True Father
True Father. The familial nature of God is not anthropomorphic; rather, the familial nature of the family is theomorphic. The human family is modeled after God's nature not the other way around. That is, the Father is actually a father, and He is the reality of what human fatherhood pictures. Jesus Christ is actually the Father's Son, our firstborn Elder Brother. The spiritually reborn and soon to be resurrected saints are actually sons of God, and the Church collectively is actually the Bride of Christ. Moreover, we will live in an actual New Jerusalem in an actual New Heavens and a New Earth for eternity.
- Genesis 1:26: Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.
God is not like man—man is like God. The Bible often describes God and man as having characteristics in common, it's because they originated with God. As they started with God, they will return to God, meaning that the plan of Salvation is reconciliation and Restoration. God's ultimate goal is God with us, as one family.
True Children. When God teaches us that "as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12), He means true children. "For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption [sonship]. When we cry, 'Abba! Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him" (Romans 8:15–17, NRSV). And we will also be "conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren" (v. 29).
Many people cannot bring themselves to believe what the Bible actually says: that we are created to be the Father's true children, sons of God, joint heirs with Christ, to be glorified with Christ, conformed to the image of Christ who is the firstborn of many sons of God. The Father is actually making children and bringing us to His glory, and Christ Himself calls us His brethren (Hebrews 2:10–11).
True Family. This is not merely a "family-like relationship" or an analogy. It is the reality of family. We are to be glorified with Christ and to be the same kind of son that He is, though clearly lesser in power and authority than He and the Father. Our Elder Brother has all power in heaven and earth, and He is going to share with us the glory that He and the Father had "before the world was" (John 17:5). This is because the Father's great transcendent purpose for mankind is the creation of immortal children (1 Corinthians 15:53–54).
True Oneness. Christ said: "Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are one" (John 17:11). It is not a question of whether God is one, but how God is one. The oneness of the human family is a physical type of the greater spiritual reality of the oneness of God. Scripture is clear.
- 1 John 3:1-2: See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
This is our incredible human potential! Our Elder Brother "will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself" (Philippians 3:21). These plain statements are so astonishing that many people simply cannot believe what God is saying. But this revealed knowledge is at the core of a full understanding of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
True Kingdom. Stated simply, "God is family," and understanding what this means is at the heart of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. A kingdom has a ruling family, and Christ promises: "To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne" (Revelation 3:21). He promises to make His brethren "kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth" (Revelation 5:10), with Christ as "King of kings" (Revelation 17:14). The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. This is the Gospel that He preached everywhere He went. Bringing many sons to glory in the Kingdom of God is our Father's great transcendent purpose for creating humanity, and everything revolves around this purpose! …
Appendix
References
Notes
- Thoughts from Abarim-publications:
- The universe did not begin at a point in time, but time began at a point in the universe. We know this because the Bible speaks of time's beginning and time's end, whilst a greater reality was there before time began and keeps going long after time has ended (Daniel 12:4, 2 Timothy 1:9, Titus 1:2, 1 Corinthians 15:24). This greater reality is that within which time exists
- People who wonder whether the Bible is historical forget that time is a creature, and thus subject to the Word instead of the other way around: the Word is not subject to time, so no, the Bible is not historical, and every event described in the Bible applies to every self-similar manifestation of that same event, anywhere in time.
- The Preacher proclaimed that everything that now is, always was and always will be, which means that there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10), and reality consists of variations of an eternal single theme: a interlocked series of broken symmetries that allows an infinite complexity but which also can be easily re-compacted back into the oneness it all came from.
- The Bible, like the universe, is an expanding fractal, not a chronological history: thought-based, not speech-based.
- Monotheism is about knowing the order of things and how all things fit together (Isaiah 28:10, Ecclesiastes 3:1, Matthew 22:21). Monotheism is the understanding of sovereignty (Psalm 24:1-10). Monotheism is knowing freedom (John 8:32, 2 Corinthians 3:17).
