One God and Father of All

Christians worship ONE God, and He is Father, Son, and Spirit. Not three gods, one God in three persons. Paul has no problem affirming that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are united in their being, and distinct in their personhood.

God’s nature as Triune is clear in the New Testament, and anticipated in the Old Testament. The New Testament authors take attributes and names that only belong to YHWH and apply them to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The Old Testament makes it clear that there is no one like the LORD, no one like YHWH, no God but Him, no one holy like Him. But God is the Holy One is the LORD. Listen to how Hannah sings to God when He gives her a son in

1 Samuel 2:2 ESV

2 “There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.

The three words Paul uses for the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all together in this one verse. The Father is God, the Son is LORD, the Spirit is Holy. But they are one.

As Jesus says in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.” They are One, but they’re distinguishable. The Father sent the Son. The Son became flesh and died for us, not the Father. In His incarnation, the Son prayed to the Father repeatedly. He wasn’t talking to Himself.

John 12:28 ESV

28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

So Paul says in verse 6, “One God and Father of all.” He has chosen the word “God” for the Father here for the same reason He does in 1 Corinthians 8:5-6-

1 Corinthians 8:5–6 ESV

5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

Our eyes return to the UNITY of the Father and the Son and the Spirit when we see these words, God, Lord, Holy.

Just as the LORDSHIP of Jesus points to His sovereignty, His kingship, His authority, His power - His identity as the LORD who brought Israel out of Egypt;

The identity of the Father as GOD points to His eternity, His majesty, His infinity, His might - His identity as the ONE who made the heavens and the earth.

Jesus Himself emphasized both His unity with the Father and the divinity of the Father in John 17 -

John 17:1–5 ESV

1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

APPLICATION:

These two small words, “One God,” hold immense importance and practicality for us.

First of all, because there is ONE God, everything else is not God. No created being, no so-called god in the heavenly places, nothing else is God.

On July 5th, we took an axe to a few idols because there is only One LORD.

Because there is One God, there is no AUTHORITY in heaven or on earth that has a right to demand your obedience where He has spoken otherwise.

Imagine the arrogance of those who would demand we walk away from the truth in God’s Word. ONE GOD spoke the entirety of the universe into being, and that same GOD breathed out the Scriptures. His Word reflects the infinite wisdom, knowledge, goodness, and holiness of God Himself.

Psalm 119:160 ESV

160 The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

John 17:17 ESV

17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

The same rock-solid perfect, righteous, holy GOD stands behind each and every word, and phrase, and verse, of the Scriptures. The wisdom by which He set every fine-tuned constant that makes matter hold together; by which He cast the stars in the sky like a net; the power by which He said, “Let there be light,” and there was light; He is the One who called you and me to walk in newness of life in Jesus Christ.

God’s Word is perfect, because God is perfect, and every human, institution, company, corporation, power, or government that contradicts His Word will be exposed was foolish and false in His time.

So do not fear those who speak against Him, even when they seem to be mighty and wise and good. Every false god shows his hand by showing might, worldly wisdom, and deceptive goodness. Do not fear them; do not bow.

In Galatians 4, Paul addresses Gentile believers when he says,

Galatians 4:8–9 ESV

8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

The false gods of the world are exposed when we come to be known by the ONE TRUE GOD. How many of us remember what it meant to be enslaved to those that by nature are not gods?

The false gods demand penance without salvation; demand blood without grace; demand obedience without love. They promise but cannot give life.

Every being, and person, and law, and religion, and system that sets itself up against the Gospel - these are the false gods of this world. They’re like a ladder, balanced in the air, and you climb up and find that there’s no solid ground except far beneath you, and the ladder teeters, and falls, and you find yourself worse than before. And they demand you climb up again.

The Gospel does not tell us to climb a moral ladder to God, or a career ladder to an eternal legacy, or a citizenship ladder to a true home. The Gospel tells us that the righteousness demanded by the Law is provided entirely and completely, forever, by the Savior. He has provided an eternal inheritance far beyond any achievement of this world, and it is a gift. Our truest citizenship is in a far country. Because we all belong to ONE GOD.

Because there is ONE GOD, and everything else is not God, you can give Him your devotion and commit yourself to His care, and you do not need to worry about or fear the wrath of those that are not gods.

