A Community of Faith - part 3
God, Our Heavenly Father
This week we continue our series looking at II. God in the Baptist Faith and Message. Last time we began looking at the nature of God as Trinity. This week we are looking at the First person of the Trinity, God the Father.
Let’s begin by reading from the Baptist Faith and Message.
A. God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.
God the Father is who we typically think of when someone says “God.” He is the Creator who cares over His universe, and He is the One who interacts with human history to bring about His grace. One particular passage that speaks to the majesty and power of God is found in Deuteronomy 32. The passage we will read is actually part of a much larger section known as “The Song of Moses.” In it, Moses proclaims the work God has done through the ages and the Israelites especially. The context of the song is ironic because Moses knows he is about to die, but God tells him to leave this song as a testament against the Israelites. They are about to enter the Promised Land and fulfill their destiny to begin a holy nation. And yet, God has looked ahead and seen them turn to other gods. The beginning of the song is a preemptive judgement. Let’s begin reading in verse 4.
“The Rock, his work is perfect,
for all his ways are justice.A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
just and upright is he.They have dealt corruptly with him;
they are no longer his children because they are blemished;
they are a crooked and twisted generation.Do you thus repay the Lord,
you foolish and senseless people?
Is not he your father, who created you,
who made you and established you?Remember the days of old;
consider the years of many generations;
ask your father, and he will show you,
your elders, and they will tell you.Deuteronomy 32:4-7
Moses contrasts the righteousness and justice of God with the crooked generation of the Israelites. The two main points for today, though, come in verses 4 and 9. First, in verse 4, Moses is pretty clear on how good God is. He is perfect and just, faithful without any iniquity.
The Lord, God the Father, is perfectly just and perfectly good in all His ways.
It is worth camping on this point for a bit, because the first lie of Satan, even today, is always to have us doubt God’s goodness. If you go back and look at the conversation between Satan and Eve, he first casts doubt on what Eve knows about God. “Did God really say…?” Then, notice what he says in Genesis 3:4:
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Genesis 3:4-5
Rebellion against God doesn’t happen overnight. The Israelites will be faithful, for the most part, as they enter the land. Joshua will lead them through a series of victories as they conquer the land. Whenever they are faithful to obey the Lord, the other tribes will scatter or be conquered. Whenever Israel fails to live up to their covenant, then they see problems. In fact, this pattern is illustrated throughout Joshua and then into Judges. But each time the people begin to rebel against God, it is because they start to wander from God’s covenant.
There’s a song by NEEDTOBREATHE that I love, but you have to pay close attention to the lyrics to get the meaning of it. It’s called “The Devil’s Been Talking”. In each verse, the Rinehart brothers write a series of negative thoughts or feelings they are dealing with, but each verse also ends with “Oh, the devil’s been talking.” They are reminding themselves that God is good and has good waiting for them, but at times the devil starts talking to us, and we wander from this truth. Take a peak at verse 2.
The ship is setting off to sea
But it's sailing without me
I can't help but feel I'm on
An island born to sink
Oh, the devil's been talkin'
Sometimes life is rough. God never promised us unicorns and rainbows. He was honest at the Fall, and He was honest when the Son told us the same thing. Life is going to get rough sometimes. But whenever we start feeling like we’re on an island born to sink, and the ship to save us is sailing without us, remember that’s the devil talking.
Satan’s lie to humanity didn’t change, and his lie does not change today.
Rebellion against God always begins with the initial step of doubting God’s goodness.
Looking back at our Deuteronomy passage, notice Moses begins with reminding the people Who God is and what He has done for them. Then, after he chastises them, he returns to God’s goodness. Take a look at the list of attributes that emerge in just this short passage.
Verses 4
“The Rock” - the sure foundation of everything
“His work is perfect” - no mistakes on His part
“Ways are just” - He is fair and right in His decisions
“Faithfulness and without iniquity” - He is consistent and without evil intentions
“Just and upright” - His justice is worth repeating
Verse 6
“Father, who created you…made you…established” - Creator who is involved and compassionate toward His Creation
Notice Moses reinforces God’s justice and faithfulness. These characteristics will emerge time and again throughout the prophets, because one of stark contrasts between God and Israel will be their sense of justice. Israel (and Christians of the New Testament) are called to be a just nation demonstrating true justice. Instead, the prophets will call out the injustice of Israel as they follow the customs of foreign nations.
Then, notice in verse 6, Moses uses three words to describe the creative action of the Father. Now, if we read this as mere repetition, we will miss his point. Sure, any time a word is repeated in Hebrew it demonstrates a “next level” type of that word, but here, it’s not just that it’s repeated three times, it is also that Moses uses three synonyms. They build upon each other.
First, the Father “created” us. We are not an accident. We have a source that is intelligent, just, and compassionate as described in verse 4.
Second, the Father “made” us. It sounds very similar in English, but it’s a second level of creation. It has to do with fashioning. He took time to mold us. It’s a qualitative difference. God did not throw us together at the last minute. He took time. Remember in Genesis 1 He speaks everything into existence, except for humanity whom He fashions out of the dirt. He spent time molding Adam, and later spent time molding Eve.
Third, the Father “established” us. After taking time to design and mold Israel, He then established them, or “fixed” them. He set them in a permanent stance. He established a covenant with Abraham and Moses that fixes Israel’s location in the world. Through Christ, He then fulfills His covenant and establishes the new covenant that is open and available to everyone.
Verse 6 reminds us of the very important truth:
The Lord created us with a design and purpose, and wants to establish us with a permanent place in the eternal kingdom.
He fulfills this purpose through Christ. Turn with me to Galatians 4.
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Galatians 4:1-7
The main point is in verses 6-7, but I want you to see the comparison Paul is making. He writes from the standpoint of kings and nobility, but we have a similar system today. Whenever a child is born into great wealth and authority, they don’t get to exercise that inheritance right away. They have to grow up first. Until the time they can fully inherit their estate, they are under managers and guardians who are to keep the family business and estate in good standing. Then, at the appropriate time, the child will become and adult and have full reign.
In the same way, when we’re children, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of this world. In other words, there was a time when humanity, especially Gentiles, were enslaved to false gods, demons, and all manner of superstition and false religion. “But when the fullness of time had come,” in other words, when this enslavement had served its purpose, “God sent forth his son…to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
We are no longer slaves in this world, but sons and daughters in the kingdom of God.
The Father created us, molded us, and now, through Jesus Christ, He establishes us in the Kingdom of God. It is a fixed position, because we are no longer slaves to this world and its sin, but rather Christ frees us, cleanses us, and adopts us into the Kingdom of God. He sends His Spirit into our hearts sealing us in the Kingdom (a point we will return to in a couple of weeks).
So then, verse 7, “you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”
As a son or daughter of God, we have an inheritance waiting for us in the Kingdom of God.
The Creation the Father established so many centuries ago was the start of His design for His people. And He is faithful and just to fulfill this design. That faithfulness was assured through His Son, Jesus Christ, and the down payment of this inheritance is the Holy Spirit who indwells believers. And it is through the Holy Spirit that we have direct access to God, who we call ‘Abba’—‘daddy’. The greatest encouragement we have is that we can listen to our God as a child listens to his daddy. So, when the devil starts talking, just ignore him. Turn off his lies, and go hang out with your Daddy.