God is our Father not only in that he is our Creator but that he is also our Redeemer. Thus, this is what distinguishes the Christian’s relationship to God and what allows us to relate to him as Father. Isaiah 64:7 “Yet, Lord, you are our father; we are the clay and you our potter: we are all the work of your hand.” 1 John 3:1 “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.”
God is the Creator of every human being, thus the father of all and not just of Israel, but he had not established a covenant relationship with everyone. It is clear from the way that Isaiah addressed him that he regarded Israel’s connection to God as something special, and different from what could be said about the entire human race. For him to call God Father was to acknowledge a particular relationship with him. In these verses, God is addressed as Father, not because he is Israel’s Creator, but because he is its Redeemer, which reveals the nature of the special relationship that God has with his chosen people.
Christians call God their Father because that is what Jesus taught his disciples to do. Jesus had a unique relationship with God the Father which he wanted to share t with his followers. During his time on earth, he was quite clear about this. “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” John 14:9 “ Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?” Further in John 10:30, the Lord says, “I and the Father are one”. Jesus revealed that it was the Father’s plan that had decided to redeem the world, not by himself but through his Son. Father and Son remain distinct persons, but they work together in unison for the salvation of those who have been chosen. The Father is revealed to us as the principle of the Godhead, the one who plans the work of salvation and who sends the Son in order to carry it out.
In practical terms, the relationship that the Son has given us with God the Father is analogous to his own. In the Son, we have become heirs of the Father’s kingdom, co-rulers with him, and even judges of the angels. I Corinthians 6:3 “Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life?” This high calling comes with a price tag, for just as the Son glorified his Father while on earth, so we too are called to glorify him. We cannot do this on our own strength, but only in and through the relationship that the Father has entered with us, through the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The Ultimate reality is that the Father gathers in sinners as his own dear children through the blood of Jesus the Son. Graciously, our heavenly Father shares the wonder of his fatherhood with us. To be the fathers son, therefore, is a sacred privilege and a high calling. Ephesians 3:14-15 “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.”
Dr Ashwin Drummond
Laddertoheaven.co.in