“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
– Matthew 6:9
What does it mean that the first person of the Trinity is called “Father”? There is a lot that could be said here. Among other things, “Father,” according to Scott Swain, means, “Before the existence of creation…the Father and his only begotten Son dwelled in eternal, mutual delight in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” So, first and foremost, “Father” tells us something of how the persons within the Trinity relate.
“Father” also means that all things come from him and that he loves his children who are redeemed by his Son and indwelt by his Spirit, calling him “Abba! Father!” (Gal. 4:6). He is Creator and Redeemer, the maker of creation and new creation.
But “Father” also means something that often goes unnoticed. It means that God is generous. It means that within his essence, God shares. He shares his nature with the Son and the Spirit. This means that, apart from creation and redemption, God is generous. It’s part of his very essence and nature. “Father” is who he is and how he is.
Jesus, the Son who shares the eternal divine nature with the Father, teaches us in the Lord’s prayer that God is ready to share his goodness with us, “Our Father in heaven.” God’s essence is one and indivisible, and yet shared among the three persons of the Trinity. The Father shares himself with the Son and the Spirit because God is love (1 Jn. 4:8, 16).
God as “Father” means that God is open-handed and shareable. This is who he is, not just what he does. He is “Father” before he created anything or redeemed anyone. Within God’s very nature is a desire to share his goodness.
Does this fit with your conception of the nature of God? Maybe you think that God, even though Jesus saved you from your sins, is still basically annoyed with your shortcomings and impatient with your weaknesses. You know that Jesus died for you, but you may think that God resents making you and redeeming you.
You know in your head that God is good because you see the good things he’s made and you have seen his goodness in Jesus, but have you seen his goodness in himself? You know God is good, but have you “tasted,” or sensed and experienced deep in your bones, that “the Lord is good” (Ps. 34:8)? Another way to put it might be to ask, when you think of God, do you think of him as mostly grumpy or happy? Who is God?
God’s creation and redemption undoubtedly reveal the glory of his goodness. My point is that his goodness and generosity were just as real before the universe existed. God is good. Do you believe that?
Suffering and sin and Satan can lead us to believe otherwise. It’s no wonder that the first thing the serpent did in the Garden was call into question God’s goodness, leading Adam and Eve to believe that God was holding out on them (Gen. 3:1). Our minds and hearts have been poisoned by this lie ever since.
When Jesus teaches us to pray to “our Father who is in heaven,” he’s teaching us to pray to One who is good, generous, open-handed, and ready to share his goodness with us. He is teaching us that God is more ready to answer our prayers than we are to pray them. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32)
God is generous by nature. Creation and the cross show us this. But so does the title the first person of the Trinity takes for himself. God as “Father” means that his essence overflows with love and goodness. And the good news of the gospel is that he is ready to share himself with everyone who will have him.
Learning to Trust and Delight in the Goodness of God, With You,
Pastor John