Everlasting Father Series

God's fatherhood depends upon our relationship with Him.

But here's the deal. Because of the Fall, and because of our sin, none of us comes into the world with a relationship with God. Instead, the Bible says that apart from Christ, we’re alienated from God, not children of God. In fact, the Bible insists we are children of wrath.

Again, Paul gives some tough words for us in Ephesians 2 - - - -

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

2 IN WHICH YOU ONCE WALKED, following the course of this world,

following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience —

3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,

and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. - Ephesians 2:1-3

Paul’s point is that before knowing Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we were enemies of God. We were children of wrath. But notice how Paul described the people before knowing Jesus - - - - they were children of wrath in which they once walked.

In other words, that’s in the past, that’s their history that’s been redeemed because of their relationship with Jesus. God only becomes our Father when we stand in a unique relationship to Him.

I think that’s why I like to view God not so much as my friend, but as my Mighty God, my God of the Heavenly Armies. I want to know that God is my protector, my Lord and Savior, who will go to war for me. He’s the Father who won’t back down when His kids are being pushed.

Especially if you didn’t have an earthly father who you knew would go to war for you, God being our Everlasting Father, our Mighty God, gives me comfort and peace.

And being called Everlasting Father, gives me the assurance and hope that God is never, never, never going to be defeated. He’s everlasting. He’s the alpha and omega, no beginning and no end. That’s great news!!

It’s the sense that the Everlasting Father would send His Son to die for us so that we would never have to die an eternal death, but we have the hope of eternal life, because of the Everlasting Father.

We only know God as Father Through Jesus Christ. Only through Jesus do we learn to call God "Father." You can't have the fatherhood of God without embracing the Son-ship of Jesus. You can’t call God, Father, if you don’t know the Son. Jesus told us in John 14 - - - -

6 “I am the way, and 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 do know Him and have seen Him.”

You see, we must proclaim Jesus as our Lord and Savior. And when we do, we also meet the Father. We see the love the Father has for us. Jesus wanted the disciples to understand the intimacy of the relationship. If you know Jesus, you know the Father.

It’s kind of like saying, when you see my kids, they represent me. If they are good, you have a sense of my goodness. If they aren’t good, you have a sense that maybe I didn’t do so good a job. That’s the image Jesus wants us to get. The Father loves us so much and is identified in the Son, that you cannot know the Son and not know the Father.