Adolf Karl Gustaf von Harnack wrote What is Christianity? downsizing the faith to the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man. This is both right and wrong depending upon the premise. If we are saying that we are all His offspring as Paul said in Acts 17:28, then we are all fellow brothers (love our fellow man!) and members of the human race and it is true that there is one God who is God of all regardless of faith, but this is not a justification for universalism. God is our Father as believers and this is the Christian covenant name for God though He was the Father of Israel and urged them to call Him Father as well (cf. Jer. 3:19); however, the Pharisees thought Jesus was presumptuous to call God His Father.
God is both the Almighty God and our personal Father. NB: When we call God Father, we are appealing to His authority and position, not His superiority over the other co-equal members of the Triune Godhead, which entails the God the Father as an eternal relationship to God the Son--He always was the eternal Father and didn't become the Father. In short, addressing the Lord as Father shows respect for His authority, use of a protocol in prayer, a feeling of familiarity and intimacy.
We have special access to His throne room as believer-priests. We can gain entree via the virtue of the intercession of Christ on our behalf and because we are now legitimate sons of God and members of the royal family of heaven. Our Father is called the Heavenly Father in Matthew and Jesus taught us to pray to Him with this rubric. The Jews felt estranged from God and not in a fellowship like we are and addressed Him mainly as LORD God or as Lord. That is still His official title and the covenant name He will be known by (the YHWH, the Tetragrammaton is known as Yahweh) but God has opened the door to us to readily enter on family terms.
Behold what manner of Father we have: He gave up His one and only Son to suffer and die for us; He is the Author, Planner, and "Purposer" of our salvation; or that creation was from the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. He wants us to feel right at home with Him as if He were a human natural father. Because of Christ's intercessory work on our behalf we have the privilege to go right to the top and God always has an open-door policy of quick access. The parable of the Prodigal Son shows what patience and longsuffering the Father endures for our sakes. It is true that no matter what we've done, we are still His children and He may chastise us but we will not be disowned as His children. No one in Scripture is unborn, unadopted, or disinherited from God's family. Learning from the prodigal son, we find out that God is waiting for us to repent and return to His grace.
God the Father is in the business of remolding us in His image since it was tarnished by the Fall. What He does is take away everything that doesn't look like Jesus much the way a sculptor removes pieces of marble until it forms the image he so desires--he chips away at everything that doesn't look like the subject! Sometimes we may have to go through the school of hard knocks but the best way to learn is directly from the Word applied to oneself.
We have special access to His throne room as believer-priests. We can gain entree via the virtue of the intercession of Christ on our behalf and because we are now legitimate sons of God and members of the royal family of heaven. Our Father is called the Heavenly Father in Matthew and Jesus taught us to pray to Him with this rubric. The Jews felt estranged from God and not in a fellowship like we are and addressed Him mainly as LORD God or as Lord. That is still His official title and the covenant name He will be known by (the YHWH, the Tetragrammaton is known as Yahweh) but God has opened the door to us to readily enter on family terms.
Behold what manner of Father we have: He gave up His one and only Son to suffer and die for us; He is the Author, Planner, and "Purposer" of our salvation; or that creation was from the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. He wants us to feel right at home with Him as if He were a human natural father. Because of Christ's intercessory work on our behalf we have the privilege to go right to the top and God always has an open-door policy of quick access. The parable of the Prodigal Son shows what patience and longsuffering the Father endures for our sakes. It is true that no matter what we've done, we are still His children and He may chastise us but we will not be disowned as His children. No one in Scripture is unborn, unadopted, or disinherited from God's family. Learning from the prodigal son, we find out that God is waiting for us to repent and return to His grace.
God the Father is in the business of remolding us in His image since it was tarnished by the Fall. What He does is take away everything that doesn't look like Jesus much the way a sculptor removes pieces of marble until it forms the image he so desires--he chips away at everything that doesn't look like the subject! Sometimes we may have to go through the school of hard knocks but the best way to learn is directly from the Word applied to oneself.
Note that with humans there is no guarantee that their children will turn out to be regular chips off the old block or as misfits, but with God, we are all guaranteed a future and heritage that won't fade away--a permanent legacy and home with Him. The story of the gospel could just as well be: Criminal gets pardoned of a capital crime by the judge who pays his penalty and adopts him as his son to live with him in his house.
We know that we are progressing in our faith when we feel comfortable addressing God as Father. Some believers have not yet learned to see God in this light, while others only see Him in that manner thus putting God in a box: He's more than our Father--He's the Judge, the Savior, the Lord, the Author! He's the one who had the purpose behind it all and planned everything from eternity past! When we say, "I like to think of God simply as my Father," we are putting Him in a box or labeling Him and restricting our spiritual growth and awareness. Also, it is erroneous to construe God as a projection of some need for a father-figure, as psychologists would have.
Some people have had a history of experiences with their earthly father and cannot picture God in this manner, in fact, many so-called enemies of the faith have come from broken homes or estranged father-son relationships. It used to be that Father knew best, but in today's society he is the object of ridicule and satire, parodied, and ends up being the butt of jokes. This is merely a sad commentary on our time, not a reflection of how good God the Father is.
We know that we are progressing in our faith when we feel comfortable addressing God as Father. Some believers have not yet learned to see God in this light, while others only see Him in that manner thus putting God in a box: He's more than our Father--He's the Judge, the Savior, the Lord, the Author! He's the one who had the purpose behind it all and planned everything from eternity past! When we say, "I like to think of God simply as my Father," we are putting Him in a box or labeling Him and restricting our spiritual growth and awareness. Also, it is erroneous to construe God as a projection of some need for a father-figure, as psychologists would have.
Some people have had a history of experiences with their earthly father and cannot picture God in this manner, in fact, many so-called enemies of the faith have come from broken homes or estranged father-son relationships. It used to be that Father knew best, but in today's society he is the object of ridicule and satire, parodied, and ends up being the butt of jokes. This is merely a sad commentary on our time, not a reflection of how good God the Father is.
It is our society that is sick and sinful not the Bible for portraying God as our heavenly Father. Parents together stand for God's authority over children in the home and it is sometimes called in loco Dei or "in the place of God." There is a direct correlation between one's relationship with one's father and how one sees and relates to God the Father, whether there is a reconciliation and healed fellowship or not. You cannot have an estranged relationship with one's father and claim to be at peace with God the Father. Soli Deo Gloria!
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