Because there is ONE GOD, the same is true for us as a BODY. We belong to Him, and we bow to Him alone.

Here’s another practical truth - because there is ONE GOD, there is no need to seek help from any other spiritual being besides Him. No need to pray to a saint or an angel or Mary, the mother of Jesus, by the work of Jesus Christ, we all have access to God through Christ. Your financial situation, your job, your ailing father, your estranged son, Covid-19, the election - every quark and lepton of every atom in the universe is under His might and knowledge. Every free decision of every human and spiritual being was known to Him before He made anything.

Because there is ONE GOD, we can pray with confidence that His will will be done, and He has promised to hear the prayers of His people.

II. One God and Father of All - We Are His Children

Look again at Ephesians 4:6: <<READ>>

He’s the Father of all in three very different respects. He is the Father of Jesus the Son; He is the Father of the Redeemed; and He is the Father of all creatures.

Jesus calls God His Father, as we saw in John 17:1-5.

Matthew 11:27 ESV

27 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.

God as Father has a different, special meaning for those who have been redeemed. You’ll remember in our series on the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus calls God your Father repeatedly.

Matthew 6:26 ESV

26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Our salvation is framed in John 1 and Ephesians 1 as adoption into God’s family through Jesus.

John 1:9–13 ESV

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

By faith in Jesus, the Son of God, we become sons and daughters of God and heirs of God’s Kingdom.

When Paul says “One God and Father of all,” we might think he’s talking about “all people everywhere.” And God is Father of all people everywhere as the Creator of all, but they are not His children in a saving way.

When Paul proclaims the Gospel at the Areopagus in Acts 17, he uses pagan poetry to make this point

Acts 17:28 ESV

28 for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

But Paul immediately follows this with a call to repent and believe in Jesus.

The pop culture idea that we’re all God’s children is like standing on the Titanic and saying, “We’re all on a boat.” It’s true, but it’s not much help. Instead, we need God to be our Father in a way that saves us.

This is the kind of Fatherhood in Ephesians 4:6. You can paraphrase it - One God and Father of all of us who belong to that ONE BODY, who share that ONE SPIRIT, who were called into that ONE HOPE. There is One God and Father of all of us who bow to ONE LORD, who share the ONE FAITH in His death and resurrection, who proclaimed that faith in our ONE BAPTISM. He is our ONE GOD and FATHER in a way that He is not Father to those who deny Him.

The UNITY that we’ve seen in Ephesians 4 comes together in this final verse.

We are one FAMILY.

Ephesians 2:19 ESV

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

In Ephesians 3:14-15, Paul calls the Father the one from whom every family in heaven and earth is named. A father only needs one child to be called a father, but God the Father has chosen to name every single one who repents and believes His child.

So, here are a few applications to close:

Conclusion

First, a question: Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ and called upon His Father as your Father? Then we are brothers and sisters. One family with one Father.

The name “Bethel” is a Hebrew word that means “House of God,” and that’s what the Church is. Not a physical building for God. His household. His family. Family is something Bethel takes seriously. So let’s keep doing it, with God-given zeal.

Belong to one another, bros & sisters. Called to care for one another, love one another, even when we’re very different.

Romans 12:9–10 ESV

9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Look back at Eph 4:3 again <<READ>> - remember that the UNITY we’re called to maintain is actually a gift. We don’t work our way into being brothers and sisters. We are One in Christ, because the Spirit has made us One.

No part of our calling as Christians is a matter of self-effort. <<Shooting a balloon>> - <<Eph 2:8-10>> - brotherly affection

Another application:

Said before, IF you’ve put your faith in Christ.

<<READ 4:1-6>>

God created all things, and all things were good

We have all followed our own way, gone astray, death & judgment

Romans 5:8 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

John 1:10–13 ESV

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

All of us born into a family, but alienated from God’s family by nature and by choice. All face judgment. Now, God calls to you:

John 6:40 ESV

40 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.”

Not everyone is born into a great family. But whatever kind of family you come from, now invited to an eternal family, eternal inheritance, as a beloved child.

Not by any works you’ve done. You cannot earn a spot.

Matthew 5:3 ESV

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Only hope is that another has paid my debt.” And Christ has.

Do you want to be a child of God? Jesus says, “Come to me...”

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