SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY > THEOLOGY PROPER
God the Father
A. The Father as the First Person
In the revelation of the three persons who constitute the Holy Trinity —the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit —the First Person is designated as the Father. As such, the Father is not the entire Trinity just as the Son is not the Trinity nor the Spirit the Trinity. The Trinity includes all three persons. Although the doctrine of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is presented in the Old Testament and these terms are given to the persons of the Trinity, the New Testament defines and reveals the full doctrine. The Father is presented as electing, loving, and bestowing. The Son is presented as suffering, redeeming, and upholding the universe. The Holy Spirit is presented as regenerating, indwelling, baptizing, energizing, and sanctifying. New Testament revelation centers in revealing Jesus Christ, but in presenting the Christ as the Son of God, the truth of God the Father is likewise revealed. Because of the irreversible order of the Father sending and commissioning the Son, and the Son sending and commissioning the Holy Spirit, the Father is properly designated in theology as the First Person without lessening in any way the ineffable deity of either the Second Person or the Third Person. In the revelation concerning the fatherhood of God, four distinct aspects may be observed: (1) God as the Father of all creation; (2) God the Father by intimate relationship; (3) God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; and (4) God as the Father of all who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
B. Fatherhood Over Creation
Although all three persons participated in the creation and upholding of the physical universe and creatures who exist in it, the First Person, or God the Father, in a special way is the Father of all creation. According to Ephesians 3:14-15, Paul writes, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” Here the whole family of moral creatures including angels and men is declared to constitute a family of which God is the Father. In a similar way in Hebrews 12:9, the First Person is referred to as “the Father of spirits,” which would seem again to include all moral beings such as angels and men. According to James 1:17, the First Person is “the Father of lights” a peculiar expression which seems to indicate that He is the originator of all spiritual light. In Job 38:7 angels are described as sons of God (Job 1:6; 2:1). Adam is referred to as of God by creation in Luke 3:38, by implication, a son of God. Malachi 2:10 asks the question, “Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?” Paul in addressing the Athenians on Mars Hill included in his argument, “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God” (Acts 17:29). In 1 Corinthians 8:6, the declaration is made, “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things.” On the basis of these texts, there is sufficient ground to conclude that the First Person of the Trinity as the Creator is the Father of all creation and that all creatures, having physical life, owe their origin to Him. In this sense only, it is proper to refer to the universal fatherhood of God. All creatures in this sense participate in the universal brotherhood of creation. This does not justify, however, the misuse of this doctrine by liberal theologians to teach universal salvation or that every man has God as his Father in the spiritual sense.
C. Fatherhood by Intimate Relationship
The concept and relationship of father and son are used in the Old Testament in several instances to relate God to Israel. According to Exodus 4:22, Moses instructed Pharaoh, “Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn.” This was more than merely being their Creator and was less than saying that they were regenerated, for not all Israel had spiritual life. It does affirm a special relationship of divine care and solicitude for Israel similar to that of a father to a son. In predicting God’s special favor on the house of David, God revealed to David that His relationship to Solomon would be like a father to a son. He said to David, “I will be his father, and he shall be my son” (2 Sam. 7:14). In general God declares that His care as a Father will be over all who trust in Him as their God. According to Psalm 103:13, the statement is made “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him.”
D. The Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The most important and extensive revelation in regard to the fatherhood of God involves the relationship of the First Person to the Second Person. The First Person is described as “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:3). The most comprehensive theological revelation of the New Testament is that God the Father, the First Person, is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Second Person. The fact that Jesus Christ is referred to frequently in the New Testament as the Son of God and that the attributes and works of God are constantly assigned to Him constitutes at once the proof of the deity of Jesus Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity as a whole, with Christ as the Second Person in relationship to the First Person as a son is related to a father. Theologians ever since the first century have wrestled with a precise definition of how God is the Father of the Second Person. Obviously the terms “father” and “son” are used of God to describe the intimate relationship of the First and Second Persons without necessarily fulfilling all the aspects that would be true in a human relationship of father and son. This is especially evident in the fact that both the Father and the Son are eternal. The early error of Arius in the fourth century, that the Son was the first of all created beings, was denounced by the early church as heresy in view of the fact that the Second Person is just as eternal as the First Person. Some theologians, while affirming the preexistence of the Second Person, have attempted