The Greater Father

I was read­ing the last edi­tion of Mod­ern Ref­or­ma­tion, and I was struck by an arti­cle enti­tled “The Promise Dri­ven Fam­ily.” It struck a chord in me, because it talked about how many chil­dren tend to repli­cate the actions of their earthly fathers. If your father was absent emo­tion­ally, abu­sive, etc. it showed through in the par­ent­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics of their chil­dren. The arti­cle was thought pro­vok­ing, because it talked about how we can become free of this pat­tern if we turn our atten­tion to our Heav­enly Father and look to Him for the model of how to be a father.

I am read­ing Bruce Ware’s work: Father, Son, & Holy Spirit: Rela­tion­ships, Roles, & Rel­e­vance; and it too talked about how the Father is viewed in trini­tar­ian language.

“[L]et’s relearn the par­a­digm of what ‘father’ is from the Father in heaven. While this may involve a very long and dif­fi­cult process, it is the only way to make true and gen­uine progress spir­i­tu­ally, since God has named Him­self as our Father, and this name is meant to con­vey rich and glo­ri­ous spir­i­tual ben­e­fit to us, his chil­dren.“
Bruce Ware, Father, Son, & Holy Spirit: Rela­tion­ships, Roles, & Rel­e­vance (pg. 62)

This is not meant to be a self-help essay, but it has been impor­tant to me to reclaim my under­stand­ing of what a “father” is from my heav­enly Father as Bruce Ware so aptly states. I think of the attrib­utes ascribed to the Father: author­ity, lead­er­ship, faith­ful­ness, and lov­ing. What won­der­ful attrib­utes to immerse in our own under­stand­ing of what the role the father has in an earthly relationship.

I also love to unfold more of the char­ac­ter of the Father-Son rela­tion­ship between the Father and Christ. The deep love that Christ had for His Father is some­thing to mar­vel at. Also, He was con­stantly engaged in the pur­suit of glo­ri­fy­ing His Father, and the Ser­mon on the Mount is a great expo­si­tion on Christ’s love and obe­di­ence to His Father, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glo­rify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:16). The Father loves His Son for His great mea­sure of obe­di­ence (John 10:17).

It is amaz­ing to think that the Father has pre­des­tined (yes, pre­des­tined) us for adop­tion as sons (Eph 1:5). That is amaz­ing! Like an adopted child, we are not nat­ural to the Father; but yet He loves us in spite of us. It is encour­ag­ing to med­i­tate upon how I do have a good exam­ple to fol­low in the role of a father.

“Be mer­ci­ful, just as your Father is mer­ci­ful.“
Luke 6:36