Is God the Father absent?

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Christians are, generally speaking, weak on understanding God the Father. We hear a lot about Jesus, and rightly so. Depending upon which kind of church you associate with, the Holy Spirit may get a fair amount of attention and this is good also. At the same time, it seems like we’ve almost forgotten the Father, which may have contributed to the lack of good dads in our day.

In the Old Testament, we hear a lot about fathers (e.g. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc.) but very little about God the Father. In fact, God is referred to as Father some 15 times depending upon which English translation you prefer. Furthermore, nearly every one of those few occurrences is speaking of God’s relationship to the entire nation of Israel instead of one individual.

Everything changes, however, with Jesus Christ. His favorite name for God is “Father”. Roughly 165 times in the gospels, Jesus refers to God as Father. In John’s gospel we hear about God as Father some 100 times, which is the most of any gospel. And, in John 14:6b-11 we read about God the Father no less than ten times from Jesus,

“No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

For Jesus, understanding the Father was crucial. His entire ministry goal was to reveal the Father heart of God to you and get you “to the Father” to be together forever. Author: M.Driscoll

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