“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father”
Romans 8:15
As mature Christians we must be self-consciously Trinitarian in our theology. That is, we must recognize and appreciate that our God is one in Being, but three in Person. From all eternity, the blessed Holy God of Heaven has had a single divine nature shared by three distinct Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. At conversion a person’s emphasis is of course on Jesus, his personal Lord and Savior. But as the Christian grows in grace and in knowledge, he understands that behind Jesus is God the Father, and there is infinite blessing in knowing Him also. The apostle Philip understood this and made request of Jesus that He would reveal the Father to him. Christ’s reply must have struck him like a thunderbolt. “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” (John 14:9). Jesus just is the image of the visible God (Colossians 1:15), the radiance of God’s glory (Hebrews 1:3). Only twice in the Bible is the Father revealed in visual form, and in each case these revelations came as representative visions (Daniel 7; Revelation 4-5). God the Father in all His glory is of necessity hidden from finite human eyes (Exodus 33:20). Our Lord Jesus gave us a glimpse of eternity past when He prayed to His Father, “O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:5). Suddenly, for reasons hidden from finite human intellect, God the Father created the world, through His Beloved Son (1 Corinthians 8:6; Hebrews 1:1-2). Though the Son did the actual creating, it was the Father Who acted as the world’s architect. The Father not only created the universe through His Son, but He desires that His Son be glorified in the created order (John 7:39; 11:4; 12:16, 23, 28; 13:31; 17:10). It pleased the Father to make His Son the heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2) and to make us joint heirs with Him (Romans 8:16-17). It was the Father Who sent the Son to be the Savior of the world for this very purpose (1 John 4:14). John reminds us 26 times in his Gospel that the Father sent His Son into the world. Every one of Christ’s miracles were first sanctioned by His Father (John 5:30, 36). They were the Father’s works accomplished in Him for our blessing. The Lord’s entire ministry was an expression of the Father’s infinite love for us. It is almost unbelievable, but the Father loves us as He loves His Only Begotten Son (John 17:22-23). Let us acknowledge God the Father today, in love and obedience, to the glory of the eternally blessed God. Amen and amen.
God bless,
Pastor John
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