Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Galatians 3:26 You are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
While Scripture describes God the Father as primary in the Triune God's work of creation, we Christians do not call God our Father because He is our Creator. It was Jesus, the eternal Son of God who taught us to call God "Father," even as He told us that only through Him did we have access to God. However, when we pray in Jesus' name it is not as though Jesus grants a legal permit to come to God, but rather we through faith in Him are restored to God's own family. And we come to our heavenly Father as "dear children asking a dear father."
It is worthy noting that in Galatians 3:26 the word sometimes translated "children" is literally "sons." Why the Apostle was led by the Spirit to use this word becomes clear as we read the verses that follow. Paul is emphasizing the fact that believers become heirs of God with Christ through faith in Jesus -- sons, not slaves. In the first century Mediterranean world the sons inherited their father's estate. That's enough to take your breath away! The Father's house toward which we journey -- where Jesus has prepared for us a place -- that is our eternal inheritance, our own home.
In the meantime let us recall that Jesus, who has made us "children of the heavenly Father," urges us each to be gracious and generous in our dealings with others -- that you may be "sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:45).
"Like Father, like son" describes every Christ-believer, for we are all moved by the same wondrous love that caused Martin Luther to write of God the Father:
A father's heart He turned to me,
Sought my redemption fervently:
He gave His dearest Treasure.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 387:4)
