The Gospel in Twenty Questions (2 page)

When my first child was born,
there were some complications and she had to spend a few days in a special care
ward. During that time, she was kept in an incubator and the only way I could
touch her was by putting my arms through holes in the side of the incubator
wall. She was only a few hours old when I came to her, stroked her, and asked
her a question.

“Who’s your
daddy?”

I didn’t
expect her to answer, so I answered for her.

“I’m your
daddy, and I love you.”

It thrilled
me to tell her this again and again.

 “Who’s your
daddy? I am. It’s me. I’m that guy. I’m your father, you’re my baby, and I love
you.”

The
communication was all one-way but that was fine with me. I couldn’t shut up. I
had just become a father, and my heart was fit to burst. This little girl belonged
to me and I belonged to her. There were many things I wanted to tell her, but
the first and most important thing she needed to hear was that I was her daddy
and I loved her.

She’s older
now, but I have never stopped telling her that I’m her daddy and I never will.
My desire is that she will live her entire life knowing who I am and how much I
love her.

The most important question you
will ever ask is, “Who is my father?” Your answer to this question will influence
every other question of life. Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here?

Get the
father question wrong and you will miss it on every other issue. Your identity
will be muddled, and you will have no lasting security. In your legitimate
desire to define yourself, you may settle for inferior choices such as career
or ministry. “I am a doctor.” “I am a pastor.” But the truth is you are more
than what you do. You are your father’s child.

But who is
your father?

My wife,
Camilla, and I recently had lunch with a primary school teacher. This lady told
us her school had just started a breakfast club for poor kids. The purpose of
the breakfast club is to provide toast, milk, and cereal for students who come
to school with empty stomachs. Although we live in one of the world’s
wealthiest nations, in our city, many thousands of kids don’t have enough to
eat. The breakfast clubs are a great idea because learning is hard when you’re
hungry.

“What kind of
families do these breakfast kids come from?” I asked.

“Teenage
mothers with no parenting skills,” was her quick reply. “The fathers are long
gone, and many of the moms have boyfriends who view these children as
nuisances. It’s not uncommon for the boyfriends to beat the kids.”

My heart
breaks for these children. I wonder how they will turn out given that the
dominant male influence in their lives comes from men who don’t love them. I
wonder what kind of fathers the boys will become, since they have no fathers of
their own. And I wonder if my children will be providing breakfast clubs for
their
children.

The worst
part is that this story is hardly unusual. The kids in the breakfast club are
merely the latest victims in an ancient cycle of poor parenting. Our family
tree dates back to Adam, who fathered a murderer. Is it any exaggeration to say
that the number one problem in this world is fatherlessness?
Pick any wife-beater, drug dealer, or pedophile, and
the odds are good you will find someone who had a bad dad. Fathers matter.

I know
something about fatherlessness because my own dad died when I was eight years
old. As a boy growing up with no father, the odds were stacked against me. Only
they weren’t. By the grace of God, I was delivered from Adam’s cursed family
and adopted into another. I knew who my Father was and how much he loved me,
and that has made all the difference.

Jesus
answers the most important question: “Who’s your Father? God is your Father!”

In
the Old Testament, no one dared speak of the Almighty in such familiar terms.
God was the Creator, the Lord of heaven and earth. He was a distant mystery
glimpsed occasionally by the prophets and select others. Back then, people
prayed formal and lofty prayers to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then
Jesus came and said
we should pray like
this:

Our Father in heaven … (Matthew 6:9)

Can you imagine the shock of
those who heard these words? “God is my
Father
? Are you sure about that,
Jesus? Surely you mean he’s
your
father, not mine.” Yet in his Sermon on
the Mount Jesus identifies God as
your
Father and
our
Father no
less than sixteen times. This was good news then and it’s good news now. The
One who measures the universe in his hand is
your Daddy
.

Before Jesus, no one called God
“Father.” It just wasn’t done. But after Jesus, every New Testament writer
spoke this way. James declared, “Every good and perfect gift comes down from
the Father.” John boasted, “How great is the Father’s love.” And Paul began
nearly all of his letters with, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father.”
[2]

The saints of
the Old Testament had many names for God, but Jesus gave us the best name of
all: “
Abba
, Father” (Mark 14:36).
Abba
is not the name of a
distant and mysterious God.
Abba
is your heavenly Father who cares for
you and longs for you to know him.
Abba
is your Daddy who loves you so
much he sent his Son to tell you.

Why did J
esus come? Jesus came to reveal God the Father to you. He
came so that you might know who you truly are. He came that you might
experience the abundant life of living as the apple of your Father’s eye.

Why
did I write this book? I wrote it so that you might know your heavenly Father
is the very definition of awesome. He’s better and bigger than you think he is.
And I wrote it so that you might know you are his beloved child.

Your heavenly
Father is for you. He has tilted the universe in your favor. With a Father like
this, how can you fail?

Jesus said,
“Father, glorify your name!” (John 12:28). What is the name of God that Jesus
wants to glorify? He just told us. It’s Father. He has other names, but this is
the name he wants us to use when we talk to him.

My purpose in
this book is Jesus’ purpose. It’s to draw your attention to a God named Father.
This is the name Jesus gave us and it is the name we esteem above all others.
You need to see God as Jesus did—as a Father.

