Who is God the Father?
Answered from the commentary of Samuel Ridout, The Bible Treasury, A. J. Pollock and 21 others
God the Father is the first Person of the Godhead, revealed as Father and distinct from the Son and the Holy Spirit, the One who declares His good pleasure in His Son. "Father" is a name of relationship, and it belongs to Him in a way He shares with no one else, because it stands toward the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He did not become Father when Jesus was born; He was eternally and absolutely Father before time began. Father and Son are correlative names, so if there were no Son in eternity there would be no Father. The Father who is Father at any moment is Father to eternity. Scripture therefore speaks of Him as "one God, the Father, of whom are all things" (1 Corinthians 8:6), the source and origin of all. He is the Source or Fount of love and of all good, and His love had no beginning, because it shows what God is in Himself. He is the holy Father of John 17:11.
The Father, the Son and the Spirit are co-equal, and none is first in importance. Most of these authors deny any inferiority or subordination of the Son within the Godhead, even though the Father sends and the Son is sent. A few speak of an order of relationship, in which origination and election belong to the Father and the carrying out of His purposes belongs to the Son. They also differ over the phrase "eternal generation." Several accept it as a finite way of naming an eternal relation, while others reject it as having no warrant in Scripture.
The Father could not be fully known until the Son came. Under the old dispensations God made Himself known as the Almighty and as Jehovah, and He was Father to Israel only as a nation. The only-begotten Son, who dwells in the Father's bosom, has declared Him, so that "he that has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 1:18; John 14:9). There is nothing more to learn of the Father than what is found in the Son.
As Creator, God is "Father of all" in the sense of origin: all men are His offspring, made by Him (Acts 17:28; Ephesians 4:6). The authors call the "universal Fatherhood of God," taken as making all men His children, an error and a heresy. Relationship with Him as Father comes by faith in Christ alone. In His love the Father chose believers, gave them to the Son, and predestinated them to sonship to Himself (Ephesians 1:5). He sent His Son, and He gives the Spirit of His Son, by whom believers cry "Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6). Since the resurrection He is "My Father and your Father" to them (John 20:17). As the Father of lights, of mercies, of glory and of spirits, He meets every need of His children, comforts them, and refines them so that they share His holiness.
Verses: John 17:11, Acts 17:28, Ephesians 1:5, Matthew 6:9, John 4:24, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Ephesians 4:6, Malachi 2:10, John 17:3, Matthew 6:26, Matthew 6:32, Matthew 7:11, John 14:6, John 14:7, John 14:8, John 14:9, John 3:16, John 5:17, John 5:26, John 10:30, John 6:27, John 1:18, 1 John 3:1, 1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:14, Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6, James 1:17, Psalms 103:13, Psalms 68:5, Isaiah 64:8, Isaiah 63:16, Deuteronomy 32:6, 2 Corinthians 1:3, Ephesians 1:3, Ephesians 3:14, Ephesians 3:15, Matthew 11:25, Matthew 11:26, Matthew 11:27, Matthew 28:19, 1 Peter 1:2, 1 Peter 1:17, Luke 15:20, Matthew 5:48, Matthew 5:45, Philippians 2:11, 1 Timothy 1:17, Hebrews 12:9, John 20:17, Jeremiah 3:19, 2 Corinthians 6:18
The above is AI generated summary based on the writers below.
What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
God the Father. As we have just said, it is the Father's name which is ever upon our Lord's lips, and this does not mean merely the relationship of God to the Lord Jesus as we speak of His relationship to ourselves, but it means specifically the first person of the Trinity revealed as Father, the One who declares His good pleasure in His Son.
In this connection Dr. Mason rightly says: "The only approach which we can make to a right understanding of what is revealed lies in the doctrine of the derivation of the Son and Spirit from the Person of the Father… 'God' is always the Father. 'To us there is but one God, the Father' (1 Cor. 8:6). … "The Son is God, but God is not the Son… The Spirit is God, but "God is not the Spirit. But in regard to the Father it can be said, "The Father is God, and God is the Father… There never was a "moment when God was incomplete, as He would have been without Son or Spirit… The whole three Persons are co-equal; God would be still incomplete if Son or Spirit were not in everything 'such as the Father is.' And yet the ancient Greek teachers made no mistake "in doctrine when they interpreted the saying of Our Lord, 'My Father is greater than I' (John 14:28) to refer to the Father and the Son in their eternal relations."
