GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
COLOSSIANS 1:3 Part 1
Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
We will talk about prayer later. First, we should answer a question: Who is God the Father? Malachi the prophet asked, “Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us?” (Malachi 2:1). The Psalms have some references like this: “You are my Father, my God” (Psalm 89:26); and “You are my Son, today I have become your Father” (Psalm 2:2). The title “God the Father” or “God our Father” is mostly a New Testament phrase, common especially in Paul’s letters (1 Cor. 1:3; 2 Thess. 1:1; 2 Timothy 1:2, etc.), but if God can say “out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1), it follows that there must be a Father since he calls someone his son.
That Someone is Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity. Jesus calls God “my Father” 49 times in the Gospels, many of these instances during the Last Supper. There is also one instance in Acts and three in the letters of Revelation (2:27; 3:5 and 3:21).
We call God our Father because he created us, because he is the Father of our Lord Jesus, and because we are truly his children through faith in Jesus: “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,” Galatians 3:26).
Earlier I said that “there must be a Father since he calls someone his son.” There is a new heresy infecting some churches in which people are being invited to refer to God as “she” and “mother.” I have heard people go so far as to change the gender in a passage such as “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good” (Psalm 118:1, 29). The reason that is given for this in the new United Methodist Manual of Discipline is that in the Parable of the Lost Coin (Luke 15:8-9), a woman has lost her coin and finds it again, and that the woman must represent God, therefore God can be described as a woman. The fault in their logic is that in the parable just before, the Lost Sheep, who is the one who has lost their sheep? In the account, Jesus says “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep…” (Luke 15:4). Will the Methodist Church claim that I myself am God, since Jesus asks me to imagine that I have lost one of my sheep in his parable? Should I address myself as God when I pray? Why would I pray if I’m praying to myself? And I can successfully argue that neither I nor any member of the Methodist Church is God, since none of us were there when the universe was made, and none of us is the Father of Jesus Christ. (We will talk more about the fault in the Methodist syllogism when we visit Luke 15).
It would be best to say clearly who the Father is. He is the First Person of the Holy Trinity, but he was not first chronologically. There was never a time, even in eternity, when there was the Father without the Son or the Spirit. The unified triune God has always existed. “I Am Who I Am,” he said (Exodus 3:14). God is without beginning and without end (Hebrews 7:3). God the Father’s role in my personal being is this:
1, He made the universe in which I live by the power of his almighty word. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made…he spoke, and it came to be” (Psalm 33:6,9).
2, He formed my own body in the womb of my mother. “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13).
3, He preserves me in my faith through his holy word. “I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).
4, He protects me and preserves life. “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth “ (Psalm 121:2).
5, He invites me to turn to him for help at all times. “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him” (Nahum 1:7).
6, He corrects me through his word and he does not leave me to wonder whether I am on the right path. “Blessed is the man you discipline, O Lord, the man you teach from your law” (Psalm 94:12).
7, He sent his Son Jesus to rescue me from my sins. “Salvation comes from the Lord” (Jonah 2:9); “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him” (Psalm 62:1).
8, He sends his Holy Spirit into my heart to preserve my faith and be present in me through every trial and temptation. “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father with send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26).
This is enough for now. But we always profit from remembering the Catechism, so let’s recall Luther’s explanation to the First Article:
I believe that God created me and all that exists, and that he gave me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my mind and all my abilities.
And I believe that God still preserves me by richly and daily providing clothing and shoes, food and drink, property and home, spouse and children, land, cattle, and all I own, and all I need to keep my body and life. God also preserves me by defending me against all danger, guarding and protecting me from all evil. All this God does only because he is my good and merciful Father in heaven, and not because I have earned or deserved it. For all this I ought to thank and praise, to serve and obey him. This is most certainly true.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota