Ephesians 4:3-6; One Father, part 3.
Wednesday June 9,2021Though God is the Creator of all and so in one sense can be seen as the Father of all, only believers see Him as Father, and so Paul would be referring to Him as Father of the church.
Psa 68:5-6 A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, Is God in His holy habitation. 6 God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land.
The believer possesses the life of Christ. Christ said, “I go to My Father and your Father.” We look to the Father in the manner that He did.
Joh 5:18 For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.
Jesus went about calling God His Father.
If you do a concordance search on the word “Father” in the gospels you will see just how often our Lord refers to God as His Father, and these are just the instances recorded by the authors. It really stands out when we understand that Jews did not do this.
Unlike all Israelites before Him, Jesus referred to God the Father as His Father, and He as the Father’s Son.
By His redeeming work, Jesus called His Father our Father.
In Joh 20:17 He said to Mary Magdalene: “but go to My brethren, and say to them, 'I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'”
Seventeen times in the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord stated that God was our Father. When He taught us to pray, He had us begin with “Our Father who is in heaven.” Mind, He said “Our Father,” and not “My Father.” Our Father refers to the truth that the Father belongs to all of us. So, in the address of the prayer Jesus taught us, we are instantly reminded in the authority of God as well as our unity as a body, all children of one eternal Father.
This truth is reiterated by Paul.
Rom 8:14-17 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.
What a wonderful truth to know and understand, especially in a world when so many hearts have grown cold, that every believer has a family filled with brothers and sisters, and mothers and fathers, and that they each have the Almighty God as their Father forever, to whom they claim without doubt that they are His sons and daughters forever. And seeing God the Father is through the Person of Jesus Christ, so for God the Father to be a Father figure to each of us, we must see Christ as clearly and deeply as we can.
Mat 23:6 “And do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.”
He would not at all mean that we should not call our biological father “father,” but that we should know who our true, eternal Father is. Our biological fathers provided the seed for our bodies, but that doesn’t make him our creator. If you have a good father, he only learned goodness from the Father who is good. All children are on loan to their biological parents from our true parents, the Trinity.
The Father is not completely invisible to us. If we’ve seen the Son, we’ve seen the Father.
Joh 14:6-9 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me. 7 "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him." 8 Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, 'Show us the Father'?
Joh 16:25 “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will speak no more to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father.”
To know and love the Father is to lose all love the world order that has been turned over to Satan.
1Jo 2:12-17 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake. 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. 14 I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. 15 Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.
Paul calls God “our Father” in the salutations of Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and Philemon.
1Co 8:5-6 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.
We have life through Christ for the Father.
The gods of the world, “so-called” says Paul for they are not God. They are created by demon motivated man and contain human characteristics. There are also many lords, human authorities who have given their lives to the false gods and the satanic world system for the hope of wealth and power. They have a worldly power over us but no power over us, for we live for the Father through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
All believers are foreknown and predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. That means that all believers will be so. Christ lived for the Father. He submitted to the Father’s every desire and command. As is Christ, so must we be. We live through Christ and we live for the Father. Still, Christ is our Head and our Master and we are under His authority as well as the authority of the Father.
The truth about the absolute authority of the Father and the fact that it obligates all His creatures to obedience is groundbreaking for us. It is so because all of us are born in Adam and we have enthroned ourselves in the place of God. All have set Self on the throne of his life. No matter what we do, even that which looks to be for the welfare and benefit of others, we do, in essence, for ourselves. Life cannot be lived until Self is dethroned by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Almighty becoming a Man and dying for you is the only truth that will remove Self and see God who has never given His throne to anyone. |