# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1910_S16
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

16 Proceedings of the twenty-third convention

I have chosen you," John 15:16. "Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us," 1 John 4:16. God has reconciled us to himself through Jesus
Christ, 2 Cor. 5:18. "But God commendeth his love toward us in that,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ
died for the ungodly," Rom. 5:8, 6.

The passage last cited shows us the second step
that Christ took to make us his friends: he died for us.
He himself says of this: "Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends," John 15:13. That very thing
Christ has done for us. "He is the propitiation for our
sins," etc., 1 John 2:2. God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto himself. But how? "Not imputing their trespasses unto them,"
2 Cor. 5:19. He remits the debt; he blots out the handwriting; he forgives
sin.

The third step that Christ took to make us his friends
was that he made his love known to us. He himself preached
the Gospel while he walked on earth. And when he was about to ascend into heaven,
he made provision that the preaching of this Gospel
should resound to the end of time: "Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature!" St. Paul says: "Now then
we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by
us: we pray you in Christ's stead, Be ye reconciled
to God!" 2 Cor. 5:20.

Whoever now accepts this message, whoever believes this Word of God,
becomes thereby a friend of God. "Abraham believed God,
and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God," James 2:23. (Cf. 2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8.)

How does Christ treat his friends? He does not treat them as servants. A good master will treat even his humblest
slave kindly; but he will not be intimate with
him. With his slave he does not discuss his personal
affairs; to him he does not reveal his heart; to him he does not speak
of his hopes and fears; to him he does not impart his
plans, etc. "The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth," John 15:15.

With Moses the Lord spoke "face to face, as a
man speaketh unto his friend," Ex. 33:11. Mouth to mouth he spoke
with him, not through dark words or parables, Num. 12:8.
And as the Lord spoke with Moses, so openly and confidingly does
Christ treat his friends. "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. Elsewhere Jesus also says: "I have declared
unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love
wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them," John 17:26.
(Cf. also vv. 6–8.)