Our Father
Our Father
We begin a new series as we’ve finished Romans 6 and are about to move to chapter 7. It seems like a good time for a break. The new series is on the Lord’s Prayer, going line by line. The purpose of this series is not simply to get you to pray more, it’s to make you feel closer to God than you’ve ever felt, and therefore pray more!
Here a number of questions must be answered:
1. What does it mean for God to be our Father? There is a sense in which God is a Father to everyone since everyone was made by Him, but in a very special sense He is the Father only of Christians. That is a Father by relationship, not only creation. We have come to know Him, and He us, and this has come about through the Son Jesus Christ. It is only through the sonship of the Son that we have access to the fatherhood of the Father.
2. What does it mean for us to be Sons of God? It means a great deal. We have an inheritance, we have unconditional access, we have a new identity, and we have new obligations and resources. Romans 8:14-21 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
3. What does this new relationship mean for our prayer lives? It means that when you pray to the Father you are praying through the Son and by the Holy Spirit. Even though the Son and the Spirit are not mentioned in the Lord’s prayer in either Matt 6 or Luke 11, part of the theology behind calling God our Father is that we are assuming a place in the Son and are being moved by the Spirit. Having God as Father also means that we have incredible access and well-grounded faith in His love toward us. The Heidelberg Catechism Question 120 asks Why hath Christ commanded us to address God thus: "Our Father"? Answer. That immediately, in the very beginning of our prayer, he might excite in us a childlike reverence for, and confidence in God, which are the foundation of our prayer: namely, that God is become our Father in Christ, and will much less deny us what we ask of him in true faith, than our parents will refuse us earthly things.
4. How did you end up in such a happy place, with God as your Father? I’ll tell you how. It is because Jesus Christ went to the cross in your place. There is only one time in Jesus’ life when He didn’t refer to God as His Father, and it was on the cross. “My God my God, why have you forsaken me” (Ps 22). This was the only time in Jesus life when He wasn't being treated like a Son, but rather was treated the way we should have been, as an enemy. But now that He has taken the treatment we deserve, we can call God Father and will never be treated like anything other than true Sons. Amen
Bible Text: Matthew 6: 9-15 | Preacher: Ian Goodman | Series: The Lord’s prayer | We begin a new series as we’ve finished Romans 6 and are about to move to chapter 7. It seems like a good time for a break. The new series is on the Lord’s Prayer, going line by line. The purpose of this series is not simply to get you to pray more, it’s to make you feel closer to God than you’ve ever felt, and therefore pray more!
Here a number of questions must be answered:
1. What does it mean for God to be our Father? There is a sense in which God is a Father to everyone since everyone was made by Him, but in a very special sense He is the Father only of Christians. That is a Father by relationship, not only creation. We have come to know Him, and He us, and this has come about through the Son Jesus Christ. It is only through the sonship of the Son that we have access to the fatherhood of the Father.
2. What does it mean for us to be Sons of God? It means a great deal. We have an inheritance, we have unconditional access, we have a new identity, and we have new obligations and resources. Romans 8:14-21 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
3. What does this new relationship mean for our prayer lives? It means that when you pray to the Father you are praying through the Son and by the Holy Spirit. Even though the Son and the Spirit are not mentioned in the Lord’s prayer in either Matt 6 or Luke 11, part of the theology behind calling God our Father is that we are assuming a place in the Son and are being moved by the Spirit. Having God as Father also means that we have incredible access and well-grounded faith in His love toward us. The Heidelberg Catechism Question 120 asks Why hath Christ commanded us to address God thus: “Our Father”? Answer. That immediately, in the very beginning of our prayer, he might excite in us a childlike reverence for, and confidence in God, which are the foundation of our prayer: namely, that God is become our Father in Christ, and will much less deny us what we ask of him in true faith, than our parents will refuse us earthly things.
4. How did you end up in such a happy place, with God as your Father? I’ll tell you how. It is because Jesus Christ went to the cross in your place. There is only one time in Jesus’ life when He didn’t refer to God as His Father, and it was on the cross. “My God my God, why have you forsaken me” (Ps 22). This was the only time in Jesus life when He wasn’t being treated like a Son, but rather was treated the way we should have been, as an enemy. But now that He has taken the treatment we deserve, we can call God Father and will never be treated like anything other than true Sons. Amen