Our Father

 

My dad was a good man, faithful and hard-working. He had a quick sense of humor, taught us practical skills, and wanted the best for us. He was frugal to a fault and didn’t like being hugged. He was my precious dad, but he was not my heavenly FATHER. He could not do what that Father did and can do.

The list is long. Just a few of the 250 verses or so that describe God as Father take up double the length of a daily blog. How can this amazing Father be described? A few biblical statements without references? A few with them?

First, He is the God of Israel but also the Father of all life for He created us and sustains us. By His will we live and move and have our being, able to breathe and walk this earth. He invites us to call Him Father and acknowledge we are the work of His hand.

The NT calls us into a closer relationship, not only as our physical Creator but as the One who gives spiritual life, eternal life. Just as He gave His OT people laws to show they were called by Him, He gives those redeemed by Jesus Christ countless truths about who He is and how we should live as His children, saved by faith and filled with His Spirit. This first one tells us a primary truth about our Father:

(Matthew 5:48) You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

His perfections include knowing and seeing all things, even the secret things. He knows our needs before we ask and invites us to rely on Him for everything. This Father-child relationship is not just about forgiven sin even though that is how it begins. He also feeds and cares for our every physical and spiritual need, hears and answers our prayers, and gives good things to those who ask Him.

Our Father reveals to our hearts the things we need to know about Him and His will for us. In Luke 10:21, Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” This revealing includes an understanding of who Jesus is.

This Father is not willing that any should perish. He is merciful and calls us to be like Him. He gives good gifts to us and seeks our worship. John 4:23–24 says “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

This powerful Father raises the dead and gives them life. He has eternal life in Himself and granted Jesus also to have life in himself. Jesus is the true bread from heaven who feeds our spirits, just as manna fed those who wandered in the wilderness.

Our Father initiates salvation. Jesus said in John 6 that “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” and “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” and “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”

(John 10:28–30) I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Knowing the Father means first knowing the Son. In John 14, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also . . . Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”

Those who believe are adopted into this Father’s forever family and are invited to call God the Hebrew word for “Daddy” because “You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom (you) cry, “Abba! Father!”

Our Father is the God of all comfort. By His will, Jesus came to deliver us from sin. He loves us with an everlasting love and invites us to call on Him and live holy lives, as He is holy. We are not to love in worldly ways but demonstrate that the love of God is not about selfish pursuits.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. His love means I am a child of God. My destiny is to be like Jesus and when I see Him as He is — like the Father yet visible —  and I will be like Him. “Everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as He is pure.” This is the practical goal of knowing God as my Abba Father!