God the Father Lesson 5, Part 2
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“For the propechy came not at any time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” I Peter 1:21
This is Part 1 of Lesson 1 of Basic Bible Truths written by Cecil Argetsinger and distributed by mail as a free Bible study resource many years ago.
This lesson is entitled Who Wrote the Bible? Subtitle: The Bible is a Revelation of God
Enjoy and meditate on this word about the Holy Word of God!
Introduction
When studying about any one of the three Persons of the Trinity separately, two important truths must be kept in mind. One: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three separate gods but rather are three Persons that together make up one God. Two: Often the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are named the First Person, Second Person, and Third Person in that order. This does not imply, either by their names or their order, that any one of the three is greater or superior in any way to either of the other two. All three are equal in power, authority, attributes and essence (true being).
Though the Son is sent by the Father (John 5:23, 24, 30, 36-38) and the Spirit is sent by both the Father and the Son, this neither states nor proves that any of one of the three Persons of the Godhead is either superior or inferior to the others. To gain our redemption Christ became the servant of the Father to do His will. The Holy Spirit, for the same reason, became the servant of both the Father and the Son. But outside of these more or less temporary subjections, the Father is in no respect greater than either the Son or the Spirit. To claim that these two Persons, the Son and the Holy Spirit, are not equal to the Father is to rob them of one of their great glories, that of willingly and voluntarily becoming servants in order that some of God’s great purposes should be accomplished.
Father by Disposition (Nature)
God, because of His gracious and kindly nature, is inclined to treat man as a father would his children. Before Israel ever called upon God or became His children by redemption, God instructed Moses to say to Pharoah, “Israel is my son, my first-born” (Ex. 4:22). For David’s sake, God promised to be like a father to Solomon. “I will be his father and he shall be my son” (II Sam. 7:14). And, “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him” (Ps. 103:13). These verses do not make God a Father to all mankind but they do reveal His kind and fatherly nature.
Father Over All Creation
The Bible also reveals God as the Father over all creation. Paul said, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth derives its name” (Eph. 3:14-15 NASV). All families, every group or class of beings, whether in heaven or earth, owe their existence to the heavenly Father. Angels are called “sons of God” (Job 38:7), thus indicating His Fatherhood over them (see also Job 1:6; 2:1; Gen. 6:4). Hebrews 12:9 tells us that He is the “Father of spirits” and James 1:17 that He is the “Father of lights.”
As Creator, His Fatherhood also extends to all humanity. Luke in his gospel traces the ancestry of Christ back to Adam, who, he states, is the son of God (Luke 3:38). While that verse is specific of Adam only, other verses declare God to be the Father of all humanity. “Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us?…” (Mal. 2:10). “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God…” (Acts 17:29).
Thus it is revealed that because He is the Creator of all things, to a limited extent there is a universal Fatherhood of God. But this should never be confused with that far greater Fatherhood of God for believers, which is the subject of our next section.
The Father of All Who Believe
Under this aspect of Fatherhood of God an intimate and very real relationship between God and all that believe is revealed. This revelation begins the moment one places his trust in Jesus Christ as his Savior. At that instant such a one is born again, or born from above. “But as many as received Him (Christ) to them gave He power to become the sons (children-Greek) of God, even to them who believe on His name” (John 1:12) (see also John 3:3 and 3:5). This new birth is brought about by God and the Holy Spirit and results in an actual Fatherhood on the part of God and a true sonship for the believer. This becomes an eternal and abiding relationship.
This new birth (regeneration) is God’s own plan by which those who are lost and far from Him may enter into a new and wonderful relationship with Him. This sonship brings the believer into the position of an heir of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:16-17). Though the one who by this new birth enters into sonship is not a son in the same sense that Christ is a Son, nevertheless he becomes a son of God in the real meaning of the word.
