God the Father : What does the Bible say?

God the Father

What does the Bible teach about the Father?

efore embarking on a study on the Father, it is important to also understand what the Bible says about Jesus, who He is, and where He is revealed. This will help us to understand the Father and The Holy Spirit.

Title, Position, Name, Essence: First concepts in understanding the GodHead
Many people are struck with the many clear references in the New Testament to the Father as "God", and Jesus as "Lord". A cursory examination of the New Testament will show that, in general, when the Bible uses the word "God", it almost always refers to the Father. Does this mean that Jesus is not God? No it does not mean that. Let's examine Title, Position, Name, and Essence to explain this.

Title: A title is "a descriptive or distinctive appellation, especially one belonging to a person by right of rank, office, or attainment." [Random House College Dictionary]. A title, therefore, is a descriptive term that relates to one's position. For instance, my title is "Doctor" because of my attainment of an MD degree and subsequent Board Certification. This title refers to my position in the workforce. At home my title ceases to be "Doctor" since my attainment of an MD doesn't affect my family relationships. George W. Bush attained the title of "President" by gaining a political position and office in America.

Position: One's position is his "standing", "placement", and "situation". A position is very often equivalent to the title, since the title is merely a name given to describe a person's position. For example, many people call their boss, "Boss". Since a man's standing, placement and situation in the workforce is that of "boss", he is often ascribed the title, "Boss". Thus the line of distinction between position and title is often blurred. But the "boss" may also be given the title, "Big Guy", or any other number of titles to describe his position. So we see that a title is merely a term used to describe one's position. One person may have more than one position in life, depending upon the circumstances. The man who is boss at home may not be boss at work [and vice versa!]. In fact, almost everybody finds that they have a different position for nearly every personal interaction. In one interaction you are equals, another you are a servant, and in another you are boss. There can only be two positions in all of creation which would not experience this constant change: The person who was the boss over everyone, and the person who was the servant of everyone.

Name: A name in our culture is most often unrelated to his/her position or title. My name is "Tom", which describes neither my title, nor my position. "Tom" is merely a name given to me by my parents. In Jewish culture, especially before Christ came, names did indeed have a meaning, most often a meaning that pointed to God. An example is Joel which meas "Jehovah is God". And at times, a name would be given which described some characteristic of the person. For example, Esau means "hairy". Some people are given a title later in life that so much describes them that many people refer to him/her by their title as if it were their name. For example, my high school swim coach was called "Coach" so much that few people knew his given name. His name effectively became "coach". But he still had a name [it was Richard] nonetheless.

Essence: A person's essence is much harder to describe. "Essence" goes far deeper in describing who a person IS. "The essence of a person is his/her's very nature. My name is "Tom", my titles are "Doctor", "Daddy", "Sir", "Mister", and my position changes depending upon the situation. But none of these comes even close to describing who I am!!!! All of these terms fall far short of getting at the root of who I am. Ultimately who I am cannot be defined by my attainments [title], actions and situations [position], or name. I believe that I am ultimately defined and described by where I came from. And is further defined by what my purpose is and where I am going. These are the factors that really expose who I am. When these three questions are answered, and my "essence" is defined, then you will really know who I am. Then the titles, positions, and name that I currently have may even begin to seem irrelevant in comparison to the "essence", unless they also describe "the essence".
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Now let's look at these words with respect to the Father and the Son, Jesus.
Title/Position:
God the Father is that person who is boss over everyone. God the Father has never submitted Himself to the will of another and therefore He can aptly be given the title of "God" and "Father" in reference to any person [including Jesus Christ] because He occupies the position of "God" and "Father" with respect to everyone.
Jesus has submitted Himself to the will of the Father. It is important to strongly emphasize here that submission does NOT mean inferiority. A wife should submit herself to her husband, but this in no way makes her inferior to the husband. Likewise, Jesus has submitted Himself to the Father, without becoming inferior to Him. They remain co-equal. This submissive position to the Father is why Jesus has the title of "Son". Jesus, however, is not under the will and direction of creation [in fact, He created everything!--see John 1:3, Colossians 1:16], therefore Jesus has the title of "Lord" because of his lordship over all creation.

Name:
As we said before, many times a name is unrelated to who a person is, or his/her position. This is common in our culture. My name is Tom. The name "Tom" was chosen because it was my biological father's name. The meaning and significance of the name "Tom" ends there. But God's names always relate to some attribute, characteristic, position, or function that He fulfills.
Jesus means "Savior" and thus the name Jesus describes what He does. Yahweh means "He is" which comes from "I AM" and relates to the fact that God is everything to us, He is also self-sufficient, and fills the universe with His glory, presence, and power. Jesus has many names ascribed to Him in both the Old and New Testaments. All these names describe something about Him.
God the Father is usually called "Father" by Jesus, and is called either "God" or "Father" by the writers of the New Testament. We also see that the Father shares a name with Jesus [very likely is "I AM"] by reading Jesus' prayer to the Father in John 17:11. In this respect we can see that the New Testament gives many more names for Jesus than for God the Father. This may be to illustrate that Jesus is the Way to anything we may desire or need in life and that no one goes to the Father except through Jesus. He fulfills every role, satisfies every need, and destroys every enemy so that He can be Savior and that He may receive glory and be worshipped by all.

Essence:
"Essence" defines the very nature of a person. As we described above, our essence goes beyond our title and position in describing ourselves. Our essence may be described by our title or position, but often it is not. In essence I am an image bearer of God. My purpose is to bring glory to Jesus. My title/position and name does not describe that, but it could if I changed my name!!

God the Father: The Father is uncreated, and by definition this gives Him the very essence of what we call "God"
Jesus is also uncreated. John 1:3 says that "without Him, nothing was made that has been made." Since it is impossible to create yourself, then Jesus must be uncreated. If He were created by the Father, then there would be one creature in all of creation that Jesus didn't create...Himself! Thus John 1:3 would not be true. So if Jesus is uncreated, then He shares the same essence as the Father that we define as "God". The New Testament desires to make this point so clear that it gives us much more evidence of Jesus' divinity than this powerful verse we just read. If you would like to study this more, please download this document:

Proving the Deity of Christ
from the Scriptures
word | pdf
[54 KB]

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