to begin the role of the Second Person as a Son at some point in time either at the Creation, at the Incarnation, or at some subsequent point of special recognition of the Second Person such as His baptism, His death, His resurrection, or His ascension. All these alternate views, however, are faulty, as Scripture seems clearly to indicate that the Second Person has been a Son in relation to the First Person from all eternity past. As such He is the “only begotten Son” (John 3:16) whom God “gave” as a Son to the world when the Son became incarnate. Scripture seems to indicate that He was given as a Son— not given in order to become a Son. Isaiah 9:6 states, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” This is especially brought out in Colossians 1:15 where Christ is declared to be “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.” If Christ was the firstborn of every creature, that is, a Son before any other creature was created, then it is clear that He was a Son from all eternity past. The relationship of Father and Son, therefore, relates to the deity and unity of the Holy Trinity from all eternity, in contrast to the Incarnation, in which the Father was related to the humanity of Christ which began in time. Within orthodoxy, accordingly, the words of the Nicene Creed (A.D. 325)— in answer to the Arian heresy of the fourth century — states, “the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.” In like manner, the Athanasian Creed states, “The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten . . . generated from eternity from the substance of the Father.” In using the terms “Father” and “Son” to describe the First and Second Persons, the terms are elevated to their highest level, indicating oneness of life, oneness of character and attributes, and yet a relationship in which the Father can give and send the Son even though this involves ultimately the obedience of the Son in dying on the cross. The obedience of Christ is based upon His sonship not on any inequality with God the Father in the unity of the Trinity. While the relationship between the First and the Second Persons of the Trinity is actually that of a father to a son and a son to a father (2 Cor. 1:3; Gal. 4:4; Heb. 1:2), the fact of this relationship is an illustration of vital truth which accommodates itself to the mode of thought of a finite mind. The truth that the Father is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, though mentioned infrequently in the Old Testament (Ps. 2:7; Isa. 7:14; 9:6-7), is one of the most general teachings of the New Testament. 1. The Son of God is said to have been begotten of the Father (Ps. 2:7; John 1:14,18; 3:16,18; 1 John 4 : 9 ). 2. The Father acknowledged the Lord Jesus Christ to be His Son (Matt. 3:17; 17:5; Luke 9:35). 3. The Father is acknowledged by the Son (Matt. 11:27; 26:63-64; Luke 22:29; John 8:16-29,33-44; 17:1). 4. The fact that God the Father is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ is acknowledged by men (Matt. 16:16; Mark 15:39; John 1:34,49; Acts 3:13). 5. The Son acknowledges the Father by being subject to Him (John 8:29, 49). 6. Even the demons recognize this relationship between the Father and the Son (Matt. 8:29).
E. The Father of All Who Believe in Christ
In contrast to the concept of God the Father as the Creator which extends to all creatures is the truth that God is the Father in a special sense of those who believe in Christ and have received eternal life. The fact that God is the Father of all creation does not assure the salvation of all men or give them eternal life. Scripture is clear that there is salvation only for those who have received Christ by faith as their Savior. The claim that God the Father is the Father of all mankind and that there is therefore a universal brotherhood among men does not mean that all are saved and will go to heaven. Scripture teaches instead that only those who believe in Christ unto salvation are the sons of God in a spiritual sense. This is not on the ground of their natural birth into the human race, nor on the ground that God is their Creator, but rather is based upon their second, or spiritual, birth into the family of God (John 1:12; Gal. 3:26; Eph. 2:19; 3:15; 5:1). By the regenerating work of the Spirit the believer is made a legitimate child of God. God being actually his Father, he is impelled by the Spirit to say, “Abba, Father.” Being born of God, he is a partaker of the divine nature, and on the ground of that birth, he is heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ (John 1:12-13; 3:3-6; Rom. 8:16-17; Ttus 3:4-7; 1 Pet. 1:4). The impartation of the divine nature is an operation so effective that the nature thus imparted is never, removed for any cause whatsoever. When the teachings of Scripture relative to the present power and authority of Satan are considered, added proof is given that all men are not children of God by their natural birth. In this connection the most direct and faithful sayings of Christ are in evidence. Speaking of those who disbelieved He said, “Ye are of your father the devil” (John 8;44). Likewise, when describing the unregenerate, He said, “The tares are the children of the wicked one” (Matt. 13:38). The Apostle Paul wrote of the unsaved as “the children of disobedience” and “the children of wrath” (Eph. 2 : 2 , 3 ). Emphasis should be placed on the fact that it is not in the power of anyone to make himself a child of God. God alone can undertake such a transformation, and He undertakes it only on the one condition which He Himself has imposed, that Christ shall be believed upon and received as Savior (John 1:12). The fatherhood of God is an important doctrine of the New Testament (John 20:17; 1 Cor. 15:24; Eph. 1:3; 2:18; 4:6; Col. 1:12-13; 1 Pet. 1:3; 1 John 1:3; 2:1,22; 3:1). The assurance of the love and care of our Heavenly Father is a great comfort to Christians and an encouragement to faith and prayer.
Source: Lewis Chafer & John Walvoord, Major Bible Themes, (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Pub. House, 1974), 45-50.