What Jesus Said About God, His Father预览

God as Father in Ephesians

God reveals Himself to us as Father in Ephesians. This is how He wants to be known.

Read Ephesians 1:3-6. In this passage, God reveals the intent of His relationship with us: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love, He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.

Before you continue, write down four things about God the Father from this passage. What are the practical implications of your observations for your daily life?

When the Scriptures refer to God, without referring to Jesus or the Holy Spirit, it refers, in many cases, to God as Father: For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles...I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name (Eph.3:1 and 14-15).

Christianity is the only religion that reveals God as a Father. The fact that we as human beings have a Father is part of the worldview of Christians. People who believe there is no God that we just came into existence by random and unguided development process - have no room for God and, therefore, also God as Father. Atheists, agnostics, deists, and sceptics live without the concept of having a Father. (Mark 16:1-7). The same is true for Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, shamanism, animism, and all forms of pantheism and mystic religions.