the good FATHER and his family
One of the most intriguing realities of the new covenant is the fact that a people who were formally just God’s creation evolved spiritually into becoming God’s children. The people who once saw God as just God can now see and relate with him as father. This father-child relationship is a rare privilege God himself granted to us who believed in Christ.
He called us into the deepest kind of love relationship in which love is lavished on mere humans by the creator of the whole universe. The God from whose presence the nations tremble and the mountains skip decided to become father to his creation. The porter has chosen to father the clay.
To bear the very genes of the creator and be called His children is an honour that the people of God who experienced the old covenant never enjoyed. They were called the children of Israel, not the children of God. No one can become a child of God except he/she accepts the first begotten son, Jesus Christ.
God decided to birth multitude of children by sending the only begotten son to suffer and die. Only those who believe in the first begotten have the privilege to become God’s children.
11-12 Even in his own land and among his own people, the Jews, he was not accepted. Only a few would welcome and receive him. But to all who received him, he gave the right to become children of God. All they needed to do was to trust him to save them {John 1:11-12 TLB}
The right to become God’s children and to call him father is given only to those who believe and trust in the saving power of the first begotten son of God. No one who is a Muslim, Hindu, Judaiser, atheist etc has the right to call God father. Anyone who is not born again has not been born of God and therefore is not a child of God. Such a one has only natural birth by his/her human parents and God doesn’t deal with them as his children but as his creation. He is not father to them though he is their God and creator.
The right to become God’s child is strictly for those who are born again hence Jesus said unto Nicodemus “YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN”
It will shock you to know that all the prophets and patriarchs of old also didn’t enjoy this privilege of son -ship even though God was with them and wrought special miracles through them. He never related with them as father. They shrank away from his presence in fear. They saw him as the all-consuming fire, the angry God, the Lion of Judah, and The almighty God etc but never saw him as father. The New Testament believer has got this wonderful privilege at his disposal yet only a few have caught the glimpse of the glory of this father-child relationship.
1. THE FATHER’S LOVE.
The idea of God becoming our father and we becoming his children was born out of love. The love of God was burning within his heart seeking for a better way to be expressed. It is so huge a love that it couldn’t be fully expressed in the Old Testament because of the restrictions of the old covenant of the law. God was seen as an angry God waiting to kill anyone who broke the laws of Moses. Love could not be fully lavished under the old system that enslaved men and killed them when they faulted. The God of love needed something more than a master-slave relationship in order to fully express his love. The dimensions of His love are boundless and can only be extravagantly poured out by making us His children.
See what an incredible quality of love the Father has shown to us, that we would [be permitted to] be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are! For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, we are [even here and] now children of God, and it is not yet made clear what we will be [after His coming]. We know that when He comes and is revealed, we will [as His children] be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is [in all His glory].{1 John 3:1-3 AMP}
It is the incredible quality of the father’s love that permitted and allowed us the privilege to become his children. Now we carry the very genes of the father and when Christ appears again we shall be like him. His DNA lies within us. His love is shared abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. We are an exact offspring of God. His life is our life. Our real life is Christ.
3 For you died [to this world], and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, [a]appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. {Colossians 3:3-4 AMP}
27 for the Father Himself [tenderly] loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from the Father. {John 16:27 AMP}
There are a lot of believers looking for love in the wrong places, jumping from one relationship to another looking for approval and acceptance from mere mortals yet there is a God who tenderly loves them with a fatherly love waiting for them to take advantage of his extravagant love.
How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.{Ephesians 1:3-6 MSG}
The decision to adopt us as sons was not something God conceived recently. It has been his plan from the very beginning, before the foundation of earth was laid. We’ve always been on his mind waiting for the right time to adopt us into his family so he can shower his love on us. He made us the focus of his love even when we didn’t know him. He fell in love with us from the very beginning and he demonstrated his love for us even while we were still living sin. He knew he was going to send his only begotten son to suffer and face travail and that by him he would give birth to multitude of children whom he has always desired to show love.
10 It was only right that God, who creates and preserves all things, should make Jesus perfect through suffering, in order to bring many children to share his glory. For Jesus is the one who leads them to salvation. {Hebrews 2:10 GNT}
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.{Romans 5:8}
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.{1 John 4:10}
2. THE FATHER’S INHERITANCE
Masters do not give inheritance to servants neither do tyrants make their subjects heirs. Slaves are not the ones for which a master writes a will. Inheritance are made for only children. Only sons inherit their father’s properties. I haven’t seen a will which stated that a slave should inherit all while the legitimate son is left without an inheritance. It was going to be impossible for God to leave us an inheritance if he didn’t first make us his children. We would never be able to inherit all that belongs to God if he didn’t become our father. Therefore one of the reasons for which he translated us into the kingdom of his dear son is so that we can become his heirs and share in the inheritance.
