• a). Because He is the Source of Creation and the One to Whom All Is Accountable.

  When considering polytheism Paul says ‘To us there is one God the Father of whom are ___ ____________, and we unto Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him’ (1 Corinthians 8.6). Here the Father is seen as the source of, and authority over, creation, the One to Whom we are responsible, and the Son as the mediator of creation through Whom we obtained our lives, both acting together as One. It is significant in such a context, when Paul is stressing the oneness of God as against the many gods of other religions, that he links the one God with the one Lord, and the Father with Jesus Christ, in creating. They are seen in unity. But the Father is seen as more distant, as the original authoritative source to Whom we look in submission, while Jesus Christ is seen as the mediating source, being more immediate as directly the creator of our lives.

• b). He is the Father over all ‘Spiritual Beings’.

  When referring to the fact that God chastens His people for their benefit, Hebrews tells us ‘We had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them _________, shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?’ (Hebrews 12.9). Here the stress is on God as Father over the world of spirits, the world of angels and seraphim, which includes our own spirits, for our uniqueness lies in that we were made in ‘their’ image and after ‘their’ likeness (Genesis 1.26). The context speaks of His acting as Father to our spirits, chastening our spirits in love, as against fathers of our flesh who chasten our flesh for our benefit. So His fatherly care for His people results in chastening which benefits their spiritual lives.

• c). He is the Father of the Heavenly Lights and of Nature.

  Having spoken of facing trials and temptations and warned of the danger of riches James tells us ‘all good giving and every perfect boon is from above, coming down from the Father ___ _____________, in whom is no variation, nor shadow cast by turning’ (James 1.17). This passage refers to the contrast between what mankind offers, which has strings attached and drags men down in temptation, and what God gives freely, which is totally good. The phrase ‘Father of lights’ signifies total reliability and integrity. It refers to Him as Creator and Overseer of the heavenly lights (Genesis 1.14-16), comparing His unchanging and incomparable outshining with the lesser reliability of the heavenly lights which cause shadows and vary with the time of day or night, and with the seasons. To the pagan world the ‘lights’ were gods and goddesses, and they knew their unreliability. James is telling us that the Father was the Creator of the lesser lights and is over all and totally consistent and reliable.

  God’s giving has in mind His gifts in creation, the gifts of sun and rain, times and seasons, day and night, which beget fruitfulness (compare Acts 14.17; Matthew 5.45; Genesis 1.14; 8.22). But the greatest gift, James adds, is that as a result of the direct will of God true Christians are begotten spiritually by the word of truth (James 1.18). So God the Father is the only One Who gives without strings attached, and He gives what is good for man. He is the true, consistent, overall Light, ever reliable and never changing as against the varying lesser lights. He is the great Giver.

• d). He is Father over the Whole World.

  So Paul says, ‘I bow my knees to the Father, from whom every fatherhood in Heaven and on earth is _______’ (Ephesians 3.14-15). Here God is seen as the source and pattern of all father-relationships. The father of the clan was seen as the one authoritative figure over the wider family, and then there would be fathers over sub-groups, and so on in descending order. Thus God is the One Who is Father over all. As the perfect Father He grants, to those who are open and responsive to Him and become His children, power in the inner man through His Spirit, and the reality of the indwelling of Christ, so that they may be filled with all the fulness of God (Ephesians 3.16-19).

Up to this point then we see God as Father in creation, as Father in control over the spiritual world and of nature, as Supplier of its benefits, and as being the Father having overall authority over all men. We are also introduced to Him as the begetter of new life in those who believe in and receive Jesus Christ. This last introduces a new conception of the Fatherhood of God.

