SUNDAY, June 7, 2009                                                       READ: Ephesians 2: 18 – 22; 3: 14, 15.                                                                                                        

GOD’S FATHERING

MEMORIZE: “For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God….”         Ephesians 2: 18, 19

Each individual has had a father and mother. Whether the father is present or absent will serve in helping to determine that family’s identity. Each individual human has experienced his / her father in one way or another, either positively or negatively, favorably or unfavorably, pleasantly or unpleasantly. Each of us has experienced our father in ways which will affect how we will regard God, who has revealed Himself as Father. He is the God and Father of our LORD, Jesus Christ. All earthly fatherhood actually derived its character and pattern for operation from God, the Father’s, own faithful and caring fatherhood. Through faith in Jesus of Nazareth, God’s Son, each individual obtains access into the Father’s abode (cf. John 1: 12).

Here in our text, Ephesians 2: 18 – 22; 3: 14 – 17, we are given the opportunity to get a glimpse of God’s fathering. God is the Creator of all of life. God, Father, Son and Holy created all that was ever created. God brought family into being. God created family with the divine purpose in view. Through the economic subordination, the first person of the uncreated Godhead, the second person of the Godhead was designated to be Son. The first person became the Father of our LORD, Jesus Christ (cf. Ephesians 1: 2, 3, 17; 3: 14, 15). God, the Creator, by His own initiative, became Father. God, the Father, has created a way for us, His creatures to have access to Him (cf. Ephesians 2: 18; 3: 12). The Jews did not see Jehovah as being accessible, despite all that He showed them in His dealings with them. From the beginning, He was promising to send One who would be Son, to be the Deliverer of Adam’s descendants (cf. Genesis 3: 15; 22: 8, 18; Galatians 3: 16; Isaiah 9: 6, 7; John 1: 12; 14: 6; 1 Peter 3: 18). We are enabled to enter and enjoy a personal relationship with God, the Father, through faith in Jesus Christ, His Son. God’s Fathering of His Son is the pattern for all fatherhood (cf. Ephesians 3: 14, 15). All human fathering and fatherhood is to be modeled after God’s fathering (cf. John 5: 20, 23, 26, 27, 37). The role of father is critical and responsible (cf. John 8: 28, 29). How we father our descendants, in large measure, serves to temper how they see God, and the kind of relationship which they will have with Him. Amidst all of the difficulties and hazards associated with being responsible, it is incumbent on fathers to love their descendants, to make it possible for them to have access to us and to help them to live safely and securely in the world. Fathers are to father their descendants so that convey the most accurate view of God to them. Are you in touch with that?

PRAY: LORD, God Almighty, thank You for being Father and for being the model for all human fathers. Thank You for providing access into Your fathering through faith in Jesus Christ. I believe that He is Your Son, my LORD and Savior. Thank You for my human father, with all of his faults and shortcomings. Thank You for being my Heavenly Father and that I am a member of Your household. Amen.