Wednesday, June 7, 2023

"As a father..."


All those whom God justifies, he also adopts as his children in and for his only begotten Son. God is our Father in heaven through this grace of adoption. Accordingly, as our confession of faith says, we “are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by him as by a father…” (WCF 12). 

God designed and fitted men for the calling of fatherhood, and this nature is evident and proverbial even among fallen man. From earthly fatherhood we get a basic concept of the fatherhood of God, which is free of all the errors and sins of fallen man. In turn, the fatherhood of God gives us an image of true fatherhood, to which all earthy fathers ought to conform themselves as they reject sinful distortions and pursue godliness in Christ. Consider these Bible verses that describe fatherly traits and our heavenly Father:

"The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place." 
(Deuteronomy 1:30–31)

“Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you.” 
(Deuteronomy 8:5)

“As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.”
(Psalm 103:13) 

“My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.”
(Proverbs 3:11–12)

“They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.”
(Malachi 3:17) 

“Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are 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!”
(Matthew 7:9-11) 

“For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.”
(1 Thessalonians 2:11–12) 

“It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.”
(Hebrews 12:7–10)

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