Throughout the scriptures God is spoken of as our Father. Christ Himself, in teaching His disciples to pray, told them to pray our Father.
Paul goes on to explain this further in his letter to the Romans. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are Gods children (Romans 8:15-16).
Paul talks about us being adopted children. In Roman law, the rights of natural sonship were pretty limited. In fact a Roman father could change his sons trade without even consulting him, and under some circumstances even sell or have his son put to death. However, none of this applied to someone you chose to adopt as a son. God has chosen us as His sons and daughters.
In the last issue of Face to Face (volume 7 no. 3), we examined the story found in Luke 15:11-32 in terms of Gods lavish love for us, and came to the conclusion that the story could also be viewed as the parable of the Prodigal God.
In this article I would like to examine some aspects of the parable that give us greater insights into the Father Heart of God, and how He expresses this lavish love towards us, His beloved children. So lets look again at this amazing parable and learn some important lessons about the Father Heart of God.
Freedom of choice
The younger one said to his father, Father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them (Luke 1:12).
Love can never be forced. It is a deep, personal relationship and as such involves freedom. God has already expressed His love towards us (John 3:16), and Christ has already died for us and forgiven our sins. Our response should be a voluntary expression of gratitude and praise towards the One who made this relationship possible.
We see that the father of the story complied without any complaint with his sons headstrong wish to receive his inheritance for immediate use (Luke 15:12)a request that was rarely, if ever, granted in the Jewish society of Jesus day. The apparent ease with which the younger sons desire was granted seems to suggest that the father gave his children great latitude in making choices. It seems to make no sense to our human reasoning that God would grant this, but He did.
To our human reasoning, grace makes no sense either.
But our inheritance is eternal life, which can only be accomplished through grace!
John 3:17 reveals that we are not living under condemnation, but we are saved by the grace of God.
We can demand our freedom of choice now, and God will give it to us, but the cost to us is huge, and just like the son, if we choose to squander grace, we will end up in the pig pens!
Gods laws are all to the benefit of His beloved children. But if we do choose to have our own way, He will not turn His back on us, but stand at the gate, always waiting and hoping for us to turn back to Him. Paul explains that grace and freedom do not amount to permission to continue in sin. What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?(Romans 6:1-2).
Generous
Luke 15:17 … even the servants have food to spare.
We see Gods generosity coming out in the story too. The son knew that his father treated even his servants with exceptional generosity. No one knows the Fathers heart better than Jesus. He explained to His disciples through the following analogy.
Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him? (Matthew 7:9-11). If you ever doubt His generosity, remember that He gave His beloved Son for you.
Trustworthy
Luke 15:18: I will set out and go back to my father …
The son knew what kind of a father he had and must have known that he could totally trust and rely on, and turn to him for help no matter what. If he had perceived his dad to be harsh and judgemental, he probably would never have had the courage to go back.
In our Christian walk we need to start trusting God and giving Him full control over our lives. Stepping out in faith and seeing God come through for us is one of the most healing things He can do in our lives. Give God a chance to prove Himself. We can only do this if we really get to know God. Start building that relationship with little steps.
I had the pleasure of walking my young daughter to nursery school each day. There was a slight decline in the path as we approached the school, with a stone wall running alongside it. The wall started level with the path and gradually got higher. Id hold my daughters hand and she would walk along the top of the wall to where it ended, which was about a metre and a half off the ground, and then she would clamber down into my arms.
One day I told her to jump to me and I would catch her. She was hesitant and I could see the fear in her eyes, but she could see me right there below her, and she jumped! Of course I caught her. The following day she asked to jump again. By the end of the term it had become a challenge, and she was telling me to stand ever further back and was taking flying leaps through the air into my waiting arms! Through putting her trust in me into practice she had allowed it to grow day by day.
Wont give up on us
Luke 15:20: But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him…
I can picture the father in the story, staring down the path his son would have to take to return home, hoping beyond hope that today would be the day that his beloved son would come back to him.
Trust in your Fathers presence. There is nothing that you can do, or have done, that can change the love He has for you. He promised He would be with us, even to the end of the age. Hes not like people who hold grudges, or get too busy and dont have time for you. No matter what we do, or where we go, no matter what poor decisions or life choices we make, He is there for us; standing at the gate, hoping that we will have the sense to come home to Him. There is nothing we can do to change His love for us, because its not based on what we do, its based on who He is! Note what the apostle Paul told his protégé Timothy.
…who has saved us and called us to a holy lifenot because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace (2 Timothy 1:9).
Compassionate, loving and affectionate
Luke 15:20… He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
Gods love for us goes way beyond our human comprehension.
The Psalmist tells us that all the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful (Psalm 25:10).
In 2 Kings 13:23, speaking of the Israelites who continually disobeyed and rejected God, the scripture tells us that The Lord was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
How much more so will He have compassion and forgiveness on those in covenant through His Son Jesus the Christ? The father didnt stand and lecture his son about the error of his ways, but ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
Gracious and forgiving
For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate (Luke 15:24).
Too many people view God as an angry Father who is looking for any sort of excuse to punish us for the wrong that we do. How far this is from the truth!
Psalm 103:8-10 reveals more to us about Gods Father heart. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will He harbour His anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve, or repay us according to our iniquities.
When we have done wrong and are suffering the consequences, or are wracked with guilt, the Father doesnt take any sort of pleasure in our suffering; He wants, as any father would, to comfort us. Dont try to intellectualise or spiritualise pain, thinking of it as a punishment from God. Rather turn to Him, crawl into his arms and allow Him, through the Holy Spirit in you, to comfort you.
Psalm 103:12-13: As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him…
Empathetic and patient
Luke 15:28: The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with Him.
Even in dealing with the self righteousness of the second brother, we can see a very important aspect of the Father heart of God. He went out and pleaded with the older brother, come in, and lets rejoice together!
Believe it or not, the scriptures reveal that God doesnt want to lose a single one of us. He understands our humanness and weaknesses. Christ took on our humanity so that He could act as intercessor and mediator for us.
1 Timothy 2: 4-5 …who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus. (See also 2 Peter 3:9).
As Christians, we need to draw closer to the Father, allowing His Father heart to touch and change our stony human hearts. We too must rejoice and be glad when we see sinners turning to Him. More than anything, God wants our hearts to mourn for the things that pain His heart, and that we hold others in the same love that He does.
Ephesians 4:6 reveals that God has included all people in His plan one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all… God is an inclusive Father in Pauls mind. He is not just the Father of Israel, but through Jesus each of us is adopted by God, and God is everyones Father in Christ. This means that the people we meet on the street, those in far off lands, those who may disagree with us, even those who dont believe as we do they are all included in Pauls statement above: One God and Father of all.
And all are included in the liberating, generous, trustworthy, steadfast, compassionate, loving, affectionate, graciously forgiving and patient Father heart of God!