Knowing Our Father’s Love (Video)

This Fathers’ Day, I’m going to talk to you about God being our heavenly Father, specifically unpacking on what basis it is, that we can call him “Father.”

What is often missed in the discussion of the fatherhood of God is the way it is grounded biblically in Christ the Son.  The point is that we don’t independently call God “Father” and Jesus didn’t come simply to say that God is our Father.  Rather, Jesus came to reconcile us to God the Father, and this only happens through Jesus himself.  Jesus is the embodiment of the Father’s love, and we are reconciled to God our Father in him – in Jesus.

John 14:6 says, “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No-one comes to the Father except through me.”  It is by faith in Jesus that we become the children of God and can call him “Father” and it is by faith in Jesus that we know God’s great love for us as our heavenly Father.

God’s an amazing, loving, caring heavenly Father and we fathers are called to be loving, kind, caring, compassionate, protective, patient, accepting, forgiving, and understanding fathers to our children, just like our heavenly Father is to us.  That’s a big ask, isn’t it?!

Please note that our union with Christ is crucial here.  On our own, we will fail at being the kind of fathers that we ought to be (and hopefully the kind of fathers that we want to be).  It is only through our faith in Jesus and the renewal that he brings – one that is grounded in Jesus’ love, grace, and forgiveness – that we can begin to become the kind of fathers that God calls us to be.

And it is only through daily relying on Jesus’ love and forgiveness – by the power of the Holy Spirit – that we can persevere with this.  For we constantly fall short and fail in our parenting of our children and grandchildren.  And I don’t think that’s just me!!

But in Jesus there is hope!  Always!  In Jesus there is indeed forgiveness for all our failings – including forgiveness for how poorly we do at being fathers.  In Jesus there is power to change.  And in Jesus, we belong to a community of faith (his Body the Church) that can support us and cheer us on as we take up the vitally important task of parenting our children (and grandchildren).

In all this, as always, we look to Jesus for his help and comfort, knowing that in him we ourselves have the love, acceptance, and forgiveness of our loving heavenly Father.

Pastor Richard Haar