The Baptist Faith and Message: IIA. God the Father (Part 2)

“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. 

The Baptist Faith and Message: IIA. God the Father (Part 1)

“God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise.”

The doctrine of the Trinity tells us that each of the persons of the Trinity work together, but also that each has specific areas for which they have freely chosen to be responsible. We must be careful about drawing some of these lines too firmly, for there is what we might see as overlap between these responsibilities. Theologians use the term “economy” to describe the relation between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

God the Father is the primary mover in creation and providence. While both the Son and the Holy Spirit have roles in this, the Bible depicts the Father as the prime mover and initiator. The entire universe, our own world, and every creature is the product of God’s creation. The early chapters of Genesis describe God’s creative word, and throughout both the Old and New Testaments we see many references to God as the Creator and the world and humanity as His creation. We see in Romans 1 that creation serves as a visible evidence of the reality of God.

God did not simply create the universe and leave it to run on its own. He also watches over His creation, sustaining it and both keeping watch over it and intervening in the flow of history. We call this care “providence.” This general care is provided for all, both those who follow God and those who do not. Providence is the product of the grace of God, given to humanity to show us His love and compassion.

The flow of history, particularly human history, is also cared for by God. The Father knows every event that happens. We must not think of this as God moving through time with us. As part of His creation, God created time, so He isn’t bound by what we perceive as the movement of time. This is another one of those teachings that we, as humans, can’t fully grasp since we are ourselves “stuck” in time. It does remind us that God is beyond our human comprehension, and that He is greater than anything we can comprehend or control.

God’s creation, providence, and oversight of history are enabled by His attributes. We looked at some of the attributes of God in a previous post. Here in this article His power, knowledge, love, and wisdom are mentioned. These affect the specific works of the Father mentioned here. It is important for us to remember that the attributes of God are not just theological constructs, but elements of His person that help us understand who He is and how is able to do all that He does.

Knowing that God is the initiator of creation, watches over us with providential care, and is involved in the flow of our history should provide comfort for us, since this shows us we are not alone in the universe. It also serves as a caution for us, since it reminds us that God sees and knows everything we do, say, and think. The power of God, revealed through His creation and care, keeps and sustains us through our lives.