“But Paul,
you’re talking about the Ancient of Days and the Most High God.” I am, and he
is all those things and infinitely more besides. He is magnificent beyond words
and beautiful beyond comprehension. But above all titles and all names, he is
your Father and my Father. This book is not a Bible-study; it’s a Daddy-study.

Theologians
like to ask, “What was Jesus’ favorite subject?” Some observe that he spoke
often about the kingdom. Others note that he spoke much about money and love.
But Jesus’ favorite subject by a long stretch was his Father. Everything he
said and everything he did was grounded in the relationship he shared with his
Father.

“I do what I
see my Father doing,” said Jesus. “I speak what I hear him speaking.”
[3]
Near the end of his life, Jesus prayed,

Righteous Father, though the world does not know you,
I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them,
and will continue to make you known... (John 17:25–26)

Jesus is in the business of
making the Father known. Yet many don’t know God as their Father. Like the
saints of old, they may see him as Lord but not
Abba
. It’s as if Jesus
never came.      

A.W. Tozer once said, “What
comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about
us.”
[4]
Your picture of God is the single greatest influence on your life. Define God
and you define yourself. For instance, if you imagine God as a terrifying
punisher, you’ll likely be fearful and guilt-ridden. If you see him as a
semi-deaf sky-Santa, you’ll likely be a superstitious worrier. And if you
believe him to be distant or dead, chances are you’ll act as a little god of
your own little world. How you see him affects how you see yourself.

Your view of God
matters, but what is God really like?

Read the
prophetic visions in the Bible and you will discover some truly fantastic
images. Isaiah saw the Lord wearing a colossal robe and surrounded by
six-winged singing angels. Ezekiel saw God as a glowing metal
man wrapped in a rainbow. And Daniel saw a white-haired
ageless figure seated on a burning throne with burning wheels.
But these
prophetic pictures are only glimpses into God’s nature. They describe aspects
but not the whole picture. If you want to know what God is really like, you
need to look elsewhere.
[5]

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the
prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has
spoken to us by his Son … The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact
representation of his being … (Hebrews 1:1–3a)

What is the Father like? He is
exactly like the Son. Or the Son is exactly like the Father. God is like Jesus.
Not roughly so, but exactly so. Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen
the Father” (John 14:9). If you ran into God the Father at a party you might
mistake him for Jesus or vice versa. That’s how similar they are.

This
similarity makes it easy for us to dismiss the silly caricatures of manmade
religion. Since Jesus is not a semi-deaf sky-Santa, then neither is God. And
since Jesus is not a terrifying punisher, neither is God. Your heavenly Father
is exactly like Jesus.

Maybe you
think God is a bookkeeper recording all your sins. Perhaps someone told you,
“When you get to heaven, they will play a video of your life and all your
secret sins will be exposed.” But God is not like that. How do we know? Because
Jesus is not like that. Jesus didn’t shame sinners. He loved them and had
dinner with them and introduced them to his Father.

Or maybe you
think God is a passive and ineffectual sovereign who lets the universe run on
auto-pilot. “Everything that happens is his will. If I get sick, God ordained
it. If my baby dies, it’s because God took him home.” But God is not like that.
How do we know? Because Jesus is not like that. Jesus is not a fatalist. His
desire was to see the Father’s will done on earth as it is in heaven. This is
why he healed the sick and raised the dead.

Or maybe you
think your sins put you in danger of an angry God. “God hates sinners and plans
to crush them under his feet without mercy.” But God is not like that. How do
we know? Because Jesus is not like that. Jesus is a friend of sinners;
therefore, God is a friend of sinners too. Indeed, he is the best friend a
sinner could have.

God the
Father and God the Son don’t have separate agendas. God is not in heaven
recording your sins while Jesus is forgiving them. Nor is he giving you
sicknesses so Jesus can heal you. The Father and the Son are exactly alike,
they’re on the same page, and they have the same heart. Jesus said, “I and the
Father are one” (John 10:30).

Some find it difficult to
reconcile the Jesus of the Gospels with the stern God they’ve been raised with.
“Jesus I like, but I’m not too sure about his Dad.” They picture Jesus as a big
brother sheltering them from the blows of an angry and abusive Father. But God
is not like that at all. How do we know? Because Jesus is not like that, and
Jesus is the exact representation of the Father.

“But didn’t
Moses say God would curse us if we broke his laws?” Moses may have said it, but
Jesus never did. Moses had good reasons for saying what he did when he did, and
we’ll get to those later, but Moses had only a partial understanding of God’s
true character. Jesus is the complete picture. Moses had a glimpse, but Jesus
gives us the full 360-degree panorama.

I am
sometimes asked, “How does the angry God of the Old Testament fit with the nice
God of the New?” This question makes it sound like there is more than one God
or that God has changed over time. Perhaps he went to anger management classes.
But the truth is God never changes. God has always been our loving Father. The
first man, Adam, was called a son of God (Luke 3:38). The problem is not that
God stopped being our Father. The problem is we ran away from home.

The so-called
“God of the Old Testament” is a fuzzy photograph taken with a telephoto lens by
those who could not appreciate what they were looking at. Moses, Elijah, and
the other Old Testament prophets had a revelation of God but they did not fully
know him.
Before Jesus, nobody did
. God is
simply too big for mortal minds to grasp.

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son,
who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him
known. (John 1:18)

The only person who can
accurately explain God is God himself, and he did this by sending us his Son.
Jesus is God explaining himself to the human race. Jesus is the answer to the
question, “What is God like?”