The Relationship of a Father with His Children

In keeping with our theme, the Christian and the sin of prayerlessness, I thought it might be helpful to go back and tie into the idea of fellowship with God which I touched on in the first few blog posts. Reading the book of 1 John every day this month has impressed upon my mind this topic of biblical fellowship as spoken of by the Apostle John. I’ve been swimming down deep into the implications of this fellowship with God and all that it means. How beautifully it ties in with understanding our prayer life.

(I’ve been doing puzzles lately. I thought about how we always want to believe there is a piece missing when we can’t find that one piece for the longest time. Then, all of a sudden, “Eureka!” It was there all along. You know, God never gives us a puzzle to work on with a piece missing, either. He always puts all the pieces in front of you so that you can get a great picture when you are finished. I don’t know if you get that, but it was good for me!! Smile!)

Having been placed by God in the Garden of Eden in a state of paradise and perfection, Adam and Eve walked with God. I know people who use the phrase, “In a perfect world such and such…” It’s never true because Adam and Eve “in a perfect world” crashed and burned, so to speak. The bottom line is that even a perfect world was an insult to them if they had to be in subjection to God. Some things never change. We know that this first act of rebellion caused them to fear God and to start to look at each other in a different way than before. The eyes that once looked at each other with pure love now were jealous and full of envy towards one another. Once children came into the picture, sibling rivalry added to the turmoil in the family.

What went so terribly wrong? Men and women were meant to live in communion with God. The joy of that communion would only spring up in the hearts of those who would obey God out of love for Him. Six to seven thousand years later, one need not look too far to see that man is still rebelling against his Creator, and he is still experiencing the devastating effects of that rebellion, nothing but turmoil, unhappiness and wretchedness. In fact, the Bible is very clear that this is the state of the whole world away from God.

Is there hope for us? What is the message of the Christian Church to a world like ours? This is what 1 John is all about. The problem is that the Church for many years has turned from the only Gospel that offers man real hope to a ‘social gospel’. Somewhere along the line the Church decided she could water down the true Gospel and give the world ‘another gospel’ (Galatians 1) that would make the world a better place to live. The concept – a better world would result in better people.

But does the Bible give us any reason to believe that the Church can expect Christian behavior from a world that is socially correct but not Christian? The whole message of the Gospel is that man is not capable of living the way God requires him to live. Living a Christian life demands a new birth. There must be a new creation of the man who is in rebellion against God. And, all men come into the world in that state! Trying to put a law on man that he cannot keep is not ever going to be the answer. Many can’t keep the law of God because he doesn’t want to. Ultimately, he lives according to his desires. Man needs a heart with new desires, desires that are according to God’s will.

Many people who preach this ‘social gospel’ of meeting felt needs believe that by their message the world will continue to get better and better until Christ comes back to a world that is paradise restored. No. Christ will come back, but He alone can restore this world to the state of utopia that men have been searching for since the Fall in the Garden of Eden. John is very clear to point out several times that this world lies in the power of the evil one. As such, we can expect nothing but evil and wars.

The cause of all our woes is this rebellion against a holy God. The world walks around in darkness believing that surely there is something he can do to make things right never recognizing the fact that all his trouble stems from this rebellion and a wrong relationship to the God who made him. Adam and Eve knew God. All those born to them after the Fall would not know Him unless He revealed Himself to them. His existence would be known through the creation around them and from the conscience He gave them, but unless He opened their eyes to see the truth, they would walk around in the darkness forever, hopelessly lost never seeking God. There is a restlessness in every man whose state is one of rebellion against God until he gets back to what he was created for – communion or fellowship with God. There is always something lacking until we know God.

I get what is known as ‘restless legs’ every so often. It’s an awful, indescribable feeling. This is the same state unsaved man walks around in his whole life unless he finds what he is looking for. The problem is this: unless God reveals it to him, he does not know what that thing is that will satisfy his deepest need. He doesn’t know what he is looking for but hopes he will know once he finds it. He thinks somehow that money, power, fame, drugs, alcohol, relationships and umpteen other ‘things’ will soothe the savage beast within him but to no avail. “If I can only accomplish this or get that, I’ll be happy,” he thinks. At times he feels helpless, dead and lost, and such he is. But then he ‘picks himself up again’ and goes out in search of more ‘things’ to try to satisfy him and fill this vacuum within him.

