Father

This week, we reach the halfway point in the Names of God series. Until now, we’ve focused on the names of the First Person of the Trinity. Next week, we’ll move into the New Testament and focus on the Son. This week, we honor the Father.

As we cross from the Old Testament to the New Testament, from study of the Father to study of the Son, it’s a good time to get some things nailed down.

First, theologians from St. Augustine to Chuck Missler attest that,

 “In the Old Testament the New is concealed, in the New the Old is revealed.”

As you study the relationship of Father and Son in the New Testament, I think you’ll fall more in love with our Father.

Second, Andy Stanley was wrong. The idea of “unhitching the Old Testament” kneecaps our faith.

One of my roommates in college closely held a common misconception. She believed that the God of the Old Testament was cruel and vindictive. She bought the lie Richard Dawkins popularized,

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

That makes me want to weep.

I hope you’ve gained a greater intimacy with the First Person of the Trinity as we’ve studied Yahweh, Elohim, Adonai, Elyon, and the rest. We’ve seen him as loving, compassionate, kind, gracious, righteous, and sovereign.

If you want a picture of the Father, look at the Son.

I and the Father are one. John 10:30

What’s God the Father like? He’s like Jesus.

For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. Colossians 2:9

 

But the question remains – is he your Father?

This year-long study is based on Ann Spangler’s book, Praying the Names of God for 52 Weeks.