godlyPOV

The lesson library / Lesson 07

God the Father

Explain the Father’s eternal relation to the Son, His sovereign care, and believers’ adoption through Christ.

God and His works

Read first

John 14:1-14 · Matthew 6:19-34 · Romans 8:12-27 · Hebrews 12:1-17

Calling God Father can sound familiar enough that the meaning is never examined. Some people hear warmth; others hear the failures of an earthly father. Scripture provides the standard for the title. Human fathers are supposed to reflect something of God's care. Their failures do not define what God is like. The comparison is meant to work in that direction.

Read John 14:1-14

1 “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.
2 In my Father’s house are many homes. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.
3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also.
4 You know where I go, and you know the way.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except 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 that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
12 Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father.
13 Whatever you will ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it.

Philip asks to see the Father, and Jesus directs him to what has been revealed in Himself. The Father is not an unknown personality hiding behind a more approachable Son. Jesus makes Him known. That does not erase the distinction between them. Jesus speaks to the Father and goes to the Father. It means the saving kindness seen in the Son truly reveals the Father who sent Him. A picture of Jesus protecting people from an unwilling Father misrepresents the unity of their saving purpose.

Read Matthew 6:25-34

25 Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26 See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they?
27 “Which of you by being anxious, can add one moment to his lifespan?
28 Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin,
29 yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these.
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, won’t he much more clothe you, you of little faith?
31 “Therefore don’t be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’, ‘What will we drink?’ or, ‘With what will we be clothed?’
32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 Therefore don’t be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day’s own evil is sufficient.

Jesus names food and clothing, the sort of needs that become very concrete when they are missing. He doesn't tell His hearers that bodily life is beneath God's attention. He tells them the Father knows. The instruction against anxiety isn't a promise that believers will never face hardship, and it isn't permission to neglect work. It reorders concern under God's care. Tomorrow has enough trouble without requiring a person to live all of it this afternoon.

The Father’s care is sometimes confused with the promise that every request will be granted exactly as made. An earthly child may sincerely want something a good father should not provide. That comparison is limited because human fathers can be mistaken, while God is not. Still, it shows that refusal and rejection are not identical. Scripture gives permission to ask boldly while leaving judgment with the Father. It also gives permission to ask again. Trust does not require a person to speak as though the desired outcome no longer matters. It means the relationship can remain faithful even when the answer is difficult.

Read Romans 8:14-27

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.
15 For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God;
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us.
19 For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
20 For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.
23 Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.
24 For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees?
25 But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.
26 In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.
27 He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.

Paul joins adoption with suffering, groaning, and hope. That should prevent the idea that being God's child guarantees an easy life. The family relationship is real even while creation groans. Believers are not sons in exactly the same way the eternal Son is the Son. They are brought into the family by grace. The privilege is therefore greater than a general feeling that the universe is friendly. It is a relationship established through Christ, with an inheritance God has promised to complete.

Read Hebrews 12:5-17

5 You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him;
6 for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline?
8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are illegitimate, and not children.
9 Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?
10 For they indeed for a few days disciplined us as seemed good to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.
11 All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees,
13 and make straight paths for your feet, so what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
14 Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord,
15 looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and many be defiled by it,
16 lest there be any sexually immoral person or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal.
17 For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears.

Discipline is not always a pleasant subject, particularly if someone has used that word to cover cruelty. Hebrews gives it a clear purpose: the good of the child and a share in holiness. That purpose does not authorize human abuse. Nor does it allow an observer to diagnose every illness or loss as punishment for a specific sin. The passage teaches believers how to endure God's fatherly dealings. It does not provide a chart for explaining every painful event in somebody else's life.

Bring a real concern to the Father, without disguising it as something more religious. Ask for what is needed, submit the outcome to His wisdom, and obey the responsibility already clear. The privilege of calling Him Father was purchased through the Son. It deserves both confidence and reverence.

Consider your perspective

The Father is known through Christ, not by projecting every strength or failure of an earthly parent onto God. His care gives believers room to bring real anxiety to Him without turning prayer into a performance.

Put it into practice

Bring one recurring worry to the Father in plain language. Then take the responsible next step available to you, trusting His care without demanding a particular outcome.

Reflect and respond

  • Does your picture of the Father agree with Christ’s revelation of Him?
  • What anxiety can be brought honestly into prayer?
  • How can correction be received without inventing explanations for every hardship?

Passages and further study

Scripture quotations are from the public-domain World English Bible (WEB). Historical confessions are study aids, subordinate to Scripture. This independent lesson is not an official denominational statement.