What emotions do this photograph bring to your mind?
To me, it represents a deep and long sought after longing.
My father, and his father before him, and perhaps a significant percentage of the fathers in that era, seemed incapable of expressing their love to their sons.
If you have been a reader of this blog for any period of time, you will have learned that a significant part of my drive, in becoming a successful businessman, was looking for the attention and the approval of my father. I wanted my father's blessing. I wanted to hear, "Well done, son!"
My father is gone now. I hold no ill will towards him. In fact, I am deeply saddened that his same desire was never found. I distinctly remember my grandfather, visiting a new home that my wife and I had purchased about 15 years ago, saying right in front of my father, "Well...at least someone in this family had made something of themselves".
That was a complement to me, but I am sure that my father, perhaps 58 years old or so at the time, was stricken to the heart with that comment from his father. My father was never able to share his thoughts and desires with me. Unfortunately, I wasn't mature enough to understand. I was busy being focused on my own drives, desires and pains.
I say all this because I believe God when he said that he made man in his image. I believe that God has placed, in the hearts of sons, a longing for the blessings of their fathers.
As a 51 year old man, I now understand that my father and his father before him, never found this blessing. With God's help, I intend to make certain that my sons do not live without this precious gift.
So now, with my father gone, I intend to learn what it means to be a child of God. What would God have me know about him as my Father. What does it mean to be adopted into the Family of God? What privileges does having a King as my Father bring? How should I act as a King's son? How do I spend time with my Heavenly Father, and let him teach me? How can the above photograph represent God, my heavenly Father, and me?
Join me as I seek answers to these questions in Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson's, Children of the Living God
"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are...Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is."
From Sinclair Ferguson:
"The conviction behind this book is that realizing what John was speaking about is life-transforming. It lies at the heart of understanding the whole of the Christian life and all of the diverse elements in our daily experience. It is the way - not the only way, but the fundamental way - for the Christian to think about himself or herself. Our self-image, if it is to be biblical, will begin just here. God is my Father (the Christian's self-image always begins with the knowledge of God and who he is!); I am one of his children (I know my identity); his people are my brothers and sisters (I recognize the family to which I belong, and have discovered my deepest 'roots')."
Life-transforming! Sign me up and lets dig in..
A New Testament Emphasis
"...for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God."
"...even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved."
"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."
Ferguson quotes J.I. Packer's "Knowing God" on this issue as well:
"You sum up the whole of the New Testament teaching in a single phrase, if you speak of it as a revelation of the Fatherhood of the holy Creator. In the same way, 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 have God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all."
I like to put things in bullet points to help me see and understand:
- before the foundation of the world
- God chose me
- in Christ
- to become His son
- to become an heir
- through Christ's incarnation, I am a brother, as such, with Christ in this inheritance.
I must confess, I would not fair very well in J.I. Packer's test of my understanding of Christianity.
The whole of the New Testament summed up in our relationship with God as Father.
There is a LOT to contemplate here. I think I will end this post here and meditate on this a bit before I continue.
What are your thoughts? If you had to sum up Christianity, would you have summed it up in this way?
The whole deal is God wanting a relationship with me, and you, as sons/daughters. The WHOLE thing? The whole thing? I certainly understand my desires to have relationship with my sons. If you are a father, and you have deep love for your sons, then this has to bring tears to your eyes if you begin to understand. This whole thing....because He loves me and you and wants us to call him Father.
Abba! Father!
