2 God the Father
2
God the Father
With these words we come to the first two articles of the creed. Christians, we are told, believe in a God with some particular characteristics. This chapter deals with the main points affirmed by the creed: “God, the Father almighty,” and “Creator of heaven and earth.”
The Ideas Explained
A. The Father almighty
1. God. When the creed speaks of God, it means “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:3). It is not dealing with some philosophical ideas of God but with the God who revealed himself in Scripture and supremely in Jesus Christ. It is not referring to some abstract idea about God but to the living and personal God whom Christians worship and adore.
Of course this causes difficulties for some people. “There isn’t a god!” they argue. It is important to note that this itself is actually a statement of faith, rather than fact. What they really mean is “I believe that there is no God”—which is as much a statement of faith as the Christian belief that there is a God. More generally, it must be noted that there are no arguments which establish either that God definitely exists or that he definitely does not exist. Reason runs into difficulties when trying to cope with God. Alfred, Lord Tennyson made this point perfectly in his poem “The Ancient Sage”:
For nothing worthy proving can be proven,
Nor yet disproven.
Belief in God, it need hardly be added, rests on solid foundations—even if paradoxically, as Tennyson suggests, it cannot be proved. Atheists and Christians alike take their positions as matters of faith. The former may like to try and represent their position as objective and scientific, but it is actually nothing of the sort.
Western culture today is going through a phase which is not just non-Christian but actually anti-Christian. This means you must be realistic about the hostile attitudes against Christianity that you are likely to encounter. This has no bearing on whether Christianity is right or wrong. People may ridicule your faith in God, but that doesn’t mean it is wrong. They may make you feel stupid or isolated on account of your faith in God; if they do, make sure you are supported by fellowship with other Christians. Make sure you get involved in your local church and draw comfort from the presence of other Christians. Encourage each other by your faith (Romans 1:12).
2. Father. Any idea of God as an impersonal being or force is immediately discounted when we speak of God as “Father.” The Lord’s Prayer is perhaps the most well-known example of God being addressed in this way (Matthew 6:9), although the use of Abba is even more intimate (Mark 14:36; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). But what does it mean to speak about God in this way?
Throughout Scripture we find analogies that point to God’s ability to reveal himself in ways we can understand. The scriptural images of God (for example, as shepherd, king and father) are deceptively simple. They are easy to visualize and remember, yet on further reflection they convey important and profound truths concerning God. The doctrine of the incarnation points to God’s willingness and ability to come down to our level. God reveals himself in ways appropriate to our level and our abilities as human beings, using illustrations we can handle.
Analogies are memorable. They are powerful visual images that stimulate our imagination. They get us thinking about God. Talking about God in abstract terms can get very boring and unimaginative. We all know that a picture is worth a thousand words. It is certainly correct to talk about God as One who cares for us, guides us and accompanies us throughout life. But it is much more memorable to talk about God as a shepherd—an analogy that makes all those points. People can remember the idea of God as a shepherd, linking it with key scriptural passages (like Psalm 23). And as they think about those images, they can begin to unpack the various ideas the images convey.
The statement “God is our Father” means that God is like a human father. In other words, God is analogous to a father. In some ways he is like a human father, and in others he is not. There are genuine points of similarity. God cares for us, just as human fathers care for their children (note Matthew 7:9-11). God is the ultimate source of our existence, just as our fathers brought us into being. Just as there is something of our own father in each of us, so we are made in the image of our heavenly Father (Genesis 1:26-27). God exercises authority over us, as do human fathers. He knows all our weaknesses and problems, as do human fathers. But there are genuine points of dissimilarity too. Speaking of God as “Father” does not mean that God is a human being, for example. Nor does the necessity of a human mother point to the need for a divine mother.
God reveals himself in images and ideas that tie in with our world of everyday existence yet do not reduce God to that everyday world. When we say God is our Father, we don’t mean that he is just another human father. Rather, we mean that thinking about human fathers helps us think about God. It is an analogy. Like all analogies, it breaks down at points. However, it is still an extremely useful and vivid way of thinking about God.
