Relationship I “Our Father In Heaven”
Relationship I
“Our Father in heaven”
On April 26, 1862, author and editor Thomas Wentworth Higginson of Worcester, Massachusetts, received a letter from an aspiring young poet named Emily Dickinson, who lived in Amherst. Referring to her parents and siblings, she wrote, “They are religious, except me, and address an eclipse, every morning, whom they call their Father.”
During an eclipse, the light is temporarily obscured, which suggests that Emily wasn’t really sure about God. But “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). He is “the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17).
After teaching a Bible class of college and university students, I was approached by a young man who said, “You claim that God is a father, right?” I replied, “Yes, that’s what the Bible teaches.” He gave me an angry look and said, “If God is like my father, I’m not interested.” Before I could respond, he turned and walked defiantly out of the room.
The Lord’s Prayer begins with relationships—our relationship to God (“Our Father”) and our relationship to God’s people (“Our Father”), the latter of which we’ll take up in the next chapter. Of course, God is spirit and therefore has no body (John 4:24), which means that the title Father has nothing to do with gender. We must not refer to God as it because God is a person. Using the known to explain the unknown, the Holy Spirit chose Father and Son when referring to the first two persons in the Godhead (Matt. 28:19; Luke 4:18; see also Isa. 61:1–2).
The principal name of God in the Old Testament is LORD, translated in some versions as “Jehovah” or “Yahweh.” God’s relationship to Israel is occasionally compared to that of a father who loves and cares for his family. He called Israel his “firstborn son” (Exod. 4:22) and “the children of the LORD” (Deut. 14:1; see Isa. 1:2; Jer. 31:9). He compared Israel’s exodus from Egypt and their wilderness journey to a child being picked up and carried by his father (Deut. 1:31; Jer. 31:32; Hos. 11:1). “Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?” asked Moses (Deut. 32:6; see also Isa. 63:16; 64:8; Mal. 2:10).
Psalms 78, 89, 106, and 136 record some of the works of the Lord that he performed for his people Israel, and he treated them as a father does his children. Not only did he protect them and provide for them in Egypt and in the wilderness, but he disciplined them so they might learn to obey, and he brought them into the Promised Land and helped them defeat their enemies. He gave them men and women to lead them, and he enabled the people to build cities and to develop the land. Did they deserve these blessings? No more than we deserve the blessings we have in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:1–14). The heavenly Father loves his children and cares for them.
Most Israelites, however, probably didn’t think of Jehovah as a father. Israel’s solemn experience at Sinai (where even Moses was frightened; see Heb. 12:21), and God’s disciplining of the nation during their wilderness journey, reminded the people that their God didn’t tolerate unbelief and disobedience. “God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness” (Heb. 12:10). He is a Father who is determined that his children will obey him and grow in godly character.
According to the book of Judges, the nation’s repeated apostasy got them into trouble, and God allowed the godless Gentile armies to ravage the land and enslave the people. The Lord finally had to send the Assyrians to destroy the northern kingdom of Israel. Then he sent the Babylonians to carry off the people of the southern kingdom of Judah to Babylon, where they were exiled for seventy years. Why? Because “the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in” (Prov. 3:12). “If I am a father, where is the honor due me?” God asked his people in Malachi 1:6, and he asks that same question of his church today.
During the old covenant period there were certainly individual believers who joyfully recognized the fatherhood of God, accepted his love, and expressed their love to him. “A father to the fatherless” is what David called him (Ps. 68:5). “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him” (Ps. 103:13). We can’t read 2 Samuel 7—especially verse 14—without feeling the powerful father/son relationship between David and his God. While Jeremiah’s major metaphor is that of a patient and forgiving husband, he also mentions the fatherhood of Jehovah (Jer. 3:4, 19; 31:9).
In Psalm 115, the writer ridicules the Gentiles for their dead idols and rejoices that he knows the true and living God. The psalmist is so overwhelmed at this truth that he writes, “Not to us, LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness” (v. 1). A lifeless idol has no glory, but our Father in heaven is “the glorious Father” (Eph. 1:17).
We who have the written Word should know something about this glorious Father. In the Gospels, Jesus Christ gives us a wonderful revelation of God as our Father, a God who is personal and loving. However, like the apostles, we don’t always get the message. Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Our Lord’s reply was, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8–9). “If you knew me, you would know my Father also” (John 8:19). Nobody else could honestly make that statement.
At the baptism of Jesus, the Father declared from heaven, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (John 1:18). It was the Father who assigned the works that Jesus did (John 5:36) and who gave the words that Jesus spoke (John 14:8; 17:10). Jesus was able to say, “I always do what pleases him” (John 8:29).