This is a most ineffable name of God. In a perfectly unique way it stands in relation to the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a relationship He shares with none besides. There ever was the Father. There ever was the Son, the “only begotten” Son of God. (John 3:16). As the old divine put it: “LIFE—the Father from all eternity gives it; the Son from all eternity receives it.” There ever was the Holy Spirit. Their Godhead glory they share with none.
In Christianity God is known as the Father, because the Son has revealed Him. He might have made Himself known in previous dispensations under the names of the Almighty, the I am, Jehovah; but all were necessarily surpassed now. Fulness of light and love, the outshining of all Divine glory, the unfolding of eternal purpose; all this belongs to the revelation of the Father. God does not become the Father; neither did our Lord Jesus Christ become the Son. To affirm there was a time when the Father was not the Father, and a time when the Son was not the Son, degrades beyond measure the true essential greatness both of the Father and the Son.
Will the reader notice that the apostle Paul does not stop at God, neither does the passage run "one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." We should have expected either one or the other. But the statement is, "To us there is but one God, the Father." Nor is it here as simply the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is neither God in unity, nor God in the full revelation of the Trinity. But the stupendous truth is asserted as to the place and position of the Father. Because what can be said of Him could not be said of either of the other Persons in the Trinity, and that is why they are not mentioned.
Prominent in several of these hymns is the thought of the particular part of the Father, as distinct from those of the Son and the Spirit, in that the Father is the Source or Fount of love and of all good.
Every man has come connection with God — for He has created them all. Thus He stands in respect to men as Creator. This is as far as His Fatherhood goes, He is in this sense the Originator of all.
Every child of Adam is of necessity placed in the relation of a creature to the Creator. All owe their being to Him (Acts 17:25-28). In this sense He is the Father of all (Eph. 3:14-15; 4:6), and so Adam is called God's son (Luke 3:38).
The revelation of God the Father awaited the coming of the Son into the world. In the Old Testament times God had been known as the Almighty and as Jehovah, but the relationships in the Godhead of Father, Sop and Holy Spirit could not then be disclosed. Malachi had written, "Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us?" But even if the prophet had God in his mind when he spoke of "father" it would only be in the sense of originator. It is more likely that he was thinking of their natural progenitor, Israel. Again, God said to David concerning Solomon, as a type of the Lord Jesus, "I will be to him for father, and he shall be to me for son"; but it must be plain to any intelligent reader that this has nothing to do with the revelation of God as Father; it is simply the expression of God's affection for Solomon and the assurance of His great interest in him.
Our deep conviction is, that we shall make no progress in the knowledge of the truth of the church if we fail to understand this, so that we make no apology for seeming repetition. It was not as Elohim - the strong One (Gen. 1:1.) that God made this revelation to Peter, or as Jehovah - the self-existent One, (Gen. 2:7.) or as El-Shaddai (Gen. 17:1) the Almighty, all-sufficient One, but as the FATHER of our Lord Jesus Christ, - "My Father," as He said. All that had come out in former days He is and will ever be; but it is not here a question of His attributes, His power, faithfulness or sufficiency, but what He is in His very nature. This could not be known to us by any work of His hand in creation, but only by the revelation of Himself by the only begotten Son that dwelt eternally in His bosom. So that we have first - the Father revealed in and by the only begotten Son, Jesus our Lord; and then the truth as to this glorious Person revealed to our faith by the Father; one can easily see that this must eventuate in fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ for all who respond to this revelation. Thus all truth hangs together.
Verses
- John 17:11And I am no longer in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one as we.
- Acts 17:28for in him we live and move and exist; as also some of the poets amongst you have said, For we are also his offspring.
- Ephesians 1:5having marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
- Matthew 6:9Thus therefore pray ye Our Father who art in the heavens, let thy name be sanctified,
- John 4:24God [is] a spirit; and they who worship him must worship [him] in spirit and truth.
- 1 Corinthians 8:6yet to us [there is] one God, the Father, of whom all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom [are] all things, and we by him.
- Ephesians 4:6one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all.
- Malachi 2:10Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal unfaithfully every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?