Who is God the Father?

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True Bible Answers · Accepted Answer

Scripture reveals God as Father in a way that was unknown in Old Testament times and could only be made known through the coming of the Son. The name "Father" is not simply a title — it expresses the deepest reality of who God is, disclosed through the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Name Made Known by the Son Morrish's Bible Dictionary states plainly: Except as creator and preserver of all, God is not revealed as Father in the O.T. "Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?" Mal. 2:10.... It was reserved for the N.T. times that God should be made known as Father; and this was done only by the Lord Jesus while upon earth, who constantly spoke to His disciples of God as their Father in heaven. Morrish's Bible Dictionary J.N. Darby traces a progression in the way God has revealed Himself across the ages: There are four names by which God revealed Himself. To Abraham it was "God Almighty," to Israel as "Jehovah;" "Most High," in the millennium; to us, "the Father" revealed in the Son. J.N. Darby And further: The moment the Son was there, the name of the Father was revealed. God has come out in Christ; when God does come out, it is the Father revealed in the Son. This is the heart of the matter: to know God as Father, one must know Him through the Son. As the Lord Jesus said, "Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him" (Matthew 11:27). The Father Known Only Through the Son F. A. Hughes develops this at length: Let us then enquire from God's Word as to the way in which we may know God as Father, and rejoice in the consciousness of relationship to Him as children.... In John chapter 1 we read, "As many as received Him (the Lord Jesus) to them gave He power (or right) to become the sons (children) of God, even to them that believe on His Name." F. A. Hughes He stresses the exclusivity of this revelation: Matthew 11:27 reads — "Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him". Further in John 14:6 we find these conclusive words "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me". Thus for the knowledge of the Father, and for the way to Him, we are dependent absolutely upon the Person of the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and there is no other way to God as Father. The Father's Eternal Purpose — a Family of Sons The revelation of God as Father is bound up with His eternal purpose: to have a family of sons in His presence. Hamilton Smith writes of the counsels unfolded in Ephesians: As to the source of all our blessings we read, "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ... has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world." All our blessings have their source in the counsels of the Father's heart. We discover that His heart was set upon us before the foundation of the world. Furthermore, not only are we chosen to be in a condition suited to God, but we are predestined to enjoy the relationship of sons before the Father. Angels, doubtless, will be before God in a condition suited to God, but they are there in the position of servants. We are brought into the relationship of sons. This is the special privilege to which we are predestined according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Hamilton Smith Smith further explains that eternal life itself is the enjoyment of this relationship: To such the Lord gives eternal life and thus brings this new company into relationship with the Father and the Son, for this life eternal is the enjoyment of the relationship in which the believer is set with Divine Persons. It is communion with God revealed as the Father, and with Jesus Christ — a Divine Person, the Son — but manifest in flesh. The Father's Love and Care F. A. Hughes unfolds the riches of what Scripture reveals about the Father in His various titles: The blessings connected with the knowledge of the Father are boundless. In Luke chapter 12 the Lord Jesus tells us that the Father knows all that we have need of in our pathway through this world; but there is much more than this! "Every good and perfect gift... cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness."... He is "the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort." No sorrow, no care, no anxiety, no pressure upon spirit or body — escapes His eye, and from Himself as Father comes the needed sense of mercy and comfort. He is the "Father of glory", and as in affectionate communion with Himself He would flood our hearts with the wisdom and intelligence of His glorious purpose in Christ... He is the "Father of spirits" and as such is engaged with the inward refining of our affections, having in view the blessed fact "that we might be made partakers of His holiness." F. A. Hughes The Father's Heart — From Eternity to Eternity James McBroom lifts the veil on the Father's eternal delight — not merely in creation, but in having a family of redeemed sons gathered around His beloved Son: Within the depths of the glory, in that home of love, the family of many sons will dwell, and in their praises the Father shall live for evermore. For He has chosen them that they should be before Himself in love for ever. (Eph. 1:3-4.) In that eternal life which ever was with the Father, every movement is in perfect concert with the Father's will and yet governed by the perfect law of liberty; divine life cannot be fettered.... His redeemed sons will be at home in the love of the Father who is at once the origin, source and governing power of all that heavenly bliss. James McBroom "My Father, and Your Father" After the resurrection, the Lord Jesus sent this message to His disciples: "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God" (John 20:17). As the dictionary entry notes: The will of the Father and the work of His Son, the source of eternal life to them, had brought the disciples in this respect into the same heavenly position as the risen Christ Himself before the Father. In summary: God the Father is God as He has been made known by the Son. This name was hidden throughout the Old Testament — God was known as Almighty, as Jehovah, but never intimately as Father until the Lord Jesus came and revealed Him. The Father is the One whose heart was set upon us in love before the foundation of the world, who purposed to have a family of sons in His presence, who sent His Son to accomplish the work of redemption that would make this possible, and who now — through the Spirit — brings believers into the conscious enjoyment of this relationship. He is the Father of mercies, the Father of glory, the Father of lights, and the Father of spirits: the source of every comfort, every blessing, and every refining work in the lives of His children. To know God as Father is the highest revelation of Christianity, and it comes only through the Lord Jesus Christ — "No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me."

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