2). He is the Father of the Kings of Israel

God promised David that He would be a Father to David’s son. He declares ‘I will be his Father, and he shall be my _____’ (2 Samuel 7.14). And again He promised of David’s kingly heirs, ‘he will cry to me “you are my Father, my God, and the _______ of my salvation”. I also will make him my firstborn, highest of the ______ of the earth’ (Psalm 89.26-27). So God promised to look on David’s descendants in a special way as His adopted sons. He promised He would be faithful to David’s seed, and that, while He would chasten them if necessary, He would never desert the house of David (2 Samuel 7.16; Psalm 89.28-29, 33-36). And one day, He said, He would establish the line of David as highest of the kings of the earth. Thus in Psalm 2, probably sung at the king’s coronation, He can say to His ‘anointed one’ (verse 2) ‘you are my son, today have I _____________ you’ (Psalm 2.7) and He warns the nations for this reason to make peace with His anointed one (Psalm 2.12). As mentioned, it seems probable that this psalm was used at the coronation of the kings of Judah as the new king was seen as ‘begotten by God’ into an adopted sonship, each prominent king producing hope in the people that this may be the one in whom the promises would be fulfilled. This would later lead on to the idea of the future coming king, the Messiah (Greek Christos), the ‘Anointed One’ (compare Isaiah 11.1-10) who would set Israel free and establish her in triumph over her enemies.

The psalm, however, found its final fulfilment in Jesus Christ, the son of David, Who, being truly ‘begotten of the Father’, established God’s Rule worldwide over the universal people of God.

3). He is the Father of Israel, His Adopted People.

In the Old Testament God is seen as adopting Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is My ______, my firstborn’ (Exodus 4.22). That is why Moses can say to the people of Israel, ‘is He not the Father who _________ you, who made you and established you?’ (Deuteronomy 32.6). So they had a genuine sense of their nation as being the ‘child of God’. That is why, when the prophet saw that they were forsaken because of their sins, he remembered these promises and cried out to Him, ‘Look down from Heaven and behold from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory, where are your ______ and your mighty acts? The longings of your heart and of your mighty acts are restrained towards me. For you are our Father. Though Abraham does not know us, and Israel (i.e. the patriarch Jacob) does not acknowledge us, you, Oh Lord, are our Father, your name is our ____________ from everlasting’ (Isaiah 63.15-16). Then he adds submissively ‘but now, Oh Lord, you are our Father, we are the ______ and you are the potter, and we all are the work of your hand’ (Isaiah 64.8). He recognises that they have sinned so badly that even their ancestors will not recognise them, but he depends upon the faithfulness of God. Let God fashion His people so that they are worthy to be His child. And God, in seeking to bring them back to Himself, says ‘will you not from this time cry to me, ‘My Father, you are the _________ of my youth’?’ (Jeremiah 3.4). To which He adds, ‘A son honours his father, and a servant his master. If I then am your Father, where is my _______? And if I be a master, where is your fear?’ (Malachi 1.6). This is why Malachi adds his remonstrance to that of God, ‘Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal _____________ every man against his brother?’ (Malachi 2.10).

Here Israel is seen as the adopted son, given all the privileges of the firstborn, and God as the stern but loving Father, Who, if He is to act as Father and Redeemer, demands respect and obedience from His people, a requirement that the prophets acknowledge. Notice that the picture is not of Israelites as children of God, but of the whole nation as the child of God. Note also that the reference to God as their ‘Father’ is as Creator and Redeemer of His people, and full obedience is required if He is to act as their Father. This idea carries over into the Teaching of Jesus.

4). He is the Father of Those Who Seek to Obey Him (in the Teaching of Jesus).

Speaking to ‘men of Israel’, His disciples Who have come to learn from Him, Jesus, aware of, and accepting, their belief that God is their Father, points out that if they so claim, they must live accordingly. ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who ___________ you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in Heaven, for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust’ (Matthew 5.45). Those who do not wish to be like God, He says, cannot be His sons. This is an advancement on the previous teaching as it sees truly responsive believers as children of God individually. But those who do wish to be His sons, and live it out in their lives, can see Him as their Father and approach Him as their Father. So ‘when you pray, enter your inner room, and having shut the door, pray to your Father ______________, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you’ (Matthew 6.6).

