Plain Question
The Father is not distant machinery behind the world.
Jesus teaches us to know God as Father: holy, loving, sovereign, generous, disciplining and near to those who come through the Son.
Back to Simple QuestionsThe Father
The Father sends
The Son is not an accident in history. The Father sends the Son in love for the world.
The Father gives
Every good gift is not random mercy from nowhere. It comes from the Father of lights.
The Father disciplines
His correction is not abandonment. It is the severe mercy of a Father who loves His children.
Fatherhood is revealed by Jesus
We must be careful here. We do not project every human father onto God. Some people hear "father" through pain, absence or fear. Scripture does not ask them to baptize that pain and call it God.
Jesus reveals the Father. The Father loves, sends, gives, hears, forgives, disciplines and seeks true worshipers. His fatherhood is holy before it is sentimental, tender without becoming soft and sovereign without becoming cold.
The Father is not less holy because He is Father. He is not less loving because He is Lord.
Scriptural Anchors
These passages anchor the Father's love, holiness, giving, discipline and seeking of worshipers.
Matthew 6:9
Jesus teaches us to pray to our Father in heaven.
John 3:16
The Father gives the Son in love.
John 4:23-24
The Father seeks true worshipers.
John 5:26
The Father has life in Himself.
James 1:17
Every good gift comes from the Father of lights.
Hebrews 12:6-7
The Father disciplines those He loves.
Coming to the Father
The Father is not reached by climbing over the Son. Jesus says no one comes to the Father but by Him. That is not cruelty. It is mercy made plain: God has opened the way through Christ.
So the invitation is not vague spirituality. Come to the Father through the Son, by the Spirit, in truth.