“God is Father in truth to those who become
children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude
toward all men.”
One of the glib truths often
cited by people is that “we all have God as our Father, and we are all
brothers.” There is an assumption that since God has created us, He also
remains in a fatherly relationship to every person. It sounds so nice to our
ears we just assume that the Bible teaches it.
Unfortunately, this isn’t
what the Bible says. God is indeed a Father. First and foremost, He is the
Father of Jesus, the Son, within the economy of the Trinity. The Bible reveals
to us that those who stand in a right relationship to God are also His
children. Jesus even taught His disciples to call God “Our Father” in prayer.
Those who have their faith in Jesus Christ are adopted by God into His family
(Romans 8:14-15). To do this, we must repent of our sin and rebellion against
God and accept His way of salvation.
This is part of the meaning
of the term “born again” as Jesus used it in John 3. Our original birth brought
us into the world, but as part of humanity we came with a sinful human nature.
(We’ll look at this topic more in a later post.) We aren’t just sinners by
birth, though; we are also sinners by choice. We freely choose to pursue what
we want rather than what God expects and commands from us. As a result, we are
not part of the family of God, although we are a part of the human family. The “brotherhood
of man” is a truth, but not one that brings us into a right relationship with
God.
To our Western culture, this
sounds bigoted, narrow-minded, and just plain wrong. If we say some people are
not children of God, we may insult them or hurt their self-image. It doesn’t matter
what is true, just what makes people feel good about themselves. People don’t
want to face the consequences of their action, so they assume God will overlook
“a few little faults” and let them into His family and into heaven.
It doesn’t matter how people
feel about what the Bible reveals, however. If it is true that we must be “born
again” to become part of God’s family, then we cannot find any other way to
reach that goal. We cannot be part of a family whose Father we reject and
openly defy. And frankly, why would you want to spend eternity with the One
whose word you ignored and whose standards you broke whenever you chose?
Some might argue that even an
earthly father can be reconciled to children who have rejected him or ignored
what he wanted. Wouldn’t God be even more likely to want reconciliation? That
is absolutely true. God has made it possible for us to be reconciled to Him
through the work of Jesus. He won’t force us to be reconciled, though. We must
choose to humble ourselves, repent of our sins, and accept His chosen means of
reconciliation. Just as an earthly father can’t be reconciled to a child who
refuses his advances, so God cannot be reconciled to those who reject His offer
of reconciliation.
Now God does have a fatherly
attitude toward all of humanity. He provides providential care for all, and He
has made a way for all to become His children. But His fatherly attention is
meant to draw us into a relationship with Him through Christ. Only then will He
truly be our Father, as His Word reveals to us.
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