When Jesus of Nazareth addressed the almighty Creator of the universe as “Father,” he said what he meant and meant what he said. Pagans were always inventing tales about gods with their families of godlings. Sometimes poets dreamed that some men were somehow divine offspring. The prophets of Israel believed that a God who loved them “like a father” would rescue them. But when Jesus called upon his Father, he was not using a figure of speech or stretching his imagination. He had really come from the Lord God as life springs from life. Father and Son were of the same kind. A ventriloquist’s dummy might call his maker “father,” but nevertheless the dummy and his maker are not of the same kind. I and other men are merely God’s creatures. We are not his kind. We could never properly be called God’s sons unless the Spirit of his only Son came to dwell in us. But with the Son-Spirit in me, I may call God “my Father” and mean exactly that. “To all who received him he gave power to become children of God,” says the gospel. I believe that this wondrous possibility has really come to pass in me because I find in me something that holds out arms to the Father and yearns for him and strives to please him. I am a son of God! Imagine that! Whenever I have met others who believe that God is their Father in this way, they and I have known a strange thrill of brotherhood and an unspoken understanding that is quite unmistakable. When we Christians first realize that God the Creator has become also our Father, we don’t know whether we should shout our joy all over his world, or whether we should be stricken dumb with amazement that it should be so!
At night when I look up at the sweep of the stars that God has made, I can say with pride: “All those belong to my Father.” When I deal with this world’s creatures all around me, I must treat them with dignity and respect. They all belong to my Father and not to me. I am responsible to him for the way I handle them. When I look upon the teeming millions of stumbling Wanderers in the world who don’t know who they are or what they are here for, I feel I must tell them, “You belong to my Father.” I must share my Father’s Word and world with them. When there are others who in truth call God their Father through Christ, I must recognize that they are my brothers, fellow sons of the Father. The real church is the real family of fire eternal Father. My belief in God the Father makes a big difference in my life. It pulls my world together and holds us all together.
Books by Dr. John A. Ross
