The Father Loves His Son

Nothing makes our Heavenly Father more real to us than His love for His Son. It is a Divine love; but, it makes our Father seem almost human. The Son of God’s love for His Father is just as wonderful. The entire Redemption story in the Bible was played out like a Father and His Son on a love journey to bring the prodigal family home to the Father’s house!

The love of God the Father for His Only Begotten Son makes Christianity the only religion conceived by love. Apostle Paul describes this love relationship with words of eloquent splendor, “Who being the brightness of His (the Father’s) glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He (the Only Begotten) had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). The Father and His Son are so perfectly blended in likeness that unwise souls have tried to destroy their distinct difference. Their love for each other would be deception if they were not two in revelation.

The Book of John is the unique Gospel of the Father and the Son. To read it just for the purpose of studying the “Father-Son” relationship is an experience of indescribable glory. Over and over you see them blending as one in action while still manifest in their individual persons. It’s the mystery that leaves the devil in tatters.

Look at the opening scene of this Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-5, 14).

A Biblical “Golden Text” is found in chapter three. Often this passage becomes so familiar that we fail to see its beauty. “For God (The Heavenly Father) so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17). To deny the unique differences in the Father and His Son is insane; but, to separate their perfection of revelation is heathenistic. Our God is both perfectly one and perfect individuals. It will be grand when we can truly understand this mystery. In the meantime I am perfectly willing to bask in its majesty.

The Son of God encountered great criticism for speaking of His oneness with His Father. The religious crowd of His own people had no spiritual discernment to grasp His and His Father’s perfection in revelation. They were not willing to accept but one person in this concept of the one God. Listen to Christ Himself settle this question, “Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man. And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me” (John 8:15-18). “The testimony of two” spoken by Christ Himself certainly ends the debate.

Listen to the eloquent words of the Son of God, “As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15). “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:17-18).

His pastoral prayer in John chapter seventeen is one of the most breathtaking moments in His ministry on earth. Every word of that prayer was Heavenly; but, the cry in His heart for His return to the Father’s presence is Divine. “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:4-5). To speak of His prior glory with the Father “before the world was” certainly settles His eternal Divinity.

In the great Epistle of Hebrews we see the Apostle Paul’s version of the “Father-Son” relationship. Listen in on these Divine words of God talk, “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands” (Hebrews 1:5-6, 8-10).

The saints of God are a blessed people. Our redemption is undeniable and unchanging. We have been brought out of darkness and into the marvelous light. To be “Born Again” is not to become religious, it is to be transformed. We do not just know about God and our Savior Jesus Christ; we know them in a relationship that is both peaceable and holy. The world — even at its very best — immediately becomes a trash pile to us. Born Again Christians live for the future Kingdom. We must use the world; but, we do not abuse it. Our citizenship is in Heaven. “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19).

The character of a saint of God is no longer determined by the world’s standard but by Heaven’s citizenship. “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:1-16). Living for the Father and His Son is the grandest life and the future is star-studded.