our relationship with God?
Is this not bordering on the edge of sacrilege?
Are we not treading on holy ground with muddy human sandals to speak so freely?
What about respect for God's awesome and majestic holiness? After all, when God came to give his law at Mt. Sinai, Moses and Joshua cordoned off the area around the mountain to protect the people from the LORD's awesome presence. When the Ark of the Covenant was returned to God's people and Uzzah touched it trying to steady it, he was struck dead for touching God's holy presence. How can we dare speak so intimately, so passionately, with such familiarity with our holy and majestic God?
We dare because of grace!
We can because of the Holy Spirit!
We must because of God's desire to draw near and walk with us, his children, in the cool of the day just as he did before intimate fellowship was broken because of sin.
Such intimacy, such tenderness, is not a denial of the holiness of God, but a testimony to what only God can do — bridge the distance between the One who is eternal, immortal, invisible, and almighty with what is fallible, flawed, mortal, fleshly, and impotent.
God's own testimony of this majesty and grace can be found in a place rich with reverence for his majesty and with hushed awe at his grace (Sometime readIsaiah 40-66 highlighting the names and descriptions used for God in these chapters that surround the following statement!):
For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite. (Isaiah 57:15 NRSV)
The apostle Paul reminds us of our amazing relationship with the holy and transcendent God which is based solely on God's merciful and transforming grace:
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God ... (Romans 8:14-16 NRSV)
With the word "Abba" — the very word that our Savior used to address the Father in the garden where he pleaded for deliverance and yet submitted himself to the Father's purposes (Mark 14:36) — we are given entrance into the amazing world of God's majesty and grace. "Ab-ba, ab-ba" are often the first syllables vocalized by babies. Very young children used the word "abba" in Jesus' day to call upon their fathers. The word is an intimate term of total dependency and respect. It is about as close as we can get in human language to the collision of the holy and the earthbound; a collision that we see in God's majesty and God's grace. "Abba" is a reminder of God's intimate majesty provided by his grace in Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Please! Don't mistake these thoughts as a plea for us to be "chummy" with God. The song by Delirious, the self-revelation of God to Isaiah, the gift of the word "Abba" as our name to address God are never meant to make God our buddy and pal. Instead, they should drive us to our knees in recognition that God, the Almighty and holy one of eternal ages, has loved us so much that he bridged the distance to draw near and bring us into his holy presence by his grace. Our hearts should be filled to bursting with the profound realization that he longs to draw near to us and has made it possible for us to stand in his presence as his holy children, crying "Abba" because of Jesus — our friend forever who shared with us God's amazing majesty and grace.
[Jesus said] "I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn't confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me." (John 15:15 NLT)* Song written by Martin Smith ©1996 Furious? Music UK.
