| Know the Son, Know the Father |
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As we continue to look at knowing God we come very close to the heart of what we mean by this as we appreciate Jesus. We come to know God through knowing His Son. Jesus in John 8:19 says “If you know me, you would know my Father also.” In John 20:17 he says to his disciples “I am returning to my father and your Father, to my God and your God.” In 1 John 2:23 the writer says “No-one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.” John 5:23 “He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father”. When we put all these verses together we not only see the very close relationship that Jesus has with God the Father but we see also that as we come into a relationship with Jesus that inevitably brings us into a relationship with God. Further whenever we do not have a relationship with Jesus then we cannot have a relationship with God. This is a very profound and serious truth. Know the Son, know the Father; deny the Son, deny the Father. The entry point for us in knowledge of God is through God the Son. Go wrong here and we go wrong everywhere so closely tied together are the two. As Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life, no-one comes to the Father but by me”. It does not really get much clearer than this. Today I want us to reflect on the relationship of Jesus the Son to God the Father and see that when we invite Jesus into our lives the relationship that Jesus has with his Father is given to us. There are three truths to reflect on which point us to three great doctrines of the Christian faith – 1. Jesus’ Father is our Father also (Adoption - We are adopted into his family). 2. As Jesus reflects the character of God so as he comes into our lives we also become more and more conformed to His likeness (Sanctification). 3. The Spirit of God seals and confirms our relationship with him (Assurance). 1.Jesus’ Father is our Father also. In JI Packer’s book, Knowing God, one of his longest chapters is devoted to this idea that we are sons of God through Christ. He devotes so much time to it because he believes it is an important and marvellous truth that we should rejoice in and never grow tired of hearing. He asks this – “What is a Christian? The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God for his or her Father”. He goes on - “You sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayer and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.” Father is the Christian name for God. In 1 John 1:3 John says “our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ”. Know the Son, know the Father. Jesus is the natural Son of God but whenever we invite Jesus to become Lord of our lives then we have a new way of relating to God and a new way in which God relates to us. All people are made by God and as we established before, all people are loved by God. But he has a special love for his children – those who have invited Jesus to be Lord. When we do this, Jesus becomes our brother and we are adopted into God’s family. Listen to John affirming this truth that we are born of the Spirit and adopted into God’s family – “To all who received him (Jesus), to those who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husbands will but born of God.” Legally whenever a child is adopted into a family they receive all the legal rights of a natural child and are viewed as a natural child. Although we are not natural children in the sense that Jesus is, he alone is divine, we receive the same rights and inheritance. And listen to Paul writing to the Galatians – “God sent his Son to redeem those under the law that we might receive the full rights of sons…so you are no longer a slave but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir”. As sons and daughters we will receive an inheritance, heaven, eternal life, being viewed as pure children of God. These are the privileges of being a child of God. This means that we can relate to God as Abba, Father, dear Father. (“God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out Abba father.” ) We can address God in this intimate way. Growing as a christian is about growing in this understanding that God is our Father in heaven. This is how God wants us to relate to him. We have a new boldness to draw near (Hebrews 10:19f) So here is the first truth – Jesus’ Father is our Father also. 2. We show the family likeness. As Jesus reflects the character of God, as he comes into our lives, we also become more and more conformed to His likeness (Sanctification) As the Son of God Jesus reflected the character of God. Thus he was able to say to people I and the Father are one (John 10:30) …the Father is in me and I am in the Father”. (v.38). Jesus reflected the character of God the Father. As Jesus comes into our lives he helps and enables us to think in a godly way and we begin slowly over time to change in our character from the inside out. Jesus says in Mark 3:35 “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother”. In other words as we relate to God we more and more do his will. In our physical families we tend to look like our parents a bit, and we usually share something of their personality. So it is with our heavenly Father –as we are adopted into his family so his likes and dislikes become our likes and dislikes. God’s will becomes more and more attractive to us. This process will go on until we die as we become sanctified, holified! As we grow as christians we want to read God’s word more for here we find God’s will. In a particular situation we pray for guidance and ask His Spirit to direct us. So we are more and more conformed into his character – we take on the family likeness! As we note how Jesus the Son related to the Father so we relate to God more and more in these ways also. We see that Jesus submitted to the Father’s will. There is an authority issue. Jesus was also divine but he voluntarily submitted himself to the will of the Father and so should we. We also say “Lord your will be done.” Secondly we see that Jesus enjoyed the affection of the Father. “This is my Son whom I love, with him I am well pleased.”(Matt 4:17) and we also enjoy that affection. He loves us, he is delighted in us. Thirdly there was a close bond of fellowship between Father and Son. “The Father is with me.” But we also enjoy this close fellowship – “and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). Fourthly the Father honours the Son and glorifies the Son. “Now Father glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began” (John 17:5) God honours us by giving us an inheritance in Christ – we are treated as his children, as heirs. Romans 8:16 “We are the children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ”. (Also Romans 8:30 “For those God justified he also glorified.”) God will glorify and honour us as his children and he sees Christ’s likeness in us more and more. 3. The Spirit confirms that we are His children. This is the issue of assurance. Many Christians struggle here. We read that we are saved in Christ, we read that through Christ we can call God our Father and that he loves us. But often we lack assurance and there is nothing so bad as a child who feels unloved, or who doubts that they are even a child of their parents. So God has graciously sent his Spirit who not only brings us to life and brings us to Christ but he affirms us and seals our standing before him. In Romans 8:31 Pauls says “If God is for us who can be against us?” If God is for us it does not matter if the world is against us. The Spirit takes the word of God and drives it home into our hearts. God is for us. When we feel low and confused then go to the Word of God and there the Spirit will take these words and assure us through then of God’s love. We are his son, we are his daughter. In Romans 8:15-16 Paul says “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry Abba Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our Spirit that we are God’s children.” Now that witness of the Spirit can be clouded through our disobedience of satanic assault. But we need to get to that place where we sense the Father’s love for us and fellowship with us. In summary - Jesus’ Father is our Father also. We are adopted into his family. Increasingly we ought to show the family likeness (Sanctification). The Spirit of God seals and confirms our relationship with him (we have assurance). This Christmas, and every Christmas, this is the good news. But is only good news to those who receive it and act upon it. Let us do that so that we can not only know God but also get to know the benefits that he has for us.
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When we think about knowing God and what that means, I think that at the heart of the Christian understanding of this concept is the relationship of God the Father and God the Son. We are Christians, that means followers of Christ and we are brought into a relationship with God through that knowledge of the Son. In other words we cannot fully understand the God we worship, and we cannot properly relate to him, outside of knowing his Son. As we read through the New Testament we become more and more aware of this idea of the fatherhood of God and that God wants to be known as Father. His Son not only existed with him together with the Spirit from all eternity, but the Son stepped into our world on a special mission to bring people into this relationship. That mission was to die for the sins of the world and through that death to bring many people into the relationship that Jesus himself enjoys with God. The Son of God came into our world so that we might become sons and daughters of God.
