Saturday, June 25, 2005
Matthew 6:9a "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven."
OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN
Surely it is remarkable that Jesus taught His disciples to call God their Father. For God is the Father of Jesus, and Jesus is unique. There can be no other children in the family like Jesus, can there? Or is it possible that you and I, whoever we are, can be children of the same God who is the Father of Jesus Christ?
Of course there are some who do not put Jesus in a class by Himself. They think of Him as being a human being like us, with moral faults and frailties. He was an interesting teacher, they say, and He had high moral standards, and we can learn a lot from Him. But finally He was just a man living in Palestine so many years ago. They attribute all the talk about Jesus' being divine to His followers, who wanted to exalt their Teacher above all other teachers.
Many persons who have these feelings about Jesus think of themselves as having just as much right as Jesus to call themselves children of God. After all, they are moral people in their own way, just as good as the best among men, and surely better than most.
But when we examine the Bible to see what Jesus Himself taught us about Himself and His Father, and what He taught about us, we have to come to an altogether different conclusion. Think, for example, of what Jesus said to His disciples on the same occasion as He taught the Lord's Prayer. "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"
You see, Jesus is still talking about God as our Father, but certainly not because we have the right to call Him our Father on account of our morality or goodness. Jesus simply calls all earthly fathers "evil." Therefore we earthly ones have no right to call the holy and good God our Father. Nor do we have the right to call Jesus our Brother.
Who, then, are the sons of God who can rightly call Him their Father? Those who have faith in Christ Jesus . . . although they are evil by nature and do not dare to claim God as their Father on the basis of their own goodness, Christ and His righteousness have been given to them as a covering. Their sins are forgiven, for the righteousness of Christ in all its perfection has been given to them and is now counted as theirs.
