Fatherhood of God

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The Fatherhood of God – Matt 6:9

Opening Illustration – Tim Russert – Big Russ and Me – Some have issues.  CIU = Issues!

Father is a major biblical archetype throughout the Scriptures.  Yet, what is most interesting is that we find no extended teaching about being a human father or actually a well developed picture of a father’s relationship to his children. 

Furthermore, we find few good fathers in the Bible; in fact it is difficult to think of a human father who functions well over the course of his lifetime. 

Why?  Well, obviously Adam left the legacy of original sin and from him we see scripturally a long line of failures concerning fathers: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Lot, Eli, David (Amnon, Tamar, Absolom). 

Truth be told, whatever distrust we may have with the failure of fathers stems from our intuitive understanding of what a true father should be. 

And this is where, biblically speaking, against the backdrop of failures stands the image of God the Father!   

The character of God as Father is revealed preeminently in the teaching of Jesus recorded in the Gospels.  Really it is the first time we see God as Father of the believer and not simply of the nation, or the creator Father.  That incredible and vivid revelation arises out of the inner life of Jesus himself. 

Jesus’ use of the intimate Aramaic address Abba is significant in pointing this out:

·        Mark 14:36 And he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."

This term breaks decisively with the remote and highly formal modes of divine address employed by the Jews of his day.  It was apparently the name a respectful son would have given his father in every stage of life.  Paul then picks this up as well in the epistles:

·        Romans 8:15 For 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 we cry, "Abba! Father!

·        Galatians 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

This teaching is so strong in the NT that many theologians have said that being able to call God Father is what the message of the NT is principally about! 

Packer in Knowing God – “You sum up the whole NT teaching in a single phrase, if you speak of it as a revelation of the Fatherhood of the Holy Creator. 

Ferguson – You cannot open the pages of the NT without realizing that one of the things that makes it so “new” in every way, is that here men and women call God “Father.”

It is important to note that this is not intended simply as illustration.  It is not the same as in the way in which God is spoken of as a shepherd or a servant’s master. 

No, the ground of this description, as of the relationship in which it describes, lies in the Godhead itself, in the eternally subsisting relations between the Father and the eternal Son in the Trinity of Father, son and HS. Calvin even noted that the first title given to the HS in the NT is the “Spirit of adoption.”

So, what is the significance of the employment of this mode of address?  A familial intimacy is immediately introduced into the divine-human relationship, in which the merely formal – as also the merely fearful – can have no place.  But the implications go much further.  The concern of God for the individual believer is that of a Father for his child. This is what Jesus revealed!   

The entire conduct of life and religion is set in a most distinctive context by the entry of father-and-son terminology.  James 1:27 -

This is great and glorious truth – how do we put feet and legs to it?       

APP:

1.     God alone is the perfect father – there is no other! Look unto him! 

2.     God alone can redeem the failure of earthly fathers – no matter the degree of failure! 

1 John 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

Illustrate this - Luke 15:20-24  But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.  21 And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'  22 But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.  23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.  24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate.

It is his love that is supremely evident in our invitation to call him our Father 

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