Some children, as they grow from child to teeny bopper might go through thinking whether their parents or at least one parent might not be their biological parent. They don’t look alike or they might think the parent or parents are too strict or even too harsh with them and they determine that because the parent or parents are like this, that parent or parents are not the real father or mother. This is just in their minds, it’s not real. It’s just how at that stage of life they think or perhaps feel. On the other hand, in both a right and a wrong way most people think God is their Father.
1) In a right way, for those who believe there is one God who exists, He is Father because He is Father of all Creation. This speaks to the Fatherhood of God in a general way because He created everything and everyone comes from the first parents God created. As Paul said under inspiration at the Areopagus in Athens
Ac 17:24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’”
Here Paul explains that in a general way, God is the Father of all mankind because they have their origin in Him. But there is a wrong way to think God is Father. We must remember with the entrance of sin, the image and likeness of God in man was seriously tarnished to the point of “total depravity”. So, although God is Father of all in a general way, He is not Father of all in a personal way.
2) When I say “I believe in God the Father”, I am saying that I have a personal relationship with this God who is my Father.
(1) The Scriptures tell us that God is Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ro 15:6 so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
2Co 1:3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
Eph 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
1Pe 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Although God presenting Himself as Triune is not explicitly said in the Bible, we do have indicators pronounced in the Bible such as these. Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is declared God in the Bible, amounts to the Father within the Godhead. There is the Son and the Spirit who are part of the three persons of the Triune God … one God, three persons.
(2) God is Father of all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ! The Jews saw God as Father of the Nation of Israel. This was not a personal relationship. Yet Christians, through faith are saved, pardoned and cleansed of their sin through Jesus’ Blood sacrifice, become “sons and daughters” of Almighty God … and this is personal! Consider these Scriptures:
Jn 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God
Gal 3:26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus
1Jn 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!
And that is what we are! If you are a Christian, you are a Child of God and have the right to call God Father … for He is your Father. He birthed you into His family by the Spirit as He applied His grace to you.
Eph 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
3) We then move onto say … “I believe in God the Father Almighty.” As a child you might think your father is invincible. “My daddy can do anything” and in the child’s mind that is true, but as you grow up you realize that although you love your daddy and he is awesome and great, he is not almighty. This is one of the great differences between an earthly and heavenly father. You soon see your earthly father has many limitations … and that is natural because he is human. Yet when you apply “Almighty” to your heavenly Parent … to Father God, you do so because He is able to do many things He promises His children, such as …
(1) In His Almightiness as God, He not only created all thing out of nothing and sustains them as the only true, living God, who reigns from His Throne Room in Heaven … He …
(2)
Ro 16:25 Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ.
Establish is to save and keep saved.
(3)
Jas 4:12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy.
Not only will He judge the wicked guilty and send them to hell, He will judge the believer and find them guiltless in Christ and usher them into His heaven.
(4)
Jude 1:24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault.
He will keep you saved and reveal you in heaven without sin and guilt, You will radiate Jesus’ perfection.
(5)
Ac 20:32 “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
He will “build you up” into the resemblance and likeness of the Lord Jesus. Total and complete sanctification.
(6)
Eph 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.
In our Father’s Almightiness, He is able to do beyond what we as His children (still on this earth and limited by our earthly nature and boundaries) could pray for or believe is possible for us.
4) So here is the wonder of our Heavenly Father’s Almightiness … He is able and willing to provide everything you will ever need for
(a) this life … and
(b) for godliness.
2Pe 1:3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Although this is a promise, it is also a challenge to you and me to take Him seriously. If we as a child of God, calling Him “Father” lacks anything in life that will enable us to serve Him … and lacks anything that will enable holy and godly living … I say respectfully … it is our own fault because our Father wants our best in conforming to Christlikeness.
Father, thank You for all the provisions available to me through Jesus. Amen.