So this is the universal need – not that people would have their felt needs met, but that they would come to know that their supreme need is knowledge of God, fellowship and communion with Him. In fact, the only way man will ever be reconciled with man is when he is reconciled with his God. Man has a built-in need to know that he is right with his Creator. Strive as he may, the only way this fellowship is made possible is by being reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

The whole message and witness of the Church is to tell people about Christ – to tell them that they need to be made right with God. We are to tell them what He has done – completely – the job that was finished there -- on the cross at Calvary. They must be told what happened in history when God came down from His eternal home and humbling Himself, was born a man and dwelt among men -- fully God and fully man. This basic understanding and embracing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the foundation of our relationship with Him. John starts out without any introduction in 1 John but just explodes onto the page of Scripture with this witness and testimony of Jesus Christ. He says, “I know Him, and I want you to know Him, too. And, I want you to know that you know Him. I want our joy to be full because we both know Him and have fellowship with Him, the Father and each other.”

Right away this Apostle of love says something the social-gospel –preaching church today would not recognize. We would expect him to say something about ‘love.’ We would expect John, who always talks about love, would say something like, “I want you to have this fellowship, so you must have love,” or “I want you to have this fellowship, so you must understand that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” Is that what he says, though? No! He starts out where one must ALWAYS start out when proclaiming the Gospel. He says, “God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.” In other words, God is holy. “If you want to have this fellowship with God, the first thing you must recognize is that God is holy.” What flows out of that is very understandable, then, and fits perfectly with the rest of Scripture. Since God is holy, you must be holy if you are to have fellowship with Him. He then talks about all the things that become obstacles or barriers to this fellowship or communion with God. We must not live in sin. We will sin, at times, but we must not live in the darkness but the light.

The darkness, here, is the realm of the world. There are only two realms – the realm of the darkness (the world, sin and all that is controlled by Satan) and the realm of the light. There is the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. Every Christian always lives in the realm of the light. You don’t walk in the darkness when you sin and then you are back in the light when you are living a righteous life before God. In order to know fellowship with God, you must live in the righteousness which is found in Christ, who is the Light.

So every human being born in rebellion against his Creator finds this barrier that precludes him from knowing God, from having fellowship with Him. This barrier must be dealt with before a relationship with God is possible. Sin separates man from God. Because God is holy, He cannot look upon sin lightly; He must deal with it. Sin must be judged and punished. The wages of sin is death, the Bible says. Spiritual death results in eternal separation from God or loss of communion with Him forever.

Unless God intervenes, how does the unsaved man react against this news? Like a spoiled child, he accuses God of being unfair. Every disobedient child begins to dislike his parents when the threat of punishment hangs over him. Guilt causes him to start finding excuses and ways to put the blame on others for his rebellion and disobedience. In this state a wall goes up between man and God, and he cannot see Him. Because of sin, there is no friendship and no trust.

John comes along and says, “I want to tell you that as a result of what Jesus Christ has done, what was lost can be restored.” How? Because Jesus dealt with the sin issue at the Cross. The world says, “No, thank you. I’d rather try my hand at doing good works and striving to follow through with the good resolutions I’ve made, and see where it gets me.” But some, under the weight of the heavy burden they bear of guilt and sin, will embrace the message of the Gospel, the Christ of the Gospel, and the abundant life He offers whatever it costs them and will have this barrier smashed to pieces allowing them to finally enter boldly into this newfound relationship with the God who created them for that very purpose.

For this sinner who believes in Christ and what He did at the cross and repents of his sin, the justice and righteousness of holy God was satisfied because God’s full wrath was poured out on His holy, guiltless and innocent Son, who would bear the weight of every sin committed by every man who would believe in Him for the joy of fellowship that would be established between God and man for all eternity.

God is holy. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. And because of His holiness, we can truly see the depth of His love for us. His love is amazing and divine. Jesus said, “It is finished!” The dividing wall, having been tore down, as seen in the curtain in the Temple being ripped in two from top to bottom (the evidence that only God could have ripped it), at long last allowed man to enter boldly into the Throne Room of Grace where he could commune fully with his Father. No more sacrifices are ever needed. The once-for-all sacrifice for sin was nailed to a Cross at Calvary, never to be repeated. The job He came to do, making it possible for man to be reconciled to his Creator God, was fully completed at the Cross. Jesus is not on the Cross today and shouldn’t be seen that way. He’s not on any altar today in any form. He’s not a victim. He willingly laid down His life for those He loved because He loved His Father and those the Father had given Him as a love gift before the foundation of the world.

The one who embraces the Cross, and everything that it means, becomes a true child of God. The Fatherhood of God is the key to understanding our prayer life, this communion with God. It is something no one knew fully before Christ came into the world. The Old Testament writers never called God, ‘Father’. But we can run to our beloved Father and cry out, “Abba, Father!” What a privilege, what an honor, what a blessing! Doesn’t that thrill your heart?

1 John 3:1 -- See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.