Yet they must remember that their ‘Father knows what they _______ before they ask Him’ (Matthew 8). So their prayers should not be concentrated on themselves, except as regards daily necessity and spiritual improvement, but should concentrate on extending His glory and His rule. They must pray, ‘Our Father, Who is in Heaven, may your name be hallowed, may your rule come and may your _____ be done on earth as it is in Heaven’ (Matthew 6.9-10). They may then pray for daily sustenance, forgiveness, and for deliverance from evil. But this forgiveness is dependent on their willingness to forgive others, ‘for if you forgive men their sins, your __________ Father will also forgive you, but if you do forgive men their sins, neither will your Father forgive your sins’ (Matthew 6.14-15). So they are to ‘be ______________, even as your Father in Heaven is merciful’ (Luke 6.36).

In the same way when they do good or make charitable gifts or engage in religious activities they are not to make a great show of it, but must do it ‘secretly’, not letting their left hand know what their right hand is doing. Thus will they demonstrate that they are children of their Father, Who also does not make a great show of His goodness, and then their Father will reward them (Matthew 6.1-18).

If they claim God as their Father they must ‘let your light so shine before men that they see your ______________ and glorify your Father who is in Heaven’ (Matthew 5.16). For they are to be ‘perfect, even as your Heavenly _______ is perfect’ (Matthew 5.48). This is not contradicting the need not to make a display of their goodness. Here Jesus has in mind that if they live godly lives their goodness cannot help shining through regardless of their attempts not to make a public display of it. Indeed it is only good living which is not a deliberate display which is a true light, revealing God. All else is sham. So it is ‘the righteous’ who will ‘shine forth as the ____ in the kingdom of their Father’ (Matthew 13.43). They alone will be there. It is to the comparatively few who follow Him that He declares, ‘it is your Father’s good ____________ to give you the Kingdom’ (Luke 12.32)

Jesus thus sees God as Father of those who are responding to Him and His words, but shows what is required of those who would look to God as their Father. They are to be God-like in their lives. God’s Fatherhood is dependent, as it was for Israel, on their obedient response. How different all this from modern man’s conception of the Fatherhood of God. Modern man thinks that because God is his Father (or so he thinks), he can look to Him to let him off lightly and need not fear His anger. They think only of how they can have their own way, and get away with it. But Jesus, in agreement with the Old Testament idea, says God is not the Father of such people. He says that if we do not have the same attitudes as God it is no good claiming to be His children, and if we are not concerned for the advancement of God’s rule, calling Him Father is meaningless. That is why He says to those who attack Him, ‘If God were your Father you would love me’ with the clear indication that it is not God Who is their father, but the Devil (John 8.42 compare verse 44).

The response of His disciples to Him results in the presence of the Spirit of the Father with them, a proof that they are children of God. ‘For it is not you who speak, but the ________ of your Father Who speaks in you’ (Matthew 10.20). For ‘how much more will your Heavenly Father give the ______ Spirit to those who ask Him’ (Luke 11.13). And such is their privilege in having God as their Father that they must look to no other spiritual guide, nor must they exalt themselves, for spiritually all are equal before Him. ‘Do not be called ‘Rabbi’ (my spiritual teacher) for One is your _________, and all you are brethren, and do not call any man your ‘father’ on earth, for One is your Father who is in Heaven, neither be called ‘masters’, for One is your master, even the Christ’ (Matthew 23.8-10). So earthly figures are not to be seen as having religious authority over the people of God, this is something which is the Father’s alone. That is what having God as your Father means. Note that in this verse we have the Triune God taught in embryo for we have first the teacher (the Holy Spirit), then the Father, and then the Master Who is Christ.