Jesus said to the Father, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave me out of the world” (John 17:6 NASB, and see v. 26). Because of the seven “I am” statements of Jesus in John’s Gospel, some Bible students believe that the “name” Jesus was referring to is I Am (Exod. 3:13–14), but it’s more likely that “name” refers to God’s character. Jesus is saying to us, “In my life and ministry, I have revealed the Father to you.” As we read the four Gospels and look at Jesus, we get better acquainted with the Father and the Son.
Look at Jesus welcoming the children and you see God with a child in his arms. See Jesus at the tomb of his beloved friend Lazarus and you see God with tears running down his face. Watch Jesus cleanse the temple and you behold God with a whip in his hand. Behold Jesus in the upper room, washing his disciples’ feet, and you see God humbling himself as the servant of undeserving sinners. You see God with a towel in his hands.
The Son came to glorify the Father (John 13:31–32), and the Spirit came to glorify the Son through his people (John 16:14). When Jesus prayed that the Father would glorify him, he was referring to his resurrection and ascension after he had finished his redemptive work on the cross (John 12:20–29; 17:1). We glorify our Father in heaven by being what Jesus told us to be: salt in a decaying world and light in a dark world (Matt. 5:13–16).
No one must be permitted to take the place of the heavenly Father. “And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ ” Jesus instructed his disciples, “for you have one Father, and he is in heaven” (Matt. 23:9). Of course, Jesus wasn’t referring to their biological fathers, for it’s proper for children to address their parents respectfully as father and mother, or some version of those titles (mama, papa, daddy, etc.). Some children go through a phase when they think it’s smart to address their parents by their first names, a practice that I think is reprehensible and inexcusable.
The point Jesus emphasizes is that the Father in heaven is our sole Master and must not be replaced by the most beloved person on earth. When you read Matthew 23:1–12, you hear Jesus rebuking the Jewish religious leaders who loved to be exalted by the people and called rabbi (“my great one”), father, or master. The apostle Paul called himself father when he wrote to the believers in Corinth (1 Cor. 4:15), because he was the human instrument God used to bring them into God’s family; but neither Paul nor any other apostle asked any of the believers to refer to them as father.
God has placed teachers and spiritual leaders in the churches as the servants of the heavenly Father and his people, and they must not usurp God’s authority by controlling the lives of other believers (John 13:12–17; 1 Peter 5:1–7; 3 John 9–11). God’s leaders must be servants but not celebrities, directors but not dictators. They must never accept the honor that belongs to God alone. Unfortunately, some of God’s people are so immature that they must have “babysitters” or “custodians” to tell them what to do (Gal. 3:23–4:7). They would rather remain “babes” than feed on the Word and exercise themselves in godliness so they might mature and serve others. They forget that Jesus commanded, “Be perfect [mature, complete], therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:45). We must not allow ourselves to become enslaved to other believers, no matter how exemplary they may be (2 Cor. 11:20). The Father wants us to become mature believers who obey his will and glorify his name.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus mentions the Father seventeen times, and ten of those references include the modifier heaven or heavenly. When Jesus says “your Father in heaven” or “your heavenly Father,” he is emphasizing the high privilege as well as the great responsibility we have as the children of God. Just as our children and grandchildren can bring praise or shame to the family name, so God’s children can glorify the Father (Matt. 5:16) or dishonor him and his family. According to Matthew 6, the Father sees all that is happening (vv. 1–4), hears all that is said (vv. 5–6), knows all that is needed (vv. 7–8), and rewards all of his children who have obeyed him (vv. 1–6).
On the morning of his resurrection, Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, “Go . . . to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’ ” (John 20:17). He did not say, “I am ascending to our Father and to our God,” for the Son’s eternal relationship to the Father is unique. Positionally, each believer is “in Jesus Christ” and therefore as near to the Father as Jesus is; but Jesus is still the eternal Son of God, and his oneness with the Father cannot be duplicated in others (see Matt. 11:25–27). We must accept our glorious position in Christ with great gratitude and humility.
Although Israel received many spiritual gifts from God, the blessings he promised Israel were primarily material—a fruitful land, dependable rainfall, health, productive flocks and herds, protection from their enemies, and so forth. The church, on the other hand, has been given no guarantee of material wealth but has been given “every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). Israel is identified with the earth, but the church is identified with heaven.
Our Father is in heaven, and therefore our eternal home is in heaven (John 14:1–6). We are pilgrims and strangers on earth because we are citizens of heaven where our Savior is enthroned, and one day he will come to take us home (Phil. 3:20–21). As citizens, our names are permanently written down in heaven because heaven is where we belong (Luke 10:20).
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Col. 3:1–2). How can we sincerely pray “Our Father in heaven” if our affection and attention are not focused on heaven? This does not mean we’re “so heavenly minded that we’re no earthly good”—a phrase D. L. Moody used—but that everything we do on earth is motivated by heaven and the promised return of our Savior. The people of this world look at heaven from earth’s point of view, but God’s people look at this world from heaven’s point of view. This is the way Abraham and Moses lived (Heb. 11:8–16, 24–28), and God blessed them because their attention was heavenward.
