3rd July 2025

The fatherhood of God is rarely mentioned in the Old Testament, but when it is, it often relates to God’s corporate relationship with his people. God’s fatherhood is usually expressed in relationship to groups such as widows and orphans (Psalm 68:5) or to the nation of Israel as a whole (Isaiah 63:16; Jeremiah 3:19). The ‘fatherhood’ of God was recognised in some personal names, such as Yoav meaning ‘God is father’¹ or Aviyah meaning ‘God (Yahweh) is my Father’.²   Only to two individuals, David and Solomon, does God explicitly state he is their father (2 Samuel 7:14; 1 Chronicles 28:6; Psalm 89:26), and this is in the context of them being kings over Israel. In the Old Testament, there is little understanding of God’s relationship to individuals as ‘Father’.    

When we come to the New Testament, our understanding of the fatherhood of God is expanded. We are introduced to Jesus calling God his father (John 5:17-18), and he went on to say, ‘I and the Father are one’ (John 10:30). And ‘…Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…’ (John 14:9). God is ‘Father’ because he has a Son. The Nicene Creed can say that God is ‘Father’ because Jesus Christ is his Son (Ephesians 1:3). God is only eternally ‘Father’ if God the Son is eternal, leading T. F. Torrance to assert ‘God is, and always is, Father’.³  If, at some point, a Son had to be made, then God the Father was not always the Father. 

In addition to being ‘the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Romans 15:6;  2 Corinthians 1:3), God is also the father of those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ, who are Christians. In the New Testament, Jesus often described God as ‘your father’ (Luke 12:32; John 20:17), and Jim Packer goes as far as saying, ‘If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian…is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God.’⁴

In practical terms, to call God our Abba, Father (Galatians 4:6) brings us into a new and wonderful relationship with God, where we are no longer slaves but his beloved children (v. 7). A relationship that will last for all eternity has been established. We are loved, well taken care of, and will never be separated from our heavenly Father: ‘See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!’ (1 John 3:1). Having God as our Father enriches our prayer life (Matthew 6:9), strengthens our hope for the future (Romans 8:23), and enables us to be trained by him (Hebrews 12:7) so we may share in his holiness (v.10).

We believe in God the Father, and as a result, we have not been left as orphans to fend for ourselves, and our future is secure – what a blessing.

¹ Strong’s Hebrew: 3097. יוֹאָב (Yoab) — Joab
² H29 – ‘ăḇîâ – Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon (kjv)
³ Torrance, T.F., The Trinitarian Faith, p 87.
⁴ Packer, J.I. Knowing God, p 126.

Local congregation:
Grace Communion West Hampstead 
Sidings Community Centre
150 Brassey Road
West Hampstead
London
NW6 2BA

Meeting time:
Sunday 12.30 pm

Local congregational contact:
Gordon Brown
gordon.brown@gracecom.church

Word of Life contact:  
wordoflife@gracecom.church