CP 193 The 'ignorant and offensive spurning' of our Father

CP 193 The ‘ignorant and offensive spurning’ of our Father

Hello friends, here is the final instalment of my trilogy. (Hardly my magnum opus, is it?) The first of the three was titled, Our dumbed-down ‘Jesus’, the second was titled, The AWOL Holy Spirit. This last one is, The ‘ignorant and offensive spurning’ of our Father. Here goes…

The passion for this blog was fired around about 2003. I had just completed a series on the marvellous gift Jesus had revealed in calling us to address our prayers to ‘Our Father in heaven’. One of my worshippers told me in no uncertain terms that she would never address God as her Father because she liked to keep her sense of distance from him. I suggested that she might be giving offense in rejecting that call / invitation / privilege to close the distance. She, in turn, was offended by my challenge…

Back in 1998, yours truly was privileged to spend 3 weeks on a biblical counselling course with Selwyn Hughes. His name is known through the “Everyday with Jesus” daily Bible readings. Selwyn Hughes picked up on a remark of Martin Luther that marriage was God’s best way of explaining himself. As part of his teaching he told how he was continually taken by a quote from an Australian author about the Trinity which captured the Luther quote. This is it:

“The Father loves the Son and gives Him everything. The Son always does that which pleases the Father. The Spirit takes the things of the Son and shows them to us. We learn from the Trinity that relationship is the essence of reality and therefore the essence of our existence. We also learn that the way this relationship should be expressed is by concern for others. Within the Trinity itself there is a concern by the Persons of the Trinity for one another.”

(D. Broughton Knox, The Everlasting God, Evangelical Press)

Now, this is a strong and clear statement of the way the Lord God Almighty, the ‘I am who I am’, The Holy One, has revealed himself, and why he has revealed himself, for the purpose of redeeming a sinful and lost humanity. Therefore I invite you to read that paragraph again, taking particular note of the phrase I have made bold and put in italics.

“The Father loves the Son and gives Him everything. The Son always does that which pleases the Father. The Spirit takes the things of the Son and shows them to us. We learn from the Trinity that relationship is the essence of reality and therefore the essence of our existence. We also learn that the way this relationship should be expressed is by concern for others. Within the Trinity itself there is a concern by the Persons of the Trinity for one another.”

It’s true. We are who we are, and identify ourselves, through the various relationships in which we live, (or in some cases in which we refuse to live), and especially in our relationship with the Lord God Almighty. So I invite you to read the paragraph again and note the two words I have highlighted.

“The Father loves the Son and gives Him everything. The Son always does that which pleases the Father. The Spirit takes the things of the Son and shows them to us. We learn from the Trinity that relationship is the essence of reality and therefore the essence of our existence. We also learn that the way this relationship should be expressed is by concern for others. Within the Trinity itself there is a concern by the Persons of the Trinity for one another.”

Please note what is written there and let Holy Spirit engrave it as truth on your heart. It does not say that God loves the Son. No, it does not. What it does say is, “The Father loves the Son…” That is a wonderful and proper distilling of how the Lord God Almighty has pleased to let himself be known. Why is this important? Because ‘Father’ is far and away a stronger relational word than the generic term, ‘God’! I’m not suggesting God is not real. But every single religion or religious movement uses that word to describe their perception of the divine. In Christ the Son we know something entirely different. The Gospel clearly shows us that Son Jesus the Lord is revealing God the Father. He does not teach us to pray, ‘Dear God in Heaven’, but, ‘Our Father in Heaven’. It’s personal. It’s relational. It’s intimate. It’s meant to be all these things.

Think of gospel texts you know:

• How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. (Luke 11:11)
• Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. (Matt 5:45-46)
• …Your Father, who sees what is done in secret… (Matt 6:6)
• For this reason, I kneel before the Father… (Ephesians 3:14)
• I am returning to my Father and your Father… (John 20:17)
• Plus dozens and dozens more…

The bottom line is that the Father has set himself to have an intimate, personal relationship with you and with me. Indeed that is his purpose with all who call on the name of his Son, Jesus the Christ, our Saviour and our Lord. The Gospel is the story of the Father’s passionate longing to restore the ‘friendly walk’ he had with Adam and Eve in the Garden. (Genesis 3:8) He has done, with the free and joyful determination of Jesus the Son, absolutely everything necessary for the re-creation of companionship between himself and Adam’s offspring. This is the guts of the meaning of the Cross. Nothing more and nothing less!

So there! Let's end the ignorance and offence. Address Him as Father, with lips, from heart. Olivia Newton John has a celebrated hit called, “Let’s get physical”. It captures the spirit of the age in which we live. Jesus the Son, along with the angels and archangels has a song too. It is called, “Let’s get personal…” It’s a song for the Ages and Ages. So when Holy Spirit gifts you the freedom and joy of confessing ‘Jesus is Lord’, and instincts you to cry out “Abba, Father!” then grab the gift Fatherly intimacy with all your heart, soul, mind and strength!

Enough already. Forgive my verboseness. Fred