5 WAYS GOD IS FATHER TO THE FATHERLESS by Leah Baugh for Core Christianity
In an age when families are often split and there seem to be more single parents than ever, the concept of God as our Father loses meaning with many people today. Here are five ways God is a father to those who have earthly fathers and to those who do not.
1. God as Father provides salvation for any who believe.
God the Father sent his Son, Jesus, to die a shameful death on a cross so that sinners might also become sons of God. Anyone who trusts in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins is united to Jesus and made his brother or sister. This gives believers a family—a place where they belong:
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Gal. 4:4–5)
A Christian’s identity has changed from belonging to the world to belonging to God.
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2. God as Father gives his children an inheritance.
In biblical times, only sons could inherit their father’s property after the father died. This is why the Bible calls believers sons and never daughters. However, the point is not to exclude women but to emphasize the fact that all children of God—both male and female—are heirs:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal. 3:28)
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Gal. 4:6–7)
This inheritance is nothing less than heaven itself, the place where God and his people dwell together in perfect love and harmony.
