The Divine Fatherhood

The phrase ‘our Father who is in heaven’ found in the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9) indicates that God is not only majestic and holy but also personal and loving.  The thought of the Fatherhood of God was not altogether new. Yahweh had claimed “Israel as His son, even His firstborn” (Exodus 4:22), had loved him as His child (Jeremiah 31:9; Hosea 11:1). The reprimands found in Isaiah (Isaiah 1:2) and Malachi (Malachi 1:6) express the thoughts of a wrathful Father. As Christians, we take for granted the concept of God as a personal, loving Father. The tenderness of relation and wealth of love and grace this profound relationship contains are typical to the New Testament.  An approach of this kind was not very popular during the Old Testament days and among the Jews. A fatherly love was at the best to be the image of His pity for those who fear Him (Psalms 103:13).

The Old Testament sees God as a Father who is the creator, sustainer, provider and judge. He is also described as a terrible God, a consuming fire who lives in light no man can see and therefore inaccessible to man. The divine wrath is the natural expression of the divine nature, which is absolute holiness, manifesting itself against the rebellious, deliberate, disobedient, inexcusable sin and iniquity of human beings. The concept of a God who tenderly loves humans as His children is thinly spread across the Old Testament and mentioned only a few times. The nation of Israel--and not individuals--is called a son. The Old Testament saints (Moses, David etc) are called servants, not sons. In the gospel, this Fatherhood is revealed to be of the very essence of the Godhead and to have respect to the individual-- a personal God who loves the humans as His children, gets involved in their day to day affairs and protects and provides them.

Verses like below seem to be the exception rather than the rule:

1Chronicles 17:13 I will be his Father, and he shall be My son (referring to Solomon).

Isaiah 64:8 Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Malachi 2:10 Is there not one Father to us all? Has not one God created us?

It is in the midst of the imbroglio of the ancient Jewish religion and the malpractice of its professors that the Saviour of the world entered, in the first century Palestine. Jesus’ calling God His Father caused such indignation among the Jews that they wanted to kill Him (John 5.18). It is hardly surprising He came into sharp conflict with the self-appointed guardians of Jewish religious more. This “infringement” of the law and the Lord’s referring to Himself as the Son of God were among the more serious of the accusations the Jews levelled against Him while clamouring for a crucifixion verdict. (John 19:7). Below are some of the Lord’s utterances in which He refers to God as His Father. Here is a sample:

John 6:46 NLT - Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only I, who was sent from God, have seen him.

John 8:19…You do not know Me or My Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew Me, you would know My Father as well

John 10:30 I and the Father are one.

John 12:26 My Father will honour the one who serves me.

John 15:23 Anyone who hates me also hates my Father.

John 14:9, 11…Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…I am in the Father and the Father is in me. 

John 16:28 I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.

Jesus frequently made a distinction between the believers’ Sonship towards God and His. He is Christ, the Logos, the Second Person in the Holy Trinity and a “natural” Son to Father God. But we are God’s adopted children as many verses reveal. Writing to the Romans, Paul puts it this way, ‘’you were cut from a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into one that is cultivated’’ (Romans 11:24). Jesus warns Magdalene Mary immediately after His resurrection, “Do not hold on to me… I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’’. The kind of Father-Son relationship between Jesus and God is everlasting, coequal and coexisting. This was confirmed by the Father through His public testimonies at least twice during Jesus’ earthly ministry--at the Lord’s Jordan baptism and at the time of His transfiguration. In all Jesus referred to “Father” more than a hundred times in the Gospels and frequently He made a clear distinction between “my Father’’ and “your Father’’.

St. Paul carries the idea further:

Ephesians 1:5… He predestined us for adoption to Sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will…

Galatians 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Romans 8:15 For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption by which we cry, Abba, Father!

As He agonized in the garden of Gethsemane as “His soul was consumed with sorrow to the point of death”, Jesus addressed God ‘’abba, father”, the former being a more intimate Aramaic term for ‘father’. On only one occasion, during His entire life on earth did Jesus address His Father differently. That was on the cross, at the third hour of darkness that had covered the land when Jesus called out loudly ‘’Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?"— (My God, my God, why did you forsake me?). He used the “official term” for God as there was a moment of interruption of the conscious union between His soul and God’s spirit, caused by the manifestation of God’s hatred of sin. This was the moment our Lord had dreaded at Gethsemane when Jesus prayed "Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."

Men are not by nature the “sons of God”, at least not in the sense in which believers in Christ are called. Unbelievers are children of wrath (Ephesians 2:2, 3), controlled by the spirit of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2-4). A simple definition is in Romans 8:14—“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”.  Men become sons of God through regeneration and adoption when they accept in faith Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour (John 1:12; Galatians 3:26). According to Paul, believers possess the Spirit of adoption by which they cry out, “Abba, Father”. The term ‘abba’ is not father exactly. It is a more intimate, less official address. This approach is unheard of in pre-Christian Jewish history; it might even be called a revolutionary concept. More references are:

John 1:12–13, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

Ephesians 1: 5 He predestined us for adoption to Himself through Jesus the Messiah, according to the pleasure of his will,

Ephesians 2:19 you are …fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household,

1Peter 1:3, 4… He has granted us a new birth… to an inheritance kept in heaven for us that can't be destroyed, corrupted, or changed.  

Hebrews 12:7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons…

All books of the New Testament contain the concept of God being our Father. It was like that in the beginning before Adam sinned and lost His sonship. Jesus restored it through redemptive work He did on Calvary.

Jesus’ own teachings on this subject were considered new, unique and even revolutionary at His time. No one has seen God at any time; the Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him (John 1:18). If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you (John 15:7). I have given them the glory which You have given Me… (John 17:22). He introduced a personal, loving Father who relates to us like any human father would do—a caring, disciplining, rebuking, punishing, forgiving father. He taught we are participants in the eternal relationship of Father and Son, through the Holy Spirit.

Philippians 4:19 assures us “God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus’’. Jesus guarantees us ‘’whatever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you’’ (John 15:16). He guarantees “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you (John 15:7). He promises when we seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, the Father will give us everything we need. (Matthew 6:33NLT)

Christ Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him.

><><><><><><><><><