The Real Father

[DonKeesee]

[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]The Real Father[/FONT]​

[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif][FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]There is a glimpse into heaven itself in John 13 where Jesus washes the disciples' feet. We normally, as we should, see Jesus showing us how we should treat each other. But there is something else there that we need to see: The passage gives us a glimpse at the nature of God. We need to see what it says about God's nature like an astronaut needs oxygen.[/FONT]


[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]We must break out of a Medieval/Old Testament Law view of God the Father. The Old Testament is completely inspired by God—but we must study it through the understanding of the nature of God we receive from the New Testament. For the New Testament pulls back the veil of the Holy of Holies and shows us the true nature of the Father in a much clearer way than it was ever revealed before. This is a huge subject, but in this article let's look at the Father's personality as revealed in John 13 and elsewhere in the New Testament to a limited extent.[/FONT]


[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]How is it that God the Son would actually lower Himself to wash the feet of human beings? What does this say about the nature of God? What does it say about our understanding of the actual personality of God, the way He really is? Is it shocking to us to discover that the Father is like Jesus, even like Jesus as we see Him washing the disciples' feet? Many of us do not have such a view of the Father. There are reasons. We will look at one of these reasons a little later.[/FONT]


[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]The truth is this: God is exactly like Jesus said He is. In this passage we see His giving nature, His humility, His total commitment to descend to the level of mankind. Jesus says in the very next chapter that when we see Him, we are seeing the Father (John 14:7-9). The way Jesus is—His nature, His ways—that is the way the Father is. This passage shows us reality. It reveals a part of God's actual nature. The portrayal of God we see here and elsewhere in the life of Jesus and in His teachings and in the teachings of the entire New Testament reveal God the Father as He actually is. Why do we insist on sometimes portraying a different Heavenly Father to one another and (most sadly) to the world who does not know Him? Jesus said that the essence of eternal life was know Him and the Heavenly Father. Why would we portray the Father in a false way to the world, thus perhaps retarding the ability of people in the world to come to know Him? They may be afraid to come to a God with characteristics as we sometimes wrongly attribute to Him.[/FONT]


[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]God the Father has a serving spirit like an earthly father or mother has to a small child—but with much more intensity. He gives everything He has to us. He takes care of our needs. He tells us to just simply ask Him for the things we need. He came to us, to this world. He is still here through the Holy Spirit. He is willing to live within us if we want Him to. He loves us far more strongly than the very best earthly fathers and mothers love their children. He really is a good Father. He was willing to sacrifice His very own Son for us, even before we became His children. His heart burns in love for us. He is not looking for a way to judge us, and before we were born, He was not looking for a way to destine us to destruction.[/FONT]


[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]It seems that we have a major problem accepting this truth about the Father. Jesus made it utterly clear, but we have a tremendous reluctance to accept the picture of the Father Jesus gave us. This reluctance is a stronghold against truth. Where did it come from? Ultimately from Satan's ongoing scheme to misrepresent God to the world. One way (just one way) he has done this is through well-meaning people in the Church. For example, very great things came through the leaders of the Reformation. They were heroes of the Kingdom of God. God changed the world through them. They did great things. They wrote great things. The Reformers embraced a greatly more biblical world view than did most in the Medieval world they emerged from. But when it came to portraying the nature of the Father, some of them could never quite overcome the Medieval mindset on this all-important matter. [/FONT]


[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]Certain Reformers could not bridge the gap between a partially Medieval understanding of God's nature and a true New Testament one. For example, among them were those who pushing the limits of interpretation to the breaking point portrayed the Father as a God who would preordain some to heaven and some to hell and give people no free choice at all to follow God or not follow Him. And clear passages that obviously show the free will of mankind are explained away. This was a sad mistake and one whose distortion of the image of God carries down to our time. We must somehow overcome this. So many over centuries have been adversely affected by this mistake.[/FONT]

[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]I recently saw a website taking even these ideas to the extreme. A writer was making as strong a case as he could that God basically caused the holocaust. He reasoned that it was not even enough to say God allowed it. No, he said that we needed to see God as involved in its cause. In this understanding, Satan is portrayed as a being totally under the direction of God rather than as a rebel spirit working against God's plans as the New Testament portrays him (though we do see that he sometimes unwittingly helps God's plan along by mistake). This is not the message of the New Testament regarding the nature of God. As I have noted above, we must interpret the Old Testament in the light of the New. We must see Jesus as portraying God the Father in a perfect way and then interpret all we see about God in the entire Bible from that standpoint.[/FONT]


[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]I am very happy to see the rise of the novel The Shack. It will help many to see God the Father in a clearer, more realistic way, in the way Jesus presented Him. Though some of us may not agree with all of the author's literary methods of portraying God, we can see it as giving enlightenment to people about the true nature of God. We must come to see the Father through Jesus—as we see Jesus in the New Testament. We must come to see the Father through Jesus' words about Him in the New Testament, through the loving image Jesus gives us of the Father. Jesus life and teachings show us the humble, loving nature of the Father. The real nature of the Father IS like the father of the prodigal son. God IS just as Jesus reveals Him to be in John 13 and elsewhere. Here are just two glimpses of the Father's nature in other Gospel passages:[/FONT]


[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]Matthew 7:9-13:[/FONT]
[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]9. And I say unto you, ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.[/FONT]
[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]10. For every person who asks receives, and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.[/FONT]
[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]11. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?[/FONT]
[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]12. Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?[/FONT]
[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]13. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?[/FONT]


[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]Matthew 6:26-33:[/FONT]
[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]26. Behold the fowls of the air, for they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are ye not much better than they?[/FONT]
[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]27. Which of you by worrying can add one cubit unto his stature?[/FONT]
[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]28. And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they do not toil, neither do they spin.[/FONT]
[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]29. And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed as one of these.[/FONT]
[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]30. Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith?[/FONT]
[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]31. Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or, “With what will we be clothed?”[/FONT]
[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]32. (For after all these things the Gentiles seek.) For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.[/FONT]
[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]33. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. [/FONT]
[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif](Scripture quotations from the KJV—slightly modernized.)[/FONT]


[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]Note: I realize that this article will likely be criticized for not containing lists of proof texts, etc. But the passages I do refer to contain more than enough truth to back up the article's assertions. I also think that most people who read this article either know various other passages that bear out what I say or can easily find them.[/FONT]


[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]These two links connect to sites dealing with this and many other subjects:[/FONT]
[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]www.RanLives.com[/FONT]
[FONT=Gisha, sans-serif]www.AllNations.Podomatic.com[/FONT]
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[Jim47]

sorry but that large print makes my eyes hurt

 

[desmalia]

God is sovereign. He is mighty! The Bible is His perfect, inerrant, and complete Word to us. As believers we must take the responsibility to understand the NT through the OT, not the other way around. Otherwise we miss out a great deal on the wonder of His very nature. There is no need to throw out or downplay the OT. The entire Bible exposes us to the incredible nature of our Lord. Christ is there, on every page. God's nature did not somehow change somewhere between the OT and the NT. It is ALL Him.

As for "The Shack", I encourage you to listen to this sermon. Let us not exchange the God of the Bible for a weak, meaningless man-made idol in the form of some spineless "hippy Jesus".