He destined us for adoption
as his children through Jesus Christ,
according to the good pleasure of his will
Ephesians 1:5
Jesus is The Son of God.
You are A Child of God.
The article is important. He is “the” one and only. You are one of “a” larger group. Nevertheless, you are powerfully and purposefully God’s precious child. You are not just “a” child; you are His child. And he is Your Father.
Now, some people don’t like the word “Father” for God. There are two reasons for this …
· Some people don’t like masculine words for God. They think it’s a patriarchal, human invention. But this says something much bigger than that. It’s staking a claim that scripture is a human invention. But cutting God’s divine revelation out of scripture, undercuts all of scripture’s power, authority, and truth claims. It also trivializes the magnificent relationship that Jesus claimed to have with God … and promises to us too. Instead of helping us to know the Father intimately, these kind of interpretations ultimately leave us orphaned.
· Others don’t like the father image because they personally had angry and abusive fathers. I can understand why it happens. Human sin is rampant and crushes our ability to trust. But God is NOT setting up the analogy we think. He’s NOT saying, compare me to your human father. He’s saying, “I am THE Father. I am unique. I am holy. I am personal. And I care about you.” While we can compare human fathers to the standard of the heavenly Father – though all fall far short – we must NOT compare the Heavenly Father to broken, human fathers.
Both of these objections may sound understandable from a human point of view. But beware! They both neuter God-the-Father and leave us as orphans.
The powerful narrative throughout the New Testament is that you can be adopted … not because you’re worthy … but because God is love. Indeed, if you believe in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you already have been adopted!
In Christ’s Love,
a guy who believes
that scripture is divine revelation
not human invention
(and that makes all the difference!)
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