For some, however, thinking about God as a father is thoroughly unhelpful. They may have only negative memories of their father as a tyrant. Or their father may have abandoned them and their mother at an early age. An image that is meant to convey compassion, care and commitment thus suggests quite the opposite. If this is a problem for you, perhaps the following brief thoughts may be helpful.
First, notice how often Scripture compares God to a human mother. The love of God for his people is often compared to the love of a mother for her child (Isaiah 49:15; 66:13). If you have fond memories of your mother, you may find it helpful to draw on these in thinking about God’s care for you. Second, the analogy of God as Father also indicates what human fathers ought to be like. The same care, compassion and commitment God shows toward us are meant to be reflected in the attitude of human fathers toward their children. Finally, remember that the best way of all of thinking about God is to think about Jesus Christ himself. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Think of the love, care and kindness you see reflected in the face of Jesus himself. That is what the love of God for you is like.
3. Almighty. This word causes problems for some. Does it mean that God can do anything, like make a triangle with four sides? Or that he can suddenly change his nature and reject those who come to him in faith and repentance? While it can be fun to explore the logical niceties of such notions, they aren’t of much relevance to this word as used in the creed. Let’s look at some of the points being made.
First, we are reminded that all power and authority in this world derive from God. Rulers, governments and Christian leaders all derive authority from God (Romans 13:1-2) and are responsible to him for the way they exercise it. If you are a Christian leader (or think you might become one), let this be a sobering thought.
Second, we are reminded that things that seem impossible to us are perfectly possible for God. Remember Gabriel’s gentle chiding of Mary, as she expressed astonishment that she was to bear the Savior of the world: “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). It is very easy for us to underestimate God; the creed reminds us that he is able to do far more than we imagine.
Finally, remember that almighty does not mean capricious or whimsical. Scripture stresses the reliability of God; having made a promise, God stands by it (Psalm 19:7-10). The Old Testament idea of a covenant—that is, a bond or contract—between God and Israel made this same point: God has committed himself to us, in word and deed. The fact that he is almighty doesn’t mean that he can or will suddenly change his mind about this. In his power and wisdom, God has chosen to achieve our salvation and has committed himself to us in this way.
B. Creator of heaven and earth
To talk about God as “our Father” is to speak of his authority and care, but it is also to speak of his creativity. We are here because God brought us into being.
Everything we see in the world was created by God and belongs to God. This thought in itself moves many people to praise God (see, for example, Psalm 8:1-3; 19:1-6; Revelation 4:11). It is helpful to think of God as a master builder (Job 38:4-7) or an artist at work on a masterpiece. The universe reflects the wisdom, power and majesty of the God who brought it into being. “Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made” (Romans 1:20). Anyone who has walked at night under a star-studded sky, with tiny points of light suspended in the blackness of space, will appreciate the point Paul is making (compare Psalm 8). At times the presence, power and majesty of a Creator God seem to be written into the fabric of his creation. It is almost as if God, like a master artist, signed his name on his creation for all to see.
Still, there is a limit to what can be known about God from nature. For example, nature may tell us that there is a God, that he is the Creator and that he is good and wise. But we need to know substantially more about God than this if we are to come to know and trust him. Christianity points to the biblical record culminating in Jesus Christ, especially his death and resurrection, as the supreme demonstration of the existence and character of God. It is here that Christianity has always insisted that God is most reliably disclosed and revealed; it is here that he may be found. The biblical witness to God both confirms and extends any knowledge of God available from nature itself.
Scripture endorses these insights drawn from nature—for example, that God is the Creator and that he is good and wise—and takes them further. There is a hymn by Isaac Watts that deserves to be known better than it is:
The heavens declare thy glory, Lord!
In every star thy wisdom shines;
But when our eyes behold thy word,
We read thy name in clearer lines.
