The God of Your Father

Moses was tending his father-in-law's sheep in the wilderness when he saw a bush, strangely burning, but not being consumed. Curiosity led him to investigate in Exodus chapter 3

When God introduced Himself to Moses from the burning bush, He called Himself “the God of  your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6), thereby identifying Himself as the Almighty and Sovereign One who justifies, regenerates, and provides perfectly for His own, and remains faithful to His people forever. All this “according to the good pleasure of His will” (Ephesians 1:5).

The God of your father: was the One in Whom Moses' family placed their trust, as they hid their beautiful boy-child from the evil that was intent on destroying the male children of Israel.

God's purpose is Grace.

The God of Abraham: chose Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans to become the first of a new race, a peculiar people of God’s own possession. Abram was to become the “father of a multitude of nations,” with whom God established a covenant of blessing forever. Abraham “believed in the Lord: and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Abraham was justified by faith in the One Who Provides.

God’s policy is Grace.

The God of Isaac: creates life where there seems to be no hope. He miraculously regenerates His people through new birth. Isaac’s physical birth was symbolic of this spiritual truth. We never need to “help God” by human efforts to force our mistakes into the shape of His promises as in the Hagar-Ishmael episode. What God has promised, God will deliver! Note Genesis 17:5-8. “I will make you the father of many nations…I will make you exceedingly fruitful…I will establish My covenant…I will give to you and to your descendants…I will be their God!”

What a contrast with Isaiah 14:13-14, in which Lucifer declared "I will" (be the supreme being). God's "I wills" were all about promoting His man, Abraham, by guaranteeing him progeny. Lucifer's "I wills" were about self-promotion.

The God of Isaac makes perfect provision for the needs of His people. Later in Isaac’s life, the ram was provided as a substitute for Isaac on the altar of sacrifice. This foreshadowed Jesus who was substituted in death for all of us (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, you, me) once and for all, paying the full penalty for our sins. I John 2:2: …and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

God's system is Grace.

The God of Jacob: implants a new nature in the soul of the believer. Over a period of many years and lots of discipline, Jacob became a man of great integrity whose testimony was total faith in the plan and purpose of “the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day” (Genesis 48:15). That isn’t the way he started out. He was a selfish, swindling cheat for much of his adult life. He looked out for number one, as we’re inclined to say. Jacob’s story begins in Genesis 25 and goes all the way to chapter 50; most of it is a sordid tale indeed. However, as we come to chapter 48 and see the unflinching faith of this man, we can believe that he had grown into his new name…Israel. The conniving supplanter had become the Prince of God.

Now, why didn’t God identify Himself as the God of Israel? Because it was to Jacob that He confirmed the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 28:13-24, and to whom He made this wonderful promise in verse 15: “And behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you.”

God remains faithful. He knows who are His.(2 Timothy 2:13,19).

Philippians 1:6 “…He who began a good work in you will perfect it. (2:13)…for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

God's production is Grace.

He, Himself Likewise

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. Hebrews 2:14-15 

 

The writer of Hebrews has stated the fact of Jesus’ humanity every way he could state it, because it is of supreme importance that those Hebrew believers and we understand the necessity for Jesus Christ to be born a true human. To purchase our redemption, He must be flesh and blood like us, but without sin. God the Son appeared at special times to Old Testament believers in the form of a man, or sometimes an angel or an inanimate object. That is called a Christophany. It means He, as pre-incarnate God, caused himself to look like a man and communicate with certain humans for a specific purpose. The Christophany was not truly human, though, it was just a convenient method for God to make Himself visible, such as Genesis 32:24-32 when He wrestled with Jacob; Genesis 18 when He talked with Abraham; or Joshua 5:13-15, when He appeared with a sword. He was also the burning bush and the pillar of fire/cloud in Exodus. After His virgin birth into humanity, there have been no more Christophanies. He is now fully human as well as fully God for all eternity.

Since the immaculate conception of God’s uniquely born Son (“only begotten” means the only one born this way; unique), the second person of the trinity has been true humanity. He Who was always truly God was born truly human, lived 33 years without committing any personal sins, went to the cross as a true human without sin, absorbed in His sinless body all the sins of mankind, beginning with Adam’s original sin and down to the last sin of the last human who will ever be born. The only way He could die was to lay aside His deity for that period of time, for God as spirit cannot die. He never ceased to be God, but He spent those years of incarnation without using His Godly powers. Remember, the temptations presented to Him by the devil in the wilderness challenged Him to put His powers to work for His own convenience (Matthew 4). He was prepared to refuse and reject that temptation, by using the written Word of God. That’s why He depended so totally on the Father and the Holy Spirit for support and guidance during those years on earth. Everything He did was in perfect obedience to the plan and purpose of God.

Part of His humiliation was learning obedience as a human. We humans who have all been born with the old sin nature automatically recoil at the idea of obedience. To become a mature believer requires humility, which is acquired by learning obedience. How can we learn obedience without knowing Bible doctrine (the mind of Christ)? Hence, the importance of accurate Bible study under the leadership of a good pastor-teacher. 

We were lifelong slaves to sin because of our fear of death. By becoming a human, receiving death and rising from the dead, God’s uniquely born Son delivered us from our fear; death could not hold Him. Death cannot hold us who are IN HIM! By that same act, He neutralized the devil, who had the power of death, rendering him powerless.

For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Hebrews 2:16-18

He didn’t do this for the angels, but for Abraham’s seed. The angels are a species that was created before the earth was formed. They have their own dimension and their own hierarchy under God’s authority. He has work for them to do. The fallen angels are in perpetual conflict with God. We humans are somehow a part of the conflict, being subject to the fear of death and the temptations of evil, but the angels do not change or die. We humans do change and we do die, physically. We who have believed in Jesus' finished work are IN CHRIST and are spiritually alive forever. His resurrection from the dead guarantees us that. It means we, too, will be resurrected after death. We will not, however, become angels. Not ever. What we are becoming is far above angels. We are eternal sons of God, brethren of Jesus Christ, members of the Body of Christ. We are Royal Family of God. Please don’t tell your children their dead relatives and friends have become angels. The believers who have died are far above angels! It was for us humans that He came to make propitiation; that is, He became a public display of God’s satisfaction for the judgment of our sins (Romans 3:25, I John 2:2). The propitiation (Father’s satisfaction) enables the expiation (complete removal) of sin, thereby restoring our eternal relationship to God.

“..having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” Colossians 2:14

That certificate of debt (IOU) no longer exists. He cancelled it by His atoning sacrifice for us. Paid in full.

In order to minister to us in our temptations, He had to become like us, tempted in His sufferings. Now we have a high priest Who not only loves us, but has complete understanding of all our weaknesses and is eager to attend to us in all our needs.

Because He Himself has suffered…