The Love of the Father

The eternal fatherhood of God is a precious blessing for the church of God. There is unspeakable consolation in what God the Father, in Jesus Christ, is for the church. But there also is much to be considered in what God the Father is for His Son Jesus Christ. This is often overlooked. Let us try to consider this, in light of the text for this meditation.

Every rational creature possesses an innate need for God. Paul writes about this need in Romans 1. We could also say that man has a need for a father figure, one who is strong, cares, and is able to comfort. In Romans 1 Paul proves that we are not independent creatures, as many seem to think today. Sadly, due to our fall, man fills this need for God with all kinds of unrighteousness and therefore has become a hater of the only true God. “When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21).

Dear reader, I want to pause here for a moment. We have fallen away from God. By nature we now belong to our father, the devil. We have lost God. In a certain sense we could say that God also lost something in the fall of man. Is it not true that man as image bearer of God belonged to God as His possession? Alas, what a deep and wide breach has come between them both! That close relationship no longer exists. It speaks to us of a mutual loss: Man has lost God, for Adam, the son of God (Luke 3:38), lost his son-ship. Is that possible in natural life? Can a father say to his son, You are not my son anymore? Ah, a father can disinherit his son, but he can never say, You are no longer my son.

Before the world stood and man fell, this divine love existed and was manifested between the Father and the Son.

“The Father loveth the Son.” Reader, here is now a spiritual mystery. God's justice required that the entire human race from Adam on down be disinherited and cast away. However, He would still have sons and daughters chosen from eternity who would inherit all things. How would this be possible? This would only be possible through the Son of His love, who would by His suffering and death satisfy the requirements of God's justice. Eternal wonder! Before the world stood and man feil, this divine love existed and was manifested between the Father and the Son. We cannot comprehend this love. “The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him” (Proverbs 8:22, 30). In this love the Father manifested to the Son an eternal fatherhood, and the Son a divine and eternal son-ship. No earthly father figure can be compared with the love of God the Father to God the Son.

All things were given into His hand. Which things? Ah, dear reader, this is now the mystery of salvation: all things concerning the salvation of the church. For there was, as it were, a holy impossibility with the Father, causing Him to say, “How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations?” In the father-heart of God there was a longing for reconciliation with those lost ones whom He had chosen. In the creature there was no more hope of change. “And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor” (Isaiah 59:16). From those creatures who can only hate God, the Father yet chose a people to love Him as children. That is now love, unfeigned and stronger than death. Do you see where the foundation of salvation lies? It lies declared in our text: “The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand.”

All things! This took place in eternity, in the Counsel of Peace, and the blessed fruit of this divine transaction had to be worked out in time. “All things” had to do everything with the purchase of the church and the deep humiliation this cost the Son. For to bring a black bride back into the fellowship of God, to bring Jacob again to Him, Jesus Christ accepted a cup from His Father. The Father said to the Son, Bring My sons from far and My daughters from the ends of the earth. All this was at a cost determined by the justice of God: perfect obedience and the shedding of blood. Do you know, dear reader, that the love of the Son to the Father was so strong that He had no other desire than to do the will of His Father? The climax of this love we see in Gethsemane. “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” Observe here with what determination and love Christ also accepted all things of His Father. Never did the Son waver. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross and despised the shame.

He accepted all things concerning the salvation of the church. This also refers to her continuation. Therefore the salvation of the church is in such good hands! He will bring them, and they shall come, because all things are given into His hand. That includes not only the purchase but also the gathering in of sinners. All that the Father hath given to the Son shall come. A seed shall serve Him. They shall come and shall declare His righteousness. This work shall now continue, and the gathering of sinners is vouchsafed, even from the four corners of the earth. They shall come, also from Bolivia. Not because there are such faithful missionaries or mission workers at work, who do so much and give so much, no, it is because all things are given into the hand of the Son.

Many today speak of God as their father, but apart from Jesus Christ. I would like to direct your attention once to what our instructor says in Lord's Day 9. “What believest thou when thou sayest, I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth?” Then the answer does not first say: that God is my Father. In the answer the instructor first makes it clear that God the Father is Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is first. And all that the Father is for Christ, the Father in Christ is for His church. Yea, through Christ the church has the Father. Has this ever become the wonder in your life? That is paradise restored, the breach covered, the inheritance sealed.

It is only through the Holy Spirit that these things are taught and revealed. How necessary and comforting is this knowledge! How seldom do God's children come to this assurance, much less live out of the comfort of it. Yet it can be obtained. We live in terribly superficial times. Divine things are sometimes treated as if all can be obtained by right and reason. We must firmly reject such assertions. Still, what you have read may stand so far away from us. And this should not be so. Must we not seek for this comforting knowledge and assurance? Must we not earnestly seek that faith by which those benefits that Christ has merited are received? Were they only merited for the most advanced in grace? Far be it from us to think so. May God keep us from unbiblical thoughts about the graces that are to be obtained. God's people cannot live out of their poverty and nothingness. There are people who think this is so, but they bring no good report from the land, and they keep themselves in darkness. They speak only about themselves and seem to be so satisfied with themselves. May the Lord grant us a deep dissatisfaction with self so that we may find all in Him to whom the Father hath committed all things.

May God arise in our days to grant such exercises of faith. Is that yet possible? Certainly, for it has become Pentecost. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. That same Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. Do you read that? Joint-heirs, yes, then He is our oldest Brother. In Christ the church of God receives her son-ship of the Father. All that the Father has given to Christ then becomes mine, for Jesus' sake. The demand for justice is mine. But in Christ God views this demand as satisfied completely. Then the satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ is imputed such that it is as if I never had had nor committed any sin. Here my cup runneth over, and all this is because His cup was filled with my just condemnation.

All things are given into the hand of Christ. Yet, not all things were given into the hand of the church. No, there is yet a difference. There is something the Father gave into the hands of Christ that He did not give into the hands of the church. For Christ there was a cross. For Him there was a cup. For Him there were the stripes, the humiliation, the pain, the God-forsakenness. Yea, death was for Him. The terrors of hell were His portion. What a difference! Because now the church may in her greatest temptations be assured and comforted that she is delivered from the anguish and torments of hell (Lord's Day 16).

That difference, dear reader, counts for what the joy of God's salvation will eternally be. What this dear Savior underwent is what I never anymore need to undergo, though a thousand times over I deserved what He received. It is through Thee, through Thee alone, for Thy good pleasure's sake.

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