When God Became Our Father

Oct 25, 2014 3347

The Lord’s Prayer famously begins with the words, “Our Father who is in heaven” (Matt 6:9).

The fatherhood of God can be a difficult concept for some people to comprehend, given the way that fatherhood has been distorted and debased by contemporary society. Not all of us have a great example of what it means to have a father in their lives. Not all of us men are wonderful fathers.

Some theologians say that when Jesus called God “our Father,” that this was totally radical and unknown in first century Palestinian Judaism. And there is evidence that supports the idea that the Fatherhood of God had been rather forgotten by the Jews of Jesus’ day. On the other hand, it is also true that there are beautiful glimpses of this truth throughout the Old Testament. I don’t believe that the God of the OT is different to the God of the NT.

However, to look at Jesus’ relationship with his Heavenly Father while on earth is to understand how God wants to be a father to you and to me. Look at how the Father was lavishly generous to the Son; the Father gave all things to Him. Look at how the Father and the Son delighted in spending time in deep communication with each other. Look at how the Father proudly announces the Son to the world and claims Jesus as His own. Look at how in the most difficult moments of His life, when He had no one else to turn to Jesus turned to the Father as his source of strength.

That’s the sort of relationship that God wants to have with you. And when Jesus, in his famous prayer, began with the words, “Our Father,” he was not only revealing, but also sharing that relationship with all who would by faith become the children of God. And that, means you, and it means me.

God has always been our Father. It just took Jesus Christ to announce it in the full beauty and truth of what that really meant. We just never knew what it meant until the divine Son revealed it through his relationship with the Father of us all.

Eliezer Gonzalez

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