It is important to note, however, how carefully Jesus distinguishes His own relationship with His Father from that of the disciples. He always speaks either of ‘My’ Father, or to the disciples of ‘your’ Father. He never overlaps the two, nor does He ever link them with Himself by saying ‘our Father’ (it is the disciples who are to say ‘our Father’ when they pray, but He never prays like that). Jesus thus deliberately reveals Himself as unique. He indicates to us that God is not a Father to us and to the disciples in the same way that He is Father to Jesus. (See the references to ‘My Father’ in Matthew 10.32-33; 11.25-27; 12.50; 15.13; 16.17, 27; 18.10, 35; 20.23; 24.36; 25.34; 26.29, 39, 42, 53; Mark 8.38; Luke 9.36; 10.21-22; Luke 22.29; 24.49 which are dealt with in more detail elsewhere). An examination of these verses will show with what studied care He uses the term ‘My’ Father, which is in deliberate contrast to when He says ‘your’ Father. At other times He speaks of ‘the Father’. Here there is less of the personal aspect and more of the recognition of His status as the Father, Lord of Creation and Redemption.

Furthermore it is significant to note that He never says ‘your Father’ to any other than His followers. To Him all men are not seen as receiving the benefits of being the children of God, only those who are obedient to the Father. But He does make clear in the parable of the prodigal son that there is always a way back for anyone who will return to Him, through repentance and reinstatement (Luke 15.11-32).

4). He is the Father of those who have Become His Spiritual Children through Faith in Christ.

‘As many as are led by the _______ of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of servitude again, resulting in fear, but you received the Spirit of __________ by which we cry “Abba, Father”. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God’. (Romans 8.14-16). So the adoption that was Israel’s, and which they forfeited by disobedience (Romans 11.15), is now given to those who receive, and respond to, His Spirit. Only those who are led by the Spirit of God can claim to be sons of God, and it is to them that the Spirit gives His witness. This includes the remnant of Israel who have responded to Christ, thus proving they are the true Israel (Romans 11.5, 7). But they must recognise that this not only leads to being joint-heirs with Christ, but also to a sharing with Him in His suffering in one way or another, for ‘if we are children of God then we are ______ of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him that we may be glorified together’ (Romans 8.17). Then finally, as His children, they will be delivered, by adoption, from the bondage of their mortal bodies, when their bodies are made incorruptible through final redemption, and they will come into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Romans 8.21 with 23).

In Galatians Paul again says the same thing to believers, ‘because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our ________, crying “Abba, Father”, so that you are no longer a bondservant but a son, and if a son then an heir through God’ (Galatians 4.6-7), and again the sonship depends on response to the Spirit.

Recognising this should result in a realisation of His love for us and a determined effort to make ourselves pure. ‘Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called _________ of God, and such we are. This is why the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are the children of God, and what we will be is not yet made fully known. We know that when He will be made fully known we will be like Him, for we will ______ Him even as He is. And every one who has this hope in Him, purifies himself even as He is pure’ (1 John 3.1-3). Realising the depths of His love for us and what He has planned for us can have only one result. We seek to purify ourselves, even as He is pure. For he who is ‘begotten of God, does not sin, but He Who was begotten of God keeps him, and the __________ does not touch him’ (1 John 5.18). And who are these children of God? ‘To as many as received Him to them gave He the right to be the ___________ of God, even to those who fully trust in His name, who are born --- of God’ (John 1.12-13).

But these sons must also expect to be chastened by their loving Father. ‘For those whom the Lord loves He punishes to teach them a lesson, and beats every_____ whom He receives’ (Hebrews 12.6). So ‘God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom his ________ does not punish for his own good?’ (Hebrews 12.7). Indeed ‘if you are without chastening, of which ____ have been made partakers, then are you illegitimate and not sons’ (Hebrews 12.8).

