God's Fullness
SUMMARY

Part I – The Father As God
You will recall that at the outset of our journey we spoke of how audacious it is to probe the nature of God. We hope that, in spite of formidable challenges along the way, we have made progress in our odyssey together. We confess that no progress could be made in our search for God if He had not revealed Himself in His creation, His Son, and the Scriptures. What God has not revealed about Himself we cannot know – period! This makes us acutely aware of two facts. First, we are utterly helpless in coming to know Him without His aid. Second, we may rest confidently in knowing from creation that there is a God. We can learn from the Bible what God is like and what He wants us to be and do. This explains our extensive use of the Bible in our study together.

We trust that you have been amazed and awed, as I have, at the multifaceted role of God as Father. As we have turned the corners of time in our travels, the vistas have shown God to be eternal Father, creative Father, universal Father, selective Father, and spiritual Father.

Our hearts leaped for joy as we peered through those ancient mists in the Garden of Eden and saw man and woman in all their primordial holy perfection – creatures similar to their Father. We stood brokenhearted as we watched them disobey God, receive banishment, and suffer the consequences of being separated from Him. Our spirits were revived as we followed God's patient work to retrieve fallen humanity. In spite of rampant corruption, God saved a few righteous souls from the flood by way of Noah and the ark. In spite of idolatry and paganism, God persisted in His grand design by calling Abraham as the person through whom He would begin to lead His people in a new direction (Galatians 3:6-9). In the person of Moses we saw God safeguarding His people with a law that was designed to lead them ultimately to the Messiah, Christ (Galatians 3:23-25).

Then we traced the arrival into the world of God's uniquely born Son. When God's view of "the fullness of time had come," we saw His Son come to the Earth in greater splendor than the Sun at high noon. In fact, His uniqueness, grandeur, person, and glory were so compellingly convincing, so overwhelmingly godly, that even the brilliance of the Sun was shrouded in darkness when this pure and righteous man offered Himself in sacrifice for the sins of the world (Mark 15:33). The scene was so vivid, so piercing, so demonstrative of "otherworldly" elements that even the Roman centurion who stood before Jesus and watched Him die said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (Mark 15:39).

We have been on an incredible journey: We have, at last, seen God portray Himself as the spiritual Father of Jesus of Nazareth – but is that the end of the story? Did Jesus come into the world only to show that God is His spiritual Father? This is a mind-boggling revelation worthy of our greatest praise and wonder. However, there is more that stretches our minds to the utmost and causes our spirits to soar with gratitude and thanksgiving. We now know that as the spiritual Father of Jesus God offered His Son as a sacrifice for our sins so that we, too, may have God as our spiritual Father.

This is the climax of God's work among us. As long as time shall last, no greater work is forthcoming. In centuries to come there will not be an era in which God will be described in another book like the Bible, taking on another role as Father. In the Christian Age, we are experiencing the culmination of His great plan of redemption. It is an astonishing plan. It is the apex of God's reconciling work. God saw its consummation in Christ even before the creation of the world.

". . . Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the land intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:4-6).

What a grand and glorious work by a gracious, loving Father! He has provided a way for us to become His children. He wants to be our spiritual Father. Just as He created humankind pure in the beginning of the race, He yearns to create us again. He desires that we be in His family: He wants us to "come home."

How do we respond to His gracious overture? We accept His incomparable love offering – Jesus Christ (John 8:24). Believing Him to be God's Son, we turn to Him in repentance (Luke 13:1-5) and are baptized into Him for the forgiveness of our sins (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:38-39). In this burial we die to sin, and in a rebirth we are raised to a new life (John 3:3-5; Galatians 3:26-29; Romans 6:1-12). Having confessed our faith in Christ in this way, we know that we will be acknowledged by Him before our spiritual Father in heaven (Matthew 10:32-33). In Christ we have become the "new creation" of God.

"Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them" (2 Corinthians 5:17-19a; emphasis mine).

The transaction is done. God's plan to offer His Son as a sacrifice for our sins has been gloriously accomplished. When we accept God's offer of "reconciling the world to Himself in Christ," He becomes our spiritual Father through His Son Jesus. What a grand prospect for our eternal destiny! With the spiritual Father as our Sovereign and Jesus as our Savior, Brother, and Friend, we become a part of God's work that is so awe-inspiring that all the intelligent creatures of the entire cosmos are struck by the supernal wisdom of God. Ephesians 3:10-12 says:

". . . in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him."