You may remember quoting the Apostles’ Creed as a child.  Some even as adults make it become a part of their daily life.

It is the ‘prayer of beginning’!  A prayer that reminds us of the essential beliefs that make us Christian.

It is the prayer that places us before God, not asking or even thanking.

It is the prayer in which we pledge our beliefs before man and God.

It is the foundation of belief that establishes a place for faith to take root and grow strong.

God Revealed Himself.

Any man who keeps silent remains a mystery to his companions.  As soon as he speaks, though, people catch a glimpse of his character, intentions, skill, and personality.  The same was true of God.  As long as God remained silent, He was both unknown and unknowable –

. . . but God has not remained silent.

He has spoken to us through his Son.  Jesus is God’s eloquent and gracious statement to a fallen world.  This is why the Scriptures call Him the Logos, or Word (John 1:1).  In Jesus, God speaks directly to the deepest needs of the human heart, making known to us His righteousness and His merciful intentions.  If He had not made this first step, we could never have known the Father’s love.

In our fallen world, sometimes what we call “God” is often not God at all.  Instead, we are pursuing a twisted truth.  Because of sin, our thoughts about God often have little resemblance to the one true God.  In many ways, the god in our minds is simply a mental idol, a reflection more of ourselves than of God.

There is only one God . . .

and He is not man made.  He cannot be adjusted to suit our plans.  Far too often we fall away from the first Commandment, which prohibits having any other gods but God.  We may not do it consciously or intentionally.  Nevertheless it is done, even though we know – deep within us – that the gods of our own making are always unsatisfactory.

Father !

The supreme name of God is “Father” everything we understand about God begins there. Once we embrace God as our Father, suddenly all of creation becomes our family home.  Then we become God’s own children, redeemed by him to live with him forever.

We did not invent the idea of God as our Father.  God did.  His fatherhood is unique to the one true God.  The idea that God is a father is rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures and is confirmed in the New Testament.  Jesus constantly refers to God as “Father” – beginning at the age of twelve, when He told Mary and Joseph that He had to be about his Father’s business (Luke 2:49).  Even at the very end of His earthly life, as Jesus hung on the Cross, He commended His spirit into His Father’s hands (Luke 23:34, 46).  When Jesus taught His disciples to pray.  He began by acknowledging God as Father (Matt. 6:9).  There was virtually no other name by which Christ spoke to God or of God.

Jesus Show Us The Father

Jesus said that to see Him was to see the Father.  He and the Father were one.  In this way, Jesus defined His Father for us.  Jesus’ entire life was an expression of obedience and suffering, culminating in victory over sin and the grave.  In all this, God’s heart is displayed.  Jesus was living proof of the immeasurable love of the Father – and of His infinite power.

Through Jesus, the God of Israel became our “Abba,” an ancient Aramaic word for “Daddy” (Gal. 5:6).  The true God was not the abstract, impersonal, first cause or prime mover described by ancient philosophers.  Yet He was more than the exalted God of Israel, Who thundered from the mountaintop and Whose face could not be looked upon.

Paul explains that Jesus is the “express image of the invisible God” in this universe (Col. 1:15). So even though no one has ever seen God, we know Him because His Son has made Him know (John 1:18).  With Christ’s example before us, we can grow to resemble our Father in Heaven and our Brother at His right had as we live on earth (Rom. 8:29).

 

“Father” Is the Very Nature of God . . .

God has been our Father for all of eternity past – it is part of His very essence.  He brought us into existence, and we can always depend upon Him.  As our Father, God is constantly working to make us, each of us, His children.  He is constantly striving to make a family of us.  He cannot relent until He has succeeded because it is His character.

When we become His children, we are welcomed into a rich heritage.  Our membership is secured in a family much more extensive, important, and enduring than any human family could be.  From Him, our being and blessings descend, and to Him we can turn our minds and hearts in utmost love and gratitude.  When we become His children, we enter into a relationship that showers us with His love, intimacy, and care.

God as “Maker of Heaven and Earth”

God is described as the Maker.  At His command the universe came to be.  With God as our Father, we have a home.  We are privileged to have a place in His divine plans.  We are not merely specks in a complex universe.  No indeed.  We are witnesses of the wonders He has formed, drawn to applaud the Creator and sing His praises.