Thus the children of God are those who have responded to Christ, who have received His Spirit, who share in His sufferings, and who endure His chastening, and look forward to their body one day being made incorruptible . They are the ones who can look to Him as their Father, and can look forward to being made like Christ. That is why God says of believers, who are the dwelling place of God and have separated themselves to God, ‘I will be to you a Father, and you will be to me _____ and daughters, says the Lord God Almighty’ (2 Corinthians 6.18).

It is clear then that both Jesus and the New Testament as a whole stress that to be a child of God is a privilege given to those who respond to Him, and is not a right given to all men. Indeed, as we have seen, in John 8.42 Jesus specifically tells His adversaries that their attitude to Him proves that God is not their Father.

5). He is The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in a Unique Way.

For detailed treatment of this subject see ‘About the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’. Suffice to say here that in these statements He reveals Himself as uniquely from the Father and related to the Father. He speaks in a more personal way of ‘My Father’ and a more impersonal way of ‘the Father’, as Lord of Creation and Redemption with Whom He works in unity. While some of His sayings can be explained by His status as Messiah, others go beyond this and demonstrate that He is on the divine side of reality, that He is ‘the Son’ (see About the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ).

6). References to the God the Father in Acts and the Epistles.

This refers to the references in which the Father is spoken of more generally, regularly in conjunction with references to Jesus Christ. They either refer to His relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, or to Him as the Father of Creation and Redemption, although sometimes with a reference to personal relationship (‘our’). In some the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are so closely connected as clearly to be seen together on the divine side of reality (e.g.Colossians 2.2; 1 Thessalonians 3.11; 1 Thessalonians 1.1; 2 Thessalonians 2.16; 1 John 2.22-24; 2 John 1.9 and all the greetings).

He is sometimes ‘the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (2 Corinthians 1.3; 2 Corinthians 11.31; Ephesians 1.3; Ephesians 3.14 (omitting ‘the God’); Colossians 1.3; 1 Peter 1.3), sometimes ‘our God and Father’ (Galatians 1.4; Philippians 4.20), sometimes ‘the Father’ (Acts 1.4,7; 2.33; Romans 6.4; Ephesians 2.18; Colossians 1.19; Colossians 2.2 (linked with ‘Christ’); 1 Peter 1.17; 1 John 1.2, 3; 1 John 2.13, 15, 16; 1 John 2.23 (linked with ‘the Son’) 3.1; 1 John 4.14; 2 John 1.4), sometimes ‘God our (or the) Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’ (always in greetings or as a farewell - Romans 1.7; 1 Corinthians 1.3; 2 Corinthians 1.2; Galatians 1.3; Ephesians 1.2; Ephesians 6.23 (a farewell); Philippians 1.2; Colossians 1.2; 1 Thessalonians 1.1; 2 Thessalonians 1.1; 1.2; 1 Timothy 1.2; 2 Timothy 1.2; Titus 1.4; Philemon 1.3; 2 John 1.3 (adding ‘the Son of the Father’) ), sometimes ‘God, even the (or, later, our) Father’ or ‘God the Father’ (1 Corinthians 15.24; Galatians 1.1; Ephesians 5.20; Philippians 2.11; Colossians 3.17; 1 Thessalonians 1.3; 1 Thessalonians 3.11 (linked with ‘our Lord Jesus Christ’); 1 Thessalonians 3.13; 2 Thessalonians 2.16 (connected with ‘our Lord Jesus Christ’); James 1.27; 3.9; 1 Peter 1.2; 2 Peter 1.17; Jude 1.1), once ‘the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory’ (Ephesians 1.17) once ‘in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Thessalonians 1.1); sometimes ‘the Father and the Son’ (1 John 2.22, 24; 2 John 1.9).

Thus God the Father is seen as the One Who sent Jesus Christ and through Him worked redemption, as Lord over creation and redemption, as closely linked with our Lord Jesus Christ in the fellowship of the people of God, and as ‘God our Father’.

IS THERE SOMETHING IN THE BIBLE THAT PUZZLES YOU?