We have considered now some of the great truths of God which have been
revealed to us, but the Fatherhood of God in itself, what is it that we
know of this?
In the teaching of Christ our Master,--the Fatherhood of God is the
central truth of all. It gathers into itself all other attributes and
gives to all a special quality. It is our special Christian heritage.
The heart that believes God to be "Our Father" has room for the
conviction that "God is Love". We shall perhaps gain fullest insight
into the greatness of this truth if we concentrate our thoughts on
certain facts which stand out with special clearness in Holy Scripture.
First of all it is His presentation of the Fatherhood of God which
gives to our Saviour's teaching its wonderful tenderness and power.
Not power alone, nor tenderness alone, but both. He tells us that our
Heavenly Father knows our every need; that He Who feeds the birds of
the air and clothes the lilies of the field will not be unmindful of
the children of men; that our Father's heart is full of that eager,
forgiving, redeeming love which wins our heart in the parable of the
Prodigal Son. On the other hand, He would have us ever mindful that
our Father, when we approach in faith and penitence, is One Whose Name
is to be hallowed, Who is the Lord of heaven and earth to Whom all
things are possible, Who governs all things and knows all things, even
the inmost thoughts of men.
Again, the Fatherhood of God is unchanging and universal. It must be
so for He is the Eternal Father, and "He maketh His sun to rise on the
evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust."
Nevertheless, man's power to respond to God's Fatherhood is not
everywhere the same. We shall understand this best if we study the
Bible teaching on sonship and brotherhood in the light of the
revelation which God has given of His Fatherhood. There are in the
Bible different kinds of sonship, or sonships on different levels. The
fact that we are created and created in the image of our Maker
constitutes sonship. He is our Father Who gives us life. "Have we not
all one Father, hath not God created us?" There is, therefore, a
sonship which is natural and universal, but it is not in itself
complete. Its value consists in the fact that it is the ground of a
higher relationship. It is the capacity for sonship, which, however
hidden or dormant, we believe to be in every man.
Nevertheless so long as men are ignorant of God and indifferent to Him,
they are not in any full sense His sons. We find, therefore, in the
Bible another kind of sonship. God is our Father because He gives us
more abundant life, a life of redemption from ignorance and sin. This
is illustrated in the Old Testament by the choice of Israel and the
great covenant promises involved in it, "I will be their God and they
shall be My people," "I will be his Father and he shall be My son." In
the New Testament we find the same principle in the choice by Christ of
His Apostles and disciples for special privilege of knowledge and
grace. This choice is perpetuated by Christ in His Church. Our
Christian sonship is a special sonship. It is ours by Baptism wherein
we are made members of Christ, children of God, and heirs of the
kingdom of Heaven. Two practical considerations follow. First, if
there are different levels of sonship there are different degrees of
brotherhood. The message of the premiers is right. The hope of a
brotherhood of humanity _does_ repose on the deeper spiritual truth of
the Fatherhood of God. This brotherhood, however, is not a
relationship which comes to us simply by nature; it is a relationship
which in social, individual, national and international life must be
morally won.
Again, those who have Christian knowledge and grace have not received
this privilege for themselves alone. They are God's sons who have
special gifts in trust on behalf of all mankind who have them not. The
call to Missionary work is based on this responsibility, and will
remain so until "the earth is filled with the knowledge of God as the
waters cover the sea."
Finally, there is the unique sonship of Christ Himself. His sonship is
perfect and complete. It is also the channel through which our
sonship, whether of creation or redemption, comes to us. "All things
are delivered unto Me of My Father, and no man knoweth the son but the
Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save the son and he to
whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." It is this Eternal sonship which
constitutes the special significance to our confession of faith in God
the Father in the Apostles' Creed. Christ is One Who comes to us from
the Eternal life of God. That life which though inseparable from man
and from the world is yet forever holy and distinct. The Christian
doctrine of the Holy Trinity helps us here. It arose out of simple
loyalty to New Testament teaching. From the first it has been a living
practical faith. Christians learnt to recite their belief in God the
Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost; they were baptised in the
threefold Name and sang the Doxology before they thought out the
doctrine of the Trinity in Unity and before they were called upon to
defend it. We find in this great truth the most profound realization
of Personality in God. We see in it a vision of eternal fellowship in
life and in love, towards which we strive on earth. In the light of it
we begin to understand that man, not only as an individual, but also as
a social being, is made in the image of God.