The Fatherhood of God was always inherent within the confession of Yahweh as the one true God. God revealed Himself as our Father when in the beginning He first created humankind in His own image, thus establishing a familial relationship with humankind. God’s image in us thus reflects that He created us as His children. The restoration through Christ of the imago dei, is therefore the restoration of our familial relationship with our Creator as our Father. Our Father is the one true God, creator of heaven and earth, who revealed Himself by the name of Yahweh. But in His prophetic role Jesus- through the Abba prayer, called Israel back to the covenant of familial relationship which Yahweh made with her, when He revealed Himself to Israel as the one true God who made the heavens and earth. So when we as Christians speak of God as our Father, we are first of all, actually mindful that our spiritual lineage transcends back to our father Abraham, to whom God made promise of our election in Christ. Christian faith therefore encompasses, though also transcending, the confession of Old Testament Israel, which is why the Old Testament is integral to the Christian Scriptures. Second, we know God as our Father because He is the one true God who created all things. Both the Apostles and Nicene creeds which begin “I believe in [one] God, the Father Almighty, Creator [maker] of heaven and earth . . . “ draw their confession from Genesis 1:1, which implies that to call God our “Father” means to realise that He is our creator, our source, and thus the maker of all that exists. So if we are to ponder through our human limitations the distinction of persons within the Godhead, God the Father functions in the Godhead as the source of all creation. Our Father is the author, the source, the seed, and the giver of all life. So while calling God our “Father” presents an analogy to human fatherhood, it is actually that human fatherhood is but a rough reflection of God’s Fatherhood. This means that God is the Creator who is not in any way part of creation. Yet on the other hand, knowing God as our Father implies the goodness of creation. Creation is inherently good because God has chosen to reveal Himself through His creation. Creation therefore functions as a visible sacrament of God’s living reality. It is for this reason that Jesus taught us to preface our prayer with ascription to God as our Father, because as our Creator, He has blessed us with the goodness of His creation. This is precisely why in many church traditions the adoration of God as Creator prefaces the preparation of the Eucharistic prayer, with thanksgiving running through the whole Eucharist. As we grow as children of God, we would therefore naturally grow in the inclination- and should accordingly grow, to first look to God as our Father, for the provision of our need.
Monte Lee Rice (© Copyright Febuary 2007)
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