The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein,
for he has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.
Psalms 24:1-4
If you take the time to go through the prayers that the people of God have made in the Bible, there is a relationship that is always common; that of reverence and fear before a holy and mighty God. You might then end up in Matthew 6 and notice the new relationship that Christ introduces to the disciples and by extension to the saints; one of patronage in which God is seen as a Father. Perhaps you may, as many have made the error of making, come to the conclusion that somehow the relationship of the father is divorced from that of a holy and mighty God. To some extent, this phenomenon comes at a time when earthly fathers have less respect from the world than at any point in the timeline of the believers. Consider for example the analogy that Christ has for his followers in the next chapter.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Matthew 7:7-11
At the time that Christ talked about the relationship between father and son, there was little confusion as to what a father had to be to his family and to his son. A child would have a relationship of both love and discipline with a father, never at any point losing respect for the leader of the household for mere sentimentality. But for many professing believers today, there is a different understanding. Somehow, the fear that struck men of old to their knees and shook them to the bone seems to have gone in place of emotions, and God is presented as this being that is desperate for the affection of those that serve Him. The answer offered is that the covenant of grace has somehow superseded the old covenant God. I want us to instead look at the first line of the Lord’s Prayer and how that may not necessarily be the case. I want us to look at it in two brief sections.
Our Father
There has been an emotional movement of some churches towards the perspective of God that has shaped prayer, worship, hymns, and spiritual songs. It seems to be one of seeing God as some romantic interest, constantly seeking the affection of His Church at all costs, and always aiming to ensure they are in the best positions in life, however that may look. This sounds like a very reductionist view of this movement but I am doing this for the purpose of making clear why the movement is so popular, to begin with.
First, it is important to make clear that the best of lies often are rooted in sprinkles of truth. The reality is Christ does love His Church as a romantic partner would and the symbolism painted between the two parties is one of Christ protecting His Church and guiding the saints to a marriage ceremony at the end of this age. The emotional movement is not wholly divorced from the original Biblical purpose but it is instead an overemphasis that veers off into idolatry.
Second, it is important to make clear that having a perspective of a God that does not love you and is merely wrathful and holy from afar is just as problematic. God does love us. The Cross is more than enough proof of His ultimate sacrifice for humanity. We are not here to make the argument that God is simply indifferent and impersonal, but that the relationship is a wise mixture of affection and sovereignty. Let’s look at a certain passage of Scripture.
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
John 14:8-11
One of the first things to understand about the Lord’s Prayer is that the person who introduces the aspect of God being Our Father is God Himself. Jesus Christ is one of the Trinity and as such, equal to The Father and the Spirit in being God. Often what the emotional movement would try to do is to draw a distinction between Jesus Christ and the God of the Old Testament as though Christ was not equal in agreement and function in the events. In the passage above, Christ makes it clear that He is in the Father and even calls on His works as a testimony to the fact.
This is important to understand; God the Son submits to the Father in this prayer. This is something that ought to humble us greatly when we are to address the Father ourselves. If Christ placed Himself in the hands of God the Father, are we not to place ourselves in even greater humility? Our Father, therefore, carries the same weight as that of Moses and Abraham kneeling silently before a Holy God. It is a statement of love but it is also a statement of reverence that is respected even among the persons of the Trinity. Consider how Christ begins the John 17 prayer.
“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
John 17:1-5
Behold, the submission of Christ, believers. We are coming before greatness we could not understand and we could not afford to be anything but humbled. And yet, even in that humility, there is something else.
Christ refers to God as Our Father. Immediately as the prayer begins is an acknowledgment of inclusion. Christ does not simply want to partake in the joy of prayer alone. He wants His disciples to understand that they will soon be reconciled with the Father and thus have the freedom to approach Him with boldness and plead for mercy in time of their need. God is Our Father. He is not learning the ropes on how to be effective or considering our emotions to better cater to our needs, He is the Designer and every step we take is slowly to know more of this reality. It is a statement of our equal value to approach God, our equal joy in being adopted by God, and our equality in knowing that at any point we approach God, He is present to listen.
Who Art In Heaven
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.
John 14:1-4
The second portion of this first line, at first, seems to paint a picture of distance. Why would God be so far away from us, in Heaven? Is He hiding from us? This is often where the sentiment of a Sky Dad seems to come from. But as we have noticed from the first portion, this is not a statement of distance. God is nearer to us now than He ever was before and not even sin can come against that. And thus, what this seems to do is instead world-building and establish the reality of a space called Heaven. In other words, it seeks to legitimize the throne of God as an actual place where God not only resides but reigns.
In John 14, Jesus paints the picture even clearer as a mansion with several rooms which is being prepared for the saints. Now, a lot can be said about Heaven, and often a lot of it is wrong, but what is clear is that however, Heaven will come to unfold, it is a place for rest. In other words, the end of the pilgrim’s journey is foreshadowed at the very beginning of the Lord’s Prayer and thus creates in the minds of those who are listening to a hunger for the payoff to the narrative.
Another thing that is clear is that Heaven is a representation of holiness we have not yet attained. In that sense, there is still very much a gap waiting to be filled and as a result, as believers, we will still struggle with sin, and sometimes, there will be a separation we feel every time we fall short of the glory of God. It is to aid us with the battle of pride at every moment we feel we have attained righteousness that is unquestionable. And so we fight sin and struggle with walking in righteousness and also we engage in giving the gospel to those who have not heard it.
This is because Heaven also represents our limited time here and a judgment that will come unto all who have ever lived. It is a representation of our borrowed time on Earth that we have to plead with those who have not been convicted of the reality of their wrongdoing and are not awakened to the need of making peace before the day of court. It is a representation to all creation that justice will be served, whether unto Christ at the cross for those who believe or unto themselves those who don’t.
I believe we can stop here for now and pick up on the next part. Shalom.