THERE is a very important difference between the revelation of God as the heavenly Father in Matthew’s gospel, and the full unfolding of the Father Psalms 16:33But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. (Psalm 16:3), which is presented in the gospel by John.
Matthew presents the Lord Jesus as the Son of David, according to the prophecies of the Old Testament. In harmony with Psa. 16:33But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. (Psalm 16:3), we see Him at His baptism graciously entering into association with the believing company, in whom the Spirit of God was then working, by causing them to receive John’s testimony, and these He owned by this public act as the excellent of the earth in whom was all His delight. Having stooped in grace to associate Himself with such as personally needed the baptism of repentance, He was proclaimed from heaven as God’s beloved Son, in whom He was well-pleased.
Henceforth these believers were blessed, because this beloved Son had stooped to take up their cause, and He being in their midst, they had through Him the love and interest of heaven with them. This was their new place of privilege. It is developed in the sermon on the mount. There the Lord places them, as subjects of His kingdom in relation to His heavenly Father, and the precepts which He gives them flow from this place of blessing. In their conduct they were to exhibit the goodness and mercy of their heavenly Father, whom He declared to them; and in every circumstance of trial and difficulty they were to confide in their heavenly Father’s love and tare.
If we search the Old Testament, we shall not find a saint who ever expressed himself in this nearness to God. There is no such thought there, as a believer knowing that he had a Father in heaven, whose love to him was to be the measure of his own gracious walk towards the unthankful and the evil. Was the faith of the disciples brighter than that of the Old Testament saints? Quite otherwise. The increase of light and blessing flowed, not from any increase of faith, but from the blessed fact that God had visited His people in the person of His Son. Emmanuel, “God with us,” was in their midst.
The incarnate Son having associated Himself with men, He gave them to say, as man had never said before, “Our Father which art in heaven.” They could now draw near as men to God in heaven, displayed in the character of a Father; but they were not conscious of sonship through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost; for the atonement, whereby the great question of sin was settled, had not been wrought; neither had the Comforter been sent them from the Father, to give them the adoption of sons.
In John’s gospel we find a far deeper unfolding of the Father’s name. Here it is the personal relation of the only-begotten Son; that relationship which was His before all worlds. To the eye of faith the glory that shone from the Lord Jesus as the Word made flesh, was the glory of an only begotten Son with a Father. (John 1:1414And 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 1:14), Gr.) It was His own incomprehensible nearness as the eternal Son. “Veiled in flesh though “He was, the glory shone from Him as “the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.” (John 1:1818No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (John 1:18).)
Hence in this gospel we find neither “heavenly Father,” nor “our Father.” Throughout the name of God as Father is blessedly declared, but solely in relationship to Jesus, as the only begotten Son. Others are not brought into association until He is risen from the dead.
In the first chapter, He is seen in the full glory of the Son of the Father. In chapter 3, the love of God to the world is declared in giving Him, ―His only-begotten Son. In chapter 6, it is His Father who gives Him, ―the true bread from heaven. In chapter 14, the heavenly house is His Father’s house. In chapter 17, eternal life is knowing His Father the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent. Throughout these chapters it is the Son revealing the Father, as He Himself knew Him.
When redemption is accomplished, and He has died to all connection with a world that neither knew Him nor His Father, He becomes, in resurrection, the living head of the family of God; and as He ascends to His Father, He declares, for the first time, that believers are His brethren, and that He ascends to His Father and to their Father. He, as the first-begotten from the dead, brings them into His own relationship to the Father; and this is entirely distinct from His graciously teaching them in the days of His flesh, that God was their heavenly Father.
Believers are now associated with Him, the first-born among many brethren, in His heavenly position in glory. He, the Sanctifier; and they, the sanctified (Heb. 2:1111For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, (Hebrews 2:11)); and by participation in His eternal life, and being united to Him by the Holy Ghost, they receive the adoption of sons.
At the time Jesus was with them in the flesh, the disciples could say, “Our Father which art in heaven.” Now, consequent upon accomplished redemption, God having sent forth the Spirit of His Son into their hearts, believers can use the name Father in the nearness of the Son Himself.
Through the glorified Saviour, they have access by one Spirit in all that acceptance, which was personally His own, while He dwelt among men, as the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” (John 14:2020At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:20).)
It is sweet to look to a heavenly Father in the trials and sorrows of an evil world, and to count on His interest in us, as those belonging to Jesus; but far deeper is the blessing of knowing that we are united in risen life by the Holy Ghost to the Son Himself, through His having borne our sins and having risen from the dead. We are thus placed by Him, according to His own acceptance, in that nearness to His Father, which was His unfailing joy as the man of sorrows in His journey through this world.
Many of God’s children have never gone beyond “the heavenly Father” of Matthew’s gospel, and have yet to learn that they stand in the relationship of sons through their union with the Son of God. Of this union He could speak, when on earth, as a future thing. He could say, indeed, to Philip, “Believe me that I am in the Father.” (John 14:2020At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:20).) But He added, that when the Comforter was come, at that day they should know that He was in the Father; and, moreover, that they were in Him, and He in them. (John 14:2020At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:20).)
They should not then merely address God as a Father in heaven, who cared for them upon earth, but they should know that they were in the Son, who was in the Father. They should not plead the name of Father merely for their needs as Christians, feeble disciples on earth, but they should know God Himself, in all the wonderful nearness of the Father of their Lord Jesus Christ. They should know Him in what He is to Christ. It is this unfolding of the Name of God in its deep and infinite excellency, and not merely as it met the earthly necessities of poor feeble disciples, which our Lord desired us to enjoy, when He said, “I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:2626And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:26).)
And in conclusion let us remark that the unspeakable grace which puts us, as His saved ones, into His own relationship to the Father, places us also in His position towards the world. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” (John 17:14, 1614I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:14)
16They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:16).)
The knowledge of God as our heavenly Father separates us from the cares and anxieties, and from the spirit of the nations of the world (Luke 12:3030For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. (Luke 12:30).) The knowledge of God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ separates us from the world itself. We are kept in His name from the evil of the world. (John 17:12, 1512While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. (John 17:12)
15I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. (John 17:15).) We judge by His name what is of the world. (1 John 2:1616For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. (1 John 2:16).) We overcome the world by believing that Jesus is the Son of God. (1 John 5:55Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:5).)
ABIDING in Christ is necessary for fruit-bearing.