Yesterday
morning I had an Aha-moment that was the sudden addition of one word to every
reference to God as Father. The word? Responsible.
Many
church-going people have stumbled over God’s undeniable revelation of himself
as Father. Bad experiences have a way of shaping our beliefs in bad ways. The
self-protective filters we put in place as children may give the appearance of
protecting us from painful circumstances while we are young, but they do
nothing to help us develop a strong, secure relationship with God.
Part of Paul’s
exhortation-reminder that we were taught “to
put off your old self,” was because it is the “old self” that got everything wrong, and will only hinder our
relationship with God if it continues in its place.
To explain why
it is we must put off this old self, he clarifies that it, “belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful
desires.”[1]
That old self does not belong to our present life in Christ. It “belongs” to that “former manner of life,” and that is why we must put it off. We
have “the new self, created after the
likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness,”[2]and
that new self loves getting to know God as Father.
What, then,
does the word “responsible” add to a new-self opportunity to know God as
Father? The first answer that pops into my head is: EVERYTHING!
One way I
would describe it is as the addition of one color of the spectrum to the light
that I had not realized was less brilliant and glorious than God intended. As
soon as that extra color is added to its place, everything the light shines on
now shows up much more clearly.
For a long
time I have taken great comfort in how different God is from earthly fathers,
including me! However, I now realize that there are treasures of wisdom and
knowledge far beyond what I have already known. I anticipate that, for the rest
of my life, the view of God as Father will show itself more and more clearly as
I see everything about God through this filter of his responsibility for his
children.
While I
appreciate the positive journey of getting to know how God’s responsible
fatherliness relates to everything in my life, it also helps to explain a
negative phenomenon that has not made a lot of sense to me. Many Christians
live as though we are saved by grace through faith, but making it to the finish
line is all about us. God has done our part; now we have to do ours.[3]
When we
realize that God is our Father, and he is responsible, we can appreciate that
the beginning, during, and ending of the race are all in his hands. He has not
only provided for our salvation, but he is our salvation. He not only set
things in motion, and saved us by his grace, but he is the one who is
responsible to get us to heaven, not only in one piece, but completely
conformed to the image and likeness of his Son.[4]
One aspect of God’s
responsibility that fills the child of God with confidence is the simple fact
that God is able to fulfill all his responsibilities. As a Dad, I had all the
fatherly duties expected of all men with children. However, I could never say
that I was able to do all my responsibilities. I missed things because I wasn’t
smart enough to figure out what to do. I failed at things because I was too
immature to handle them. No matter how I look at my fatherly responsibilities,
I did not do all I was responsible for. In fact, I’m still learning!
On the other hand, Father God is
able to fulfill all his responsibilities. He has chosen to have a creature who
would be in his Son‘s own image and likeness. He has taken responsibility to
deal with our sin problem, the thing that keeps us from being in his Son‘s
image. The plan for our salvation is his responsibility. Foreknowing us,
predestining us to his Son‘s image, calling us, justifying us, and glorifying
us, are all his responsibility.[5]
Once we can open our hearts to this
wonderful truth, that God is responsible for us, beginning to end, fulfilling
every promise he has made to this creature he calls his children, we can then
look at all the changes that are still needed in our lives as things God is
responsible to change. He gives us the renewal of our minds in salvation so
that we can be transformed.[6] He
is the one who began a good work in us, so he is the one who will carry it on
to completion at the day of Jesus‘ return.[7] He
can tell us to put off that sarky old self because he has given us a “new self, created after the likeness of God
in true righteousness and holiness.”[8]
One
thing that I had to present to God with respect to his responsibility for his
children is in relation to prayer. There is something about God being
responsible that caused him to give this to his children, to teach this to his
children. There is a way that we ask and receive in prayer because God is
responsible for us. This is his will that we receive what we ask for in
prayer.[9]
In
fact, for us to understand this, that God works through prayer as a devoted
Father who is responsible for his children, is his responsibility! The Aha-moment
of yesterday morning was his responsibility. The hunger to know God as the
responsible Father is something he is doing in us because we are his
responsibility.
God
is going to stir up his children to know and do his will about prayer, and he
is going to make men like me into men of prayer, because he is responsible for us.
God will fatherly lead his children into prayer because it is like his Son to
talk to him. God delights in us, and we depend on him.
The cross of Jesus
Christ settles for every child of God how responsible the Father is to save
those he has chosen. It is not only that he must do what he has set out to do,
but that he is the Father. He has created a creature in the image of his Son,
and so he must relate to this new creature with the same fatherly
responsibility as he has towards his Son.
A
second thing that came up with respect to God‘s responsibility for his children
is in relation to our so great salvation. All the things we have been learning
about the “by this you shall know”
statements in I John,[10] is a revelation of the God who is taking full responsibility for
the saving of his children, and who writes these things in his book so that his
children can know how responsible he is.
I
even think that there is something in the whole “by the Spirit whom he has given us” (3:24) that God wants us to
see through this lens of his responsibility. In a way, it is not so much
whether we are good at relating to God‘s Spirit, or whether we are good at
being filled with his Spirit, or we are good at praying in his Spirit. It is
all about the reality that God, as the one who is responsible for our
salvation, has also made himself responsible to assure us of our salvation. He
has not only given us his Spirit, but he has given us a book filled with
instructions and descriptions and revelations of the life of the Spirit in his
children.
I
am very thankful for this brighter illumination of the fatherly
responsibilities of God. I know that many believers would find great comfort in
this reality that they are not the ones responsible for our relationship to
God, but he is fully responsible for his relationship to us. We are his idea. Making
a creature out of dirt that would end up fully conformed to the image of Jesus Christ?
His idea. And, because we are his idea, his design, his creation, he is
obligated to his own responsibilities to his children to finish what he has
started. The more we join him in his word, in prayer, and in his Spirit, the
more brightly his light shines on the wonders of his fatherly relationship to
his children.
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Ephesians 4:22
[2]
Ephesians 4:24
[3]
That’s the kind of thinking I really disliked in the old Touched by an Angel TV
show.
[4]
Genesis 1:26-27; Romans 8:29; I John 3:2
[5]
Romans 8:28-30
[6]
Romans 12:1-2
[7]
Philippians 1:6
[8]
Ephesians 4:24
[9]
I John 3:22
[10]
This has been an ongoing series
in our home church, and something I have written about in various posts. The
‘By This’ of Ultimate assurance: http://in2freedom.blogspot.ca/2014/09/pastoral-ponderings-by-this-of-ultimate.html;
Eleven Assurances from Older Brother John: http://in2freedom.blogspot.ca/2014/09/considerations-eleven-assurances-from.html
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