A Warning to Believers
All students of the Bible should be warned against teaching which claims that God is the Father of all mankind and therefore all men are brothers. The Scriptures teach that all who believe are sons of God and therefore brothers, not on the grounds of their first, natural birth but on the grounds of their second or spiritual birth into God’s family. How can a believer, a true child of God, be a brother to one who denies the Lord Jesus Christ and rejects the necessity and sufficiency of His death on the Cross? Correctly and Biblically speaking, Christians are brothers of saved, born-again persons only, and God, while the Creator of all, is Father only of them that believe. That all men are not children of God by natural birth is evident from the Scriptures. Speaking of those who disbelieved, Christ said “Ye are of your father the devil” (John 8:44). When describing the unsaved He said, “the tares are the children of the wicked one (Satan)” (Matt. 13:38). Paul called the unsaved ones “children of disobedience” and “children of wrath” (Eph. 2:2, 3).
Actually, instead of teaching that by natural birth all men are children of God, the Bible teaches just the opposite. It teaches that apart from the new birth by the Holy Spirit all men are separated from God and eternally lost. No one can make himself a child of God. God alone can accomplish this and He undertakes only for the one who believes on Christ as his Savior.
Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The phrase “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”(Eph. 1:3; 1 Pet. 1:3) is the full title of the Father, the first Person of the Trinity. It is true that in a special sense He is the Father of all those who believe, but in an even more special sense He is “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The relationship of these two Persons has always been and, because the things of God are unchangeable, always will be that of Father and Son.
It must be clearly and emphatically kept in mind that Christ did not become a Son either by His birth at Bethlehem or at any other time. Being God and being eternal He always was the Son. God sent the Son (Gal. 4:4), He gave the Son (John 3:16), but He never created the Son, nor was the Son ever begotten in our common understanding of the word. Though He added a human nature to His God-nature at Bethlehem’s manger, nevertheless Jesus Christ remained the one whose “goings forth have been from of old, from eternity” (Micah 5:2).
The terms “Father” and “Son” used of the Father and Jesus Christ are intended to express equality of nature, rather than first and second either in time or importance. It is probable that these terms are given due to our limited understanding, and because we cannot grasp the real nature of the relationship that exists between these two. They are used, however, wholly without any implication whatever that the two Persons on the Divine side are not equal in every respect.
The Son, being God Himself, is eternally on an absolute equality with the Father. But the Father, the first Person, did become the God of the Son, the second Person, by the incarnation. By His humanity, that human nature that He took at Bethlehem, Christ could address the Father as “My God.” This He did in that moment of supreme sacrifice when He laid down His life (His humanity) on the Cross. It was then that He cried “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). But this truth in no way lessens the truth that the Father-Son relationship is a relationship involving two Persons of like and equal natures.
To sum it up we can say that because of His gracious nature God is sometimes likened to or called “Father”. Because all things have been created by Him, He can be said to be the Father of all creation. By the new birth He becomes the Father of all them that believe and the relationship between the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ has been a relationship likened to a Father-Son relationship through all eternity. He is indeed a Heavenly Father.
Questions for Lesson 5, Part 2
Two important truths must be remembered when studying about any one of the three Persons of the Trinity. What are they?
What is the difference between the God the Christian worships and the one the Mohammedan, the Jew, and the Unitarian worship?
Name the four Fatherhoods of God.
God the Father is spoken of as the “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” When did Christ become the Son of the Father?
Are all men “children of God”? When does one become a “child of God”?
Answers for Lesson 5, Part 2
The two important truths to remember when studying about any one of the Persons of the Trinity are:
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three separate gods but three separate Persons that make up one God.
No one Person of the Trinity is greater than either of the others.
The Jew, Mohammedan, and the Unitarian worship one God who consists of one Person only. The Christian worships one God but believes that that one God is made up of three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
God is a Father by disposition or nature; He is Father over all creation; He is the Father of all believers; He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ never became the Son of the Father. He was the Son from all eternity.
All men are not children of God. We become the children of God when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
