Is Jesus your Savior or your Friend?

[Michie]

Catholicism as a viable religion is an objective reality that owes its identity in the Trinity. More specifically, it is Jesus Christ who instituted the Catholic Church as His direct representation on earth to carry on His salvific mission. As a universal truth, Catholicism is a very important educational concept for anyone involved in the religious development of God’s children especially the young. The development of faith requires a visible and applicable association to something this is real and true. Jesus Christ serves as the visible and applicable reality by virtue of His Incarnation as Divinely revealed by God the Father who desires to save and care for His children from sin and death through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ.

St. Paul understood the importance of transmitting a physical and applicable reality of who Jesus Christ was, is, and continues to be.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.[1]

Jesus as friend

Continued below.
Is Jesus your Savior or your Friend? | Knowing Is Doing

 

[Chesster]

I think what needs to be understood here is that it’s more intimate than friendship, it’s union - "I am the vine you are the branches".

Sin separates us from God. When Adam sinned he separated human nature from union with God. The opposite of separation, of course, is union and Jesus restores that vital union. In Christ, we are united (or perhaps better re-united) to God by sharing in His life; “made partakers of the divine nature” as St. Peter says.

 

[Gnarwhal]

I had a conversation once a few months after my confirmation with my friend/sponsor, he's a convert too and we were talking about how a lot of cradle Catholics almost seem to balk at the idea of a "relationship with Christ". It came up because I was dating a girl he and his wife set me up with at the time, and I had asked her at one point how she would describe her relationship with Christ. She just told me she didn't know how to answer that question.

Is it just me or has anyone else had that experience? I mean maybe Catholics and evangelicals understand that concept somewhat differently, I feel like evangelicals tend to use the relationship concept as a stepping off point for a far-too-casual interaction with him.

I do appreciate my former priest, the one who confirmed me, who used terms like friendship (specifically re: confession and absolution restoring us into friendship with Christ) more than relationship. I think the latter sometimes has too much of a gooey, sappy, almost romantic tone to it which can be especially tough for men to embrace. But friendship does, in a very imperfect way, make it bit easier to understand as a dude.

But these are difficult terms to throw around because they're kind of loaded, they come with baggage, and preconceived (often broken) notions of what they actually are. I kind of wish the Church would devote more energy into expounding on what a relationship with Christ is, what it isn't, and how it might differ from the sorts of relationships we experience temporally here on Earth (besides the obvious stuff like, Christ is perfect whereas our relationships with everyone else are with imperfect people).

 

[BrAndreyu]

I think the latter sometimes has too much of a gooey, sappy, almost romantic tone to it which can be especially tough for men to embrace.

If you think that's hard to embrace as a dude, might I remind you of the idea that the church is the "Bride of Christ". That's very difficult for me to embrace and I really don't like to think about the church in those terms.

I see Christ in a special way, because the story of the Transfiguration had a major impact on me. I see him as inherently divine and thus, kind of difficult to be a friend of, but easy to see as my God. If that makes any kind of sense.