Scripture reveals God to us in terms that emphasize His power and greatness. He bears titles such as the Holy One, the Almighty, the everlasting God, and the King eternal. As God, He is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. He dwells in unapproachable light, far surpassing all that we can possibly imagine. His greatness is unfathomable.

Were God to reveal Himself only in this manner, we would have little hope and comfort, for none can attain to His perfection, or bridge the chasm to His transcendence. To remedy this, God chooses to also reveal Himself in terms that emphasize His love and beneficence. He will have us know Him not only as God but also as Father. In this term, familiar to every human being, God encompasses the character of His relationships. Consider Him as a Father in three distinct ways.

He is the Father of humanity. He bears this relation to all people by virtue of creation and provision. As the creator, He has made from one blood every man to dwell upon the face of the earth. "For in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring'" (Acts 17:28). Just as a son bears the likeness of his father, so He has put a spirit within man that bears His distinct image. As the sustainer, His mercies are over all of His works, and from His abundance, humanity has life and breath and all things. He gives food to the hungry and shelter to the needy. He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45). His provisions are gracious and abundant.

But though He is father-like in giving life and showering His blessings, men do not honor Him as God, neither are they thankful (Rom 1:21). Their sins have separated them from God so that while His provision may continue, His favor does not. As He said to the Jewish nation, so He can say to them: "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence?" (Mal 1:6). Mankind's spiritual estrangement from God is so great that they no longer have the right to call Him "Father." Jesus said even to the religious, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me...You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do" (John 8: 42,44). How great is man's sin! So great that God calls those very men made in His image children of the devil! Were men in their right minds, they would say, as the prodigal son, "I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants'" (Luke 15:18-19). If they did so in sincerity, they would find, like the prodigal, a Father embracing them while the words were still on their lips. Let men never take comfort in relating to God only as creator and sustainer. Let them be saved from this wicked and perverse generation. "Therefore, Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty" (2 Cor 6:17-18); For--

He is the Father of His redeemed children. He bears this relation to some people by virtue of salvation and adoption. He delivers them from the guilt and power of sin and adopts them into the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom they have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Not only this, but He gives them the Spirit of adoption by which they cry out, "Abba, Father!" (Rom 8:15, Gal 4:6). And as a father pities his children, so He pities those who fear Him. He knows their frame; He is mindful that they are dust (Ps 103:13-14). Is there any father like Him? One who knows everything best for His children; who will provide all their needs; who will give them every necessary aid and comfort; who will determine to do them good even in discipline; and who will never give them beyond what they can bear? The best of earthly fathers fail to live up to their calling, but never Him. It is impossible that He should do anything but what is best. His will may sometimes be distasteful to their appetites; but as children often do not appreciate the food that is best, and would prefer that which is sweet to that which is needful, so God's children often do not know what they should ask, and they are best served according to His wisdom rather than their own desire. And how much He does give them! They so often focus on what is lacking, but were they to consider the abundance of His blessing, they would have no cause for complaint. He is the Father of lights, from whom comes every good and perfect gift (James 1:17). He is a Father of the fatherless and a defender of widows (Ps 68:5), the Father of mercies and God of all comfort (2 Cor 1:3), a Father who encourages His children to ask of Him. "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matt 7:11).

But God's children, while here, feel their separation from Him. His presence is always with them, but when they pray, "Our Father in heaven," they acknowledge that they do not yet enjoy the fullness of His presence. They long to be with Him in the glory of heaven where they will see Him face to face. They long for the place He has prepared for them, that where He is, there they may be also. Their longing is to be perfected so that they will never again sin against Him. But it often appears that this world of turmoil will sweep them away and prevent them from making it home; therefore, He assures them, "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). He promises that their warfare will one-day end, and in the glory that awaits, they will be His children in perfection. "Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matt 13:43).

He is the Father of the Lord Jesus. He bears this relation to Christ alone by virtue of divine nature and decree. Who but Christ could say, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9) and "I and My Father are one" (John 10:30)? Christ is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He is equal to the Father in essence (John 1:1-3), but He lives in submission to the Father by covenant (John 6:38). We consider a son equal to his father in being, but we also expect that he will submit to his father's will. --So also with Christ. In covenant with God the Father, Christ became a man. From His earliest days, He was about His Father's business (Luke 2:49), and His every action on earth, even His words, were in perfect obedience. "For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak" (John 12:49-50). Christ is the perfect Son, the Son of righteousness, the Son of holiness, the only Son worthy of the Father. He is the Son of His love. Whereas God's children must be adopted into His house, Christ abides forever as the natural Son. Whereas the adopted children enter His house by grace and mercy, Christ is present by birthright and worthiness. Whereas God's children are loved on the basis of the blood of Christ, Christ is loved on the basis of His identity and perfection.

Therefore, you who read this, come to the Father--but come to Him through the Son, who is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). "Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also" (1 John 2:23). And "do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven" (Matt 23:9). To those who come, Christ promises the blessing of the Father's love: "for the Father Himself loves you because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God" (John 16:27).