The basic point is that the scriptural witness to God is consistent with and endorses what we already know, or think we know, by experience—and it both states this more clearly and develops it further. Scripture establishes a reliable framework for thinking and talking about God, which goes far beyond the very modest knowledge of God that we can derive from nature. And Scripture constructs this framework around the central events to which it bears witness: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In affirming our faith in God as Creator, however, we do not mean that God created the universe many years ago and then left it untended. He is not like some old-fashioned watchmaker who makes and winds up a clockwork watch and then leaves it to run without any further attention. (This idea of a “clockwork universe,” which became popular in the eighteenth century, is usually referred to as “deism.”) Rather, God exercises continual care over his creation (Psalm 104). God once created and now sustains all things through his word (Genesis 1:3; Hebrews 1:3).
The ultimate demonstration of God’s continuing concern for and involvement with his creation is his act of redemption in Jesus Christ. The creation is the theater in which the great drama of redemption is played out. In redeeming us, God entered into his world as one of us (John 1:14). The Creator entered his creation in order to restore it. The prologue to John’s Gospel (John 1:1-18) makes it clear that the work of redemption is closely linked with that of creation. God does not abandon his creation after sin.
If thinking about God as Creator seems very abstract, look at the world—the beauty of spring flowers, the splendor of the heavens. God made those. The Belgic Confession (1561), a Calvinist statement of faith that exercised particular influence in the Low Countries (the Netherlands, Belgium and Flanders, which were to become particularly noted for their botanists and physicists), declared that nature is “before our eyes as a most beautiful book in which all created things, whether great or small, are as letters showing the invisible things of God to us.”
Still, it is very easy to think of creation as impersonal. That is why it is helpful to turn our eyes away from the world to ourselves and recall that God made us. Martin Luther, the German Reformer, wrote:
I believe that God has created me and all that exists; that he has given me and still sustains my body and soul, all my limbs and my senses, my reason and all the faculties of my mind, together with food and clothing, house and home, family and possessions; that he provides me daily and abundantly with all the necessities of life, protects me from all danger and preserves me from all evil.
Believing in God as Creator means believing that God made each one of us.
Earlier 1 drew an analogy between God and an artist. Just as an artist signs his works, so the hand of God is evident within his creation. And as we are the height of God’s creation (what a sobering thought!), we might expect to find signs of the hand of God within ourselves. Scripture tells us that we have been made in the image or likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27). This has several important consequences.
First, it means that there is some sort of affinity between God and human beings. The French writer Blaise Pascal put it like this: “There is a God-shaped gap within us.” In other words, we have been created with an inbuilt capacity to relate to God. To fulfill our potential as human beings, we need to relate to God. We remain unsatisfied and unfulfilled until we enter into a relationship with the God who created and redeemed us. Augustine, writing in the early fifth century, put it like this: “You made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”
Many writers have written poignantly of the human tragedy—of the sense of lostness, loneliness and isolation felt by many people. Christianity affirms that this situation can be transformed when we enter into a personal relationship with the God who created the world and each one of us—and made us with a view to loving us.
Second, being made in the image of God reminds us that we belong to God. We are not our own masters. We have been bought by God at a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We are his. This insight gives new meaning to Jesus’ famous words in Matthew 22:21. Jesus has been asked whether the Jews ought to pay taxes. He asks to be shown a coin and inquires whose image is stamped on it. “Caesar’s,” they reply (see Matthew 22:15-21). Jesus then speaks his famous words: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Those words ought to make us think along the following lines: What is Caesar’s, and what is God’s? How can we tell? The coin was stamped with the image of Caesar; but what has been stamped with the image of God? We have been stamped with that image and likeness. God made us with his own image impressed on us. Therefore we must give ourselves over to God, for we are his. Recognition that we are created in the image of God amounts to a demand for commitment and obedience—or, as we saw in chapter one (p. 20), to a demand for faith.
The Ideas Applied
A. The Father almighty
Thinking about God as Father is particularly helpful in relation to prayer (Matthew 7:9-11). Human fathers, despite their weaknesses and shortcomings, wish the best for their children. How much more does God desire the best for us! But every now and then a child may ask his or her father for something that is totally inappropriate—for example, a pump-action shotgun. The father’s failure to give this to the child does not mean that he did not hear the request. It does not mean that he has ceased to care for the child. Rather, it means that his care and concern for the well-being of the child (and others in the neighborhood!) prevents him from fulfilling that request. He may give something else instead, something more helpful and appropriate. Perhaps we could say that God answers the prayers that we ought to have prayed!