12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints (God’s people) in the Light.
13 For He has rescued us and has drawn us to Himself from the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption [because of His sacrifice, resulting in] the forgiveness of our sins [and the cancellation of sins’ penalty].{Colossians 1:12- 14 AMP}
Not only are we God’s children but also heirs, called to receive an inheritance which God has reserved for us. We are not slaves but sons hence we have the full right to our father’s inheritance. All the father has belongs to us. Our elder brother Jesus understood this when he said “All the father has is mine” Yes it is true all things are ours
21-23 I don’t want to hear any of you bragging about yourself or anyone else. Everything is already yours as a gift—Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present, the future—all of it is yours, and you are privileged to be in union with Christ, who is in union with God.{1Corinthians 3:21-23 MSG}
Now we can call God Abba Father because he has made us heirs and joint heirs with Christ. There is nothing that Christ has that doesn’t belong to us. We have a joint ticket, joint privileges as heirs. We are no longer slaves who fear and shrink away from their master. We are God’s children living in the kingdom of love and lavish gift giving.
15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading again to fear [of God’s judgment], but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons [the Spirit producing sonship] by which we [joyfully] cry, “[b]Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself testifiesand confirms together with our spirit [assuring us] that we [believers] are children of God. 17 And if [we are His] children, [then we are His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His spiritual blessing and inheritance], if indeed we share in His suffering so that we may also share in His glory.{Romans 8:15-17 AMP}
We are not expecting God’s punishment or wrath. What we look forward to is an inheritance. We have a hope of glory. The spirit of our father in us testifies that we are his children and that we will inherit all that belongs to the father.
10 But it was the Lord’s good plan to bruise him and fill him with grief. However, when his soul has been made an offering for sin, then he shall have a multitude of children, many heirs. He shall live again,[b] and God’s program shall prosper in his hands.{Isaiah 53:10 TLB}
3. THE FATHER’S HOLINESS
It is impossible for us to look any different from our father when it comes to the issue of holiness. Because we carry is gene we must of necessity have his holiness. Men who are not God’s children can never have his holiness because he is not their father. No matter how hard people try, they can never be holy except they carry the father’s gene. I have seen a lot of people trying to produce their own kind of holiness but unfortunately such holiness will always fall short of God’s standard of holiness. If it is not God’s kind of holiness then it is worthless.
Only God can transfer his kind of Holiness to his children through the new birth. It must be his kind of holiness not our man made kind. Hence Jesus had said “Ye must have perfect holiness just as your heavenly father has perfect holiness” and God has said “be holy just as I am holy”
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11 We who have been made holy by Jesus, now have the same Father he has. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call us his brothers. 12 For he says in the book of Psalms, “I will talk to my brothers about God my Father, and together we will sing his praises.” 13 At another time he said, “I will put my trust in God along with my brothers.” And at still another time, “See, here am I and the children God gave me.”{Hebrews 2:11-13 TLB}
The task of holiness has been placed on the first begotten. He is the one who made us holy. He gave us God’s kind of holiness. He is the purifier. He is the one who gave us perfect holiness. When he offered his life to die for us what he did was to perfect us in holiness so we can have the same father.
For by that one offering he made forever perfect in the sight of God all those whom he is making holy. {Hebrews 10:14 TLB}
This holiness is everlasting and when we get to heaven, Christ will present us holy and blameless before our father. That’s why we are not afraid of Judgement day. We bear his holiness within us.
But now Christ has made you God’s friends again. He did this by his death while he was in the body, that he might bring you into God’s presence. He brings you before God as people who are holy, with no wrong in you, and with nothing that God can judge you guilty of. {Colossians 1:22 ICB}
His love makes us holy.
3-6 How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son. {Ephesians 1:3-6 MSG}
24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. {Jude 1:24-25}
God our father has given everything freely unto us to enjoy. He is a good father. Watch out for the next article as I reveal to you:
THE FATHER’S RIGHTEOUSNESS
THE FATHER’S PROVISION
THE FATHER’S PROTECTION
THE FATHER’S WILL
THE FATHER’S MERCY {PITY}
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