The Heart of the Father

  • Jeremy Erb
  • Jun 21, 2009
  • Series: The Heart of the Father

What is God like? How does God feel about us? What is God’s heart toward us?

And the question has to be asked, in light of our constant failure, rejection, spiritual adultery, how does He feel about us?

How does God feel about people who are far away from Him?

10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Luke 19:10 (ESV)

The Scandal of the Fathers Love:

There is nothing you can do to make the Father love you more,

and there is nothing you can do to make the Father love you less…

BUT what we do determines our experience of the Father’s love.

 

  1. Jesus reveals God as a Father – as our father

31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”

Luke 15:31-32 (ESV)

 

Creation reveals God as creator. In that sense we are  the all the “offspring” of God (acts 17:29).

Jesus reveals to us god’s character of fatherhood in a way that creation doesn’t reveal and sin doesn’t allow us to experience.

Jesus always refers to God as His father except for one place: the cross.

11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:11-14 (ESV)

2. Jesus rescues us as the true elder brother serving the father.

Grace is Free but it isn’t cheap.

12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Romans 8:12-17 (ESV)

  3. Jesus redeems us that we may receive adoption as sons/daughters.

Grace: God loves us enough to accept us as we are

and too much to leave us that way.

3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. 8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

Galatians 4:3-9 (ESV)

4. As sons/daughters, we respond to grace by taking the responsibility of the family business – the work of the Father.

Grace is opposed to earning, not to effort.

“A child does not remain a child.  A child becomes an adult.  An adult becomes father and mother.  When the prodigal son returns home, he returns not to remain a child, but to claim his sonship and become a father himself.…For a long time I have lived with the insight that returning to my Father’s home was the ultimate call.  It has taken me much spiritual work to make the elder son as well as the younger son in me turn around and receive the welcoming love of the Father.  The fact is that, on many levels, I am still returning.  But the closer I come to home the clearer becomes the realization that there is a call beyond the call to return.  It is the call to become the Father who welcomes home and calls for a celebration….I now see that the hands that forgive, console, heal, and offer a festive meal must become my own.  Becoming the Father is, therefore, for me the surprising conclusion of these reflections on Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son.”

Henri Nouwen

The Return of the Prodigal

p. 119