Monday, June 27, 2005
Matthew 6:9a "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven."
OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN
There are many in the world that speak about the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man or the brotherhood of human beings. I suppose some would want to include animals also in this brotherhood. They say that God is the Father of us all, and we are all brothers and sisters of one another. They might want to use the Lord's Prayer as proof of this belief. Did not Jesus teach us to call God our Father? Therefore He is our Father, and we are His children, no matter who we are or where we live or what we look like.
But again let us see what the Bible says. In the first chapter of the Gospel of John we hear these words about Jesus. "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
Here we have the answer to why Jesus told His disciples to call God their Father. They could call Jesus' Father their Father because they were among His followers who "received Him." The majority who did not receive Him do not have the right to call God their Father. But before we think that those who received Him are somehow better than those who did not receive Him, the Bible adds that this belief in the name of Jesus did not come from their own natural birth or from their own will or desire. These followers of Jesus were "born . . . of God," and that is why they can call God their Father.
It is only the disciples of Jesus who can rightly call God their Father. They can call Him Father because God has given them a second birth, a spiritual birth. Such reborn people can pray the Lord's Prayer. Those who have not been reborn cannot rightly pray this prayer.
Who, then, are the sons of God who can rightly call 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.