What does it mean to walk by faith? It means to obey God’s Word in spite of the feelings within us, the circumstances around us, and the consequences before us. The people of Israel saw the Red Sea before them and the Egyptian army behind them, but Moses looked by faith to the Lord above them, and he led the nation safely out of Egypt.
The phrase “our Father” speaks of God’s nearness to us, while the phrase “in heaven” speaks of his distance and difference from us, and both truths are important in the Christian life and must be kept in balance. The technical terms are the immanence of God (he is near us) and the transcendence of God (he is beyond us). Theologian Millard J. Erickson writes, “The question of whereness does not apply to God. He is not a physical being; hence he does not have spatial dimensions of location and extension.”9 Transcendence means that God is uniquely and wholly “other” than everything else, far above his creation in his being and in his activity. Immanence means that he has chosen to be near to those who trust him and seek to do his will, and he works in and through them.
When King Solomon dedicated the temple in Jerusalem, he prayed, “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27). David wrote, “The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all” (Ps. 103:19). “Who is like the LORD our God, the One who sits enthroned on high?” (Ps. 113:5). Moses admonished the Jewish people to fear God and obey him, and then added a very good reason for doing so: “To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the LORD set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today” (Deut. 10:14–15).
The Lord is “high” and yet he “stooped down” to love us and choose a people to be his very own. He is transcendent and yet he is also immanent. What a glorious God he is! This was the message at the birth of Christ: “Glory to God in the highest heaven [transcendence] and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests [immanence]” (Luke 2:14). Jesus is called Immanuel, which means “God with us” (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23). Our Lord emphasized this balance when he gave the Great Commission to his disciples: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. . . . And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:18, 20). We can enter each day with the assurance that the Lord is on his throne above us , providentially guiding us and our circumstances, and that he is also with us, giving us the grace we need for each task and challenge.
I might add that congregational worship should keep transcendence and immanence in balance. Biblical worship should begin with transcendence, affirming that the Lord is above us and is in control. Then we should move to immanence, thanking the Lord that he is with us as we leave his sanctuary. The current “buddy-buddy” approach to the Lord is definitely unbiblical. “Abba, Father” is fine for personal devotions but not always for corporate worship. We must first see the Lord “seated on a throne, high and exalted” so that we may truly say, “Woe is me” and “Here am I. Send me!” (Isa. 6:1–8). The prophet Isaiah describes this balance beautifully (57:15):
For this is what the high and exalted One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with those who are contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”
If we enter into his presence with a proud spirit of self-confidence, we will miss the blessing; but if we are bowed and broken before him, he will cleanse us, speak to us, and give us the grace we need to accomplish what he wants us to do. His transcendence and his immanence minister together.
It’s unfortunate that most people, including Christian people, rarely talk about heaven until a friend or family member is critically injured or gets sick and dies. We have to experience the worst before we feel free to talk about the best, and that isn’t right. I’ve often reminded people that heaven is not only a destination, it’s a motivation. When you and I are truly motivated by the promise of eternity with God in heaven, it makes a difference in our lives.
The Sermon on the Mount has much to say about heaven. The first blessing Jesus offers us is citizenship in the kingdom of heaven: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3). Our obedience and service on earth glorify the Father in heaven and point others to him (Matt. 5:16). Heaven is “God’s throne” (Matt. 5:34) and he gives the orders. “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him” (Ps. 115:3). The loving way we treat those who oppose and hate us is evidence that we are “children of [our] Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:11–12, 43–45). We may be abused and robbed on earth, but there are rewards in heaven awaiting the faithful (Matt. 6:1). If we have the right values and are generous, we store up “treasures in heaven” (Matt. 6:19–24) that can never be taken from us.
The fatherhood of God is the basis for the requests in the Lord’s Prayer, as it is in every prayer that is truly biblical.
Because God is our Father, we want to glorify him, so we pray, “Hallowed be your name.” Every child should want to live to honor the family name.
Birth into the family of God has given us citizenship in the kingdom of God, but the fullness of that kingdom will not be experienced until Jesus returns. “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15; see 19:11–21). We pray, “Your kingdom come.”
Meanwhile, as we wait for his return, we want to know the Father’s will and assist him in accomplishing it on this earth. We are “God’s co-workers” (2 Cor. 6:1), partners in doing God’s work and accomplishing God’s will. As we do his will, he provides for us out of his wealth and we receive our “daily bread.”10 But we also labor with other believers and our fellowship with them is important, so we ask God (and others) to forgive us when we sin and to help us avoid the temptations of the enemy.
It all adds up to this: one of the most important elements of effective praying is a deepening relationship with the Father. This means worshiping the Father, knowing him better through his Word, fellowshiping with him, obeying his will, and seeking to please him.
After all, one day we want to hear him say, “You are my child, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” (see Luke 3:22).