God the Father

Article 3: God the Father

3-1 There is but one living and true God,1 immanent, transcendent, infinite in being and perfection, pure spirit,2 invisible, immutable,3 eternal, almighty, all wise,4 most holy, most free, most loving, most gracious, most merciful, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin,5 the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, and withal most just and terrible in His judgments, hating all sin. He will by no means clear the guilty.

God as Father

In the Old Testament

The cooperate sonship emphasis of Israel

Deuteronomy 32:6 ESV

Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?

That God is Israel’s Father was the basis for the condemnation that they were a crooked and twisted generation (see v. 5).

Isaiah 63:16 ESV

For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.

God claimed Israel to be His son (see Ex. 4:22). The prophet’s appeal assumes that despite the fact that ancestors disown their descendents, God their Father would not disown them.

see also Jer. 3:19 & Mal. 1:6.

In the New Testament

The coming of Jesus Christ marked a further insight into what it means that God is Father.

Jesus refers to God as His Father

Matthew 11:27 ESV

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Luke 2:49 ESV

And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Mark 14:36 ESV

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.”

see also John 2:16; 5:43; 8:19; 14:2.

Though a clear distinction is made between the relationship the Son has with the Father, and between the Father and His people, Jesus does emphasize the intimacy the Father and His people possess in the way He connects the two relationships.

John 17:20–23 ESV

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

The redemptive and mediatorial ministry of Jesus, on behalf of His disciples, the basis for the paternal relationship they enjoy with God. It is on the foundation of the intimate relationship the Son has with Father that all disciples of Jesus can share in that intimacy with the Father.

Disciples of Jesus rightly call God, Father

Matthew 5:44–45 ESV

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Luke 12:30 ESV

For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.

Adoption

The basis

John 1:12 ESV

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

Ephesians 1:5 ESV

he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

The effects

Galatians 3:23–4:7 ESV

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

In Christ we are sons of God through faith

God’s adoption of us is based on our faith in Christ alone

Because we have been adopted, we are heirs of the promise of God our Father.

The aim of Christ’s mission in coming to the world was to secure the redemption of His people so that they would receive adoption as sons of God.

On the basis of our sonship, we possess the Holy Spirit who is the sign and pledge of our adoption. We join with the Spirit in declaring our family connection with the Father.

See also Rom 8:15.

The Attributes of God

Because adoption entails taking on of the characteristics of the new family, as determined by the father as the family head.... we must recognize what characteristics we possess that God possess and what characteristics we do not possess that God possesses.

Incommunicable

see Article 3 above

Communicable

While we cannot become God, we become like Him as we practice His communicable attributes

Some examples are:

holy

loving

forgiving

generous

faithful

truthful

wise

just

patient