Relating to God as Father
Last week Pastor David pointed out what he called Jesus’ exclusivist claim, that apart from Jesus no one knows God the Father. And that is the Christian message: that God reveals to us that he is a Father to us because of Jesus Christ.
Apart from Jesus, however, we cannot know God as Father. Instead, we would know him only as the inaccessible creator (the high god who does not interact with the world), or as judge (who weighs our deeds), or clouded with the creative ideas of mythology, waiting for us to manipulate him.
And that is all we would know of him…unless he revealed himself to us in the gospel.
If we have Jesus as our savior, then we have God as our Father. Christ’s perfection stands in our place so that we are reconciled to God. Instead of a judge in heaven, we now have a gracious father (Calvin, Inst., 3.11.1, 725).
Knowing this also shows us our sin. Do we relate to him as Father? Do we come to him in confidence that he both knows what is best for us, and that he cares for us? So often we relate to God transactionally, as if his love for us depends on our ability to reach some standard of behavior or attitude.
We treat him as distant, as an unenthusiastic bureaucrat whom we must beg and cajole to get what we want. But he invites us to come and speak to him with confidence that he cares for us.
And that confidence reminds us of our need and our privilege to confess our sins…
Prayer of Confession
Our heavenly Father, we approach you today not as those who are uncertain or unsure, but as those who have confidence before you. We have this confidence only because you have become a Father to us through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, your truly beloved Son. We draw near with confidence to your throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
And, oh Father, we need your mercy. We so often relate to you not as you are for us in Jesus Christ, but as we imagine or want you to be, perhaps like us in our inconsistency, or as a merciless judge standing over us. O Lord, please remind us again of your fatherly love for us.
We confess, then, these and other sins, and ask that you lead us in a time of silent confession…