(God, Our Heavenly Father - Part 1 | Part 2)
In the first part of this study, we looked at some of the characteristics of the Father and His relationship to Jesus and us. In this part we will continue examining what the Bible says.
Jesus said that anyone who knows the Son knows the Father, that, in fact, they are One. Consequently, any of the characteristics the Bible attributes to Jesus, we can also attribute to the Father.
The Scripture: 1 John 3:1; Galatians 4:7
" You are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir."
1. What has God made us?
What God does is too much to consider fully in such a short study. Let's list a few of the things.
The Scripture: Matthew 6:8
"Do not be like them (the hypocrites), for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."
2. What does your heavenly Father know?
The Scripture: Matthew 6:14
"If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you."
3. What condition does He impose upon our receiving His forgiveness?
The Father gives us some of the most important gifts He has to offer.
The Scripture: John 3:35; 14:26
"The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life. The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."
4. What has the Father placed in Jesus' hands?
5. What does this include?
6. What must we do to have eternal life?
7. What will happen to the One who rejects the Son?
Just imagine! The Father loves us so much He has provided a way to spend eternity with us. We said at the beginning of this study that many people believe the Father to be judgmental, but Jesus says otherwise.
The Scripture: John 5:22; reread John 14:26
"The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son."
8. What specifically has been entrusted to the Son?
9. Who will the Father send?
10. What will the Holy Spirit do?
In this case when Jesus says the Holy Spirit will teach us "all things," He means all things about Jesus.
The Scripture: John 5:21
"Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He is pleased to give it."
11. What does the Father do?
The Scripture: John 14:23
"If anyone loves me...my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."
12. What additional blessing does Jesus promise in this verse?
The Father has given special honor to Jesus. To no one else has He entrusted those entitled to eternity.
The Scripture: John 14:6
"Jesus [said], 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'"
13. What is the only way we can come to the Father?
The Scripture: 1 John 2:1
"Jesus Christ, the Righteous One is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."
14. Who is Jesus Christ the atoning sacrifice for?
Jesus died on the cross, He paid the penalty for all the sins of the world for those who believe in Him.
The Scripture: 1 John 2:23
"No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also."
15. What does the one who acknowledges the Son have?
The Scripture: John 14:20, 23
"He who loves me will be loved by the Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
16. What is the reward of those who love Jesus?
The Scripture: John 16:23
"I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask for in my name."
17. What will the Father give us?
Jesus' followers yesterday and today have often wondered when the end of the world will come. Here is Jesus' answer.
The Scripture: Mark 13:32
"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, not the Son, but only the Father."
18. Who is the only one who knows?
This is one secret the Father has kept for Himself.
The Scripture: 1 Corinthians 6:8
In speaking to the Corinthians about their worship of idols, Paul said, "For us there is but one God, the Father from Whom all things came and for Whom we live, and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through Whom things came and through Whom we live."
19. What was Paul's teaching?
No one has ever said it better and more understandably.
The Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:24-28
"Then the end will come, when he [Jesus] hands over the kingdom to God after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. When he has done this, then the Son Himself will be made subject to Him who put everything under Him so that God may be all in all."
20. What will happen next?
Obviously, this is a very limited study of God the Father. Jesus said He and the Father are One, and whoever has seen Him (Jesus) has seen the Father. Reading the Bible and meditating on Jesus' words can give us a better and more complete picture of our heavenly Father. The point of having that picture is that we might worship the true God--the God of the Bible, and not the God of half-truths. Trust will be engendered as we see how good He is.
Those who don't fully see God as good cannot trust Him. We are to believe Scripture over ...Satan's lies ...Our ignorance ...Our past experience with poor fathering.
The Answers
- Sons and heirs
- What we need before we ask Him
- We must forgive others
- Everything
- Eternal life
- Believe in the Son
- He will not see life.
- All judgment
- The Counselor, the Holy Spirit
- Teach Jesus' followers all things and remind them of everything Jesus said to them
- He raises the dead and gives them life.
- That if anyone loves Him, He and His Father will make their home with the believers
- Through Jesus
- The whole world
- The Father
- Jesus will love him and show Himself to him
- Whatever we ask for in Jesus' name
- The Father
- There is but one God, the Father and one Jesus Christ from whom all things come and through whom we live.
- After Jesus has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power, He will hand over the kingdom to God (the Father). Then the Son will be made subject to the Father so that God may be all in all.
All scripture quotations in this publication are from The Holy Bible, New international Version
© Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 New International Bible Society
© Copyright 2007 by JoAnne Sekowsky