Slideshow image

What does it mean to you to think of God as your Father? The late theologian J.I. Packer once said, "If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means he does not understand Christianity very well at all."[i]

Peter begins his call for Christian holiness in 1 Peter 1:14-16 with a tiny phrase that many of us would be quick to overlook. "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’”   Those three words in our English translations should ring in our ears. This should be a stunning statement! The fact that we can call God Father should knock our socks off!

On the one hand, it's not surprising at all because Father is who God is. Unlike other religions, Christians are alone in believing that God exists eternally in three persons. While Islam may say that Allah is “father,” he can only be father when he begets children. Like a man only becomes a father when his children are conceived, the gods of the nations only become “fathers” when a world is created for them to love. Not so with the God of Scripture.

The Bible teaches that God is the eternal Father, because He has an eternal Son. As Peter puts it in 1 Peter 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” Father is not something God becomes. He is eternally Father in His nature because the Son is also eternal, and their love for one another overflows in love for the eternal Spirit.

This overflowing love leads theologian Michael Reeves to assert that God is "essentially outgoing."[ii] It's no surprise, then, that God's overflowing love within Himself bubbled over into a created universe to share His love.   But something has gone wrong with the world. You don’t have to look long in the headlines to realize that this is not a world bubbling over with Fatherly love. It’s a world devastated by death and destruction.   The Bible clearly and consistently tells us that what went wrong with the world is something called sin. 1 John 3:4 tells us that “sin is lawlessness.” It’s the breaking of God’s law.

But we need to be careful here because sin is not lawbreaking the way we often think of it. Sin is not like speeding. When you break the speeding limit you have broken an objective standard, but you haven't broken a relationship. Your relationship with the police officer is not broken by your infraction. I've received speeding tickets in seven different states, and not once was the police officer offended by my fast driving. Not once did I break a relationship. Even if you had a prior relationship with the officer who pulled you over, that relationship can remain intact even after getting a ticket because the officers are just doing their job. It turns out that breaking the law by speeding is a very poor analogy for sin.

Think instead of sin like adultery. When a husband or wife commits adultery, they have devastated a relationship. But not just any relationship. This is a relationship that was designed to be intimate and exclusive. It's no surprise, then, that the Bible often refers to sin implicitly and explicitly as spiritual adultery.   Sin enters the world. Now suddenly this outgoing Father who bubbles over in love for His Son, the Spirit, and His entire creation is opposed by His creatures. Sin has destroyed the relationship Which is why in 1 Peter 1:17, Peter begins by saying if you call on him as Father. Did you catch that? IF. The implication is that not everybody does call on God as Father. Because not everybody can.

Because of sin, our perfect relationship with the perfect Father is broken. Because of sin, all of us are born with another phony father. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.” (John 8:44)   But it’s not just the super-bad Pharisees that serve this phony father. John says in 1 John 3:10, “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”

In our sin we have traded a Father for a Führer!!! Satan doesn't love his children. He uses them and abuses them.

But Peter tells us that we are "obedient children" of God the Father. So how then can we call Him Father? Not by birth, but by rebirth. Peter says in 1 Peter 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Only through the Gospel can we exchange our Führer for a Father. On the cross Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. In His resurrection He proves that His sacrifice was effective. The price has really been paid! And now we can be born again to a living hope, born again into a new family with a Father overflowing with outgoing boundless love for His children. Soli Deo Gloria!

 

[i] J.I. Packer, Knowing God (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1973), 224. Emphasis added.   [ii] Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 43.