B. Creator of beaven and earth
Recognition that the world belongs to God has important consequences for understanding our own responsibilities within that world. We have been placed within God’s creation to tend it and take care of it (Genesis 2:15). We may be superior to the remainder of that creation and may exercise authority over it (Psalm 8:4-8), but we remain under the authority of God and are responsible to him for the way we treat his creation. We are the stewards, not the owners, of creation. We hold it in trust. There is a growing realization today that past generations have seriously abused that trust. They have exploited the creation and its resources. There is a real danger that we will spoil what God so wonderfully created.
Fortunately, Christians are becoming more aware of our need to take a more responsible attitude toward creation. Reflecting on our responsibilities as stewards of God’s creation is the first step in undoing the harm done by past generations. It matters to God that vast areas of our world are made uninhabitable through nuclear or toxic chemical waste. It matters that the delicate balance of natural forces is disturbed by human carelessness. Sin affects the way we treat the environment as much as it does our attitude toward God, other people and society as a whole. This article of the creed is the basis of a new and overdue care for creation.
Realizing that God is Creator of the world is also important in another respect. Many people feel frightened and lonely in the world. They are overwhelmed by the thought of the immensity of space. The stars in the night sky seem to emphasize the brevity and unimportance of human life. After all, those stars are billions of miles away and become farther from us with each moment that passes. The light from them now reaching us may have begun its journey centuries ago, long before we were born.
The doctrine of creation allows us to feel at home in the world. It reminds us that we, like the rest of creation, were fashioned by God. We are here because God wants us to be here. We are not alone but are in the very presence of the God who made and owns everything. We are in the presence of a friend who knows us and cares for us. Behind the apparently faceless universe lies a person. The stars in the night sky are then no longer symbols of despair but of joy—the same God who made them also made me and cares for me! They are even reminders of God’s promises and their fulfillment (Genesis 15:1-6).
Key Bible Passages
A. The Father almighty
Psalm 105:8-11: Part of a psalm expressing God’s faithfulness in keeping his promises
Matthew 6:9-13: aThe prayer addressing God as Father which Jesus taught his followers
Matthew 7:9-11: Jesus uses the analogy of human fatherhood to illustrate God’s willingness to answer prayer
John 14:5-14: Part of what Jesus taught about his relationship with God the Father
Romans 8:13-17: The work of the Holy Spirit in making Christians aware of their identity as God’s children
B. Creator of heaven and earth
Genesis 1—2: The Bible’s accounts of creation
Psalms 8, 19, 104: Three psalms that focus on God as Creator
Isaiah 40:21-31: Some implications of the fact that God created everything
Romans 1:20: Paul’s explanation of why no one can truly be an atheist
Revelation 4:11: The worship due to the Creator
Questions for Group Discussion
1. After prayer, begin by reading Isaiah 40:21-31 together.
2. What reasons would you give for believing in God?
3. What comes to mind when you think about God as “Father”? How would you help someone with very negative memories of their own father to appreciate the fatherhood of God?
4. Which prayers of yours has God not seemed to answer recently? Why do you think this is?
5. Is there anywhere in God’s creation that you find yourself especially aware of his presence? A particular place? A sight? A work of art? A person?
6. If we didn’t have access to the Bible, what would we know about God from die world around us?
7. What implications are there in the assertion that we have been made “in the image of God”? How do these apply to you?
8. What steps could you take to ensure that you take care of God’s creation rather than spoil it?
For Further Reading
Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1994. A very accessible reference guide to understanding God and his relation to the created world, to human beings and to his church.
Houston, J. M. I Believe in the Creator. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1980. An excellent introduction to the doctrine of creation.
Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity. 1952. Reprint, New York: Phoenix, 1987. A splendid work, studded with insights on the importance of the doctrine of creation.
McGrath, Alister. The Sunnier Side of Doubt. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Academie/Zondervan, 1990. Includes helpful discussions of difficulties some feel in relation to believing in God.
Packer, J. I. Knowing God. Rev. ed. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1993. A minor classic, full of helpful insights into its subject.