I recently received my free copy of the April/May issue of By Faith (the magazine of the PCA). I am thoroughly pleased with the magazine, but that’s beside our point here. In an article entitled “Our First Priority should be to Extend Our Life-Consuming Mission: God’s Kingdom to the Ends of the Earth” by Dr. Richard Pratt, I read the following story:
I had the privilege of being in Indonesia two days after the great tsunami struck Indonesia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka in December 2004. While I was there, I spoke with a number of Muslims about the terrible tragedy that had come upon that great island nation. I always asked them two basic questions. First, I asked, “Do you believe God had anything to do with this tsunami?” Their answer was predictable. “Yes, of course. Allah is in control of everything. Everything happens in-sha’a Allah [as Allah wills].” But then I followed with a second question: “Do you find any comfort from God when you pray?” Every person I asked replied in much the same way. They laughed and said, “I pray now even more than I used to, but I don’t find any comfort. All I pray is, ‘Please, don’t send a tsunami to destroy me, too.'” Although there are exceptions, mainline Islam teaches that God is so transcendent, so distant, that He does not care tenderly about us. In fact, most Muslims think it blasphemy to speak of God as “our Father.” How sad.
Jesus’ opening to the Lord’s Prayer reminds us of the good news that we bring to so many in the world today. God becomes the loving Father of all who come to Him by faith in Christ.
God’s Fatherhood
The above story causes me to stop and think of the wonder that Almighty God is my Father. What a joy to know that the Holy Spirit works in me to cause me to cry, “Abba! Father!” (Rom. 8:15). We should literally be amazed that Jesus instructed us to pray, “Our Father…”. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.” (1 Jn. 3:1) May God receive more praise and honor as we learn to love and trust Him more, even as He truly is our loving Father.
The author of the article, however, pointed out something else significant about God being our Father. He says,
Although there are evangelicals who think of God as too transcendent, most of us today have been so influenced by the narcissistic, self-absorbed ethos of modern Western culture that we have the opposite problem. When we hear “Our Father,” we tend to think of God as if He were a sweet grandfather….
In other words, some of us have a hard time conceiving of God as our loving Father, instead we might think of Him as a taskmaster, or even just a remote deity. Others have a hard time thinking of God as more than a Father. We readily see him as our friend and helper, but can’t really picture Him as our Lord and Master. I would add that the culture of contemporary evangelicalism predisposes us toward this second error, while the culture of contemporary fundamentalism (especially hyper fundamentalism) predisposes us toward the first error.
Both of these errors are detrimental to our spiritual life. Understanding and appreciating God’s Fatherhood can free us to serve joyfully and love Him more fully. Remembering God’s Sovereignty should make us wonder and praise Him all the more that He still is our loving Father. Truly the Christian doctrine of the Fatherhood of God is wonderful and sweet. I cannot do it justice in these few sentences here.
The Resurrection and God’s Fatherhood
Most evangelicals don’t really think of God the Father much at all on Easter. The focus is Jesus and His triumph over death (and rightly so). Yet Resurrection Day has much to teach us of God our Father.
I do pity the Muslims who cannot conceive of God as a loving Father of His children. But the Muslim reaction to the Resurrection can serve to teach us Christians a thing or two. Their reaction is one of complete shock and utter horror.
“God would let His Son (or His Prophet) be humiliated and tortured, yea even killed? How unthinkable!”
The words of Jesus on the cross “Father, forgive them…” are even more unthinkable. In the Muslim mind, honor is preeminent (this is sorely lacking in Western society). And God must preserve His honor!
It would do us well to think long and hard over their reaction. Yes indeed, God was and is outraged that people would so harm His Beloved Son. The wrath of God will be poured out without measure on the ungodly, and rightly so.
Yet God is not only higher than humans, he is better than them. Sure, a natural and sinful earthly Father will seek retribution and revenge on any who would dare harm his precious child. It would be natural for us to expect God to react similarly. The glory of Easter, however, is that God is love.
In love, God poured out the horrible and destestable sins of all the elect upon His Son Jesus. And God asked and willed for His Son to endure all of God’s wrath deserved for those sins. God had a hand in the torture of His own Son.
Why? To what end? God did this to redeem a people unto Himself “” to become our loving Father! In the travesty surrounding the death of Jesus, God made room for us to be His children! What wonder. Truly God’s wisdom appears to be foolishness to natural man (1 Cor. 1). Why did God need to go to such lengths to accomplish the redemption of His people? How could God endure the wickedness of sinners as they crucified His Son? What about God’s honor?
God receives more honor, as One who patiently endures evil until the day when He will finally settle the score, than One who quickly loses patience with sinful man. And God receives more honor in his loving and gracious offer of the gospel to all men (even those who hate Him), than One who simply watches out for His friends. God received great honor in the loving obedience unto death, that Jesus accomplished, as He paid the blood price for God’s children, and His bride.
So the next time you are thankful that God is your loving and caring Father, remember all that God suffered for you, in the death of His Beloved Son, to make this relationship possible. Ultimately, God receives all the praise for becoming our Father. That the Creator should stoop to become a Father, is truly marvelous. And it does not speak at all of our innate worth. Rather it shows how wonderful and marvelous, yea gracious, our great God truly is. Praise Him, today, for His loving gift of the Resurrection and the relationship it secured.