Our Father in Heaven: Two Interviews on God the Father

Interviews by Matthew Claridge–

What is the goal of our salvation? Common answers might include escaping hell fire, seeing departed loved ones, or living happily ever after in the New Heaven and New Earth.  We all should know it goes deeper than that, and more well-informed answers would refer to the famed Westminster Catechism, “to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” But truth be told, even this classic statement isn’t as precise as the Bible puts it, or as Jesus puts it time and time again in the Gospel of John: “This is eternal life, that they know you [the Father] the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Jesus came to grant us access to the Father, not just to God generally speaking.

What differences does that make?  Honestly, despite the fact that the Father is the goal of our salvation, I think He is perhaps the most neglected or misunderstood Person of the Blessed Trinity. To help us answer that question, a couple well known theologians and pastors have penned or edited books focusing entirely on the Father–Joel Beeke, editor of the The Beauty and Glory of the Father, and Doug Wilson, author of Father Hunger: Why God Calls Men to Love and Lead Their Families.  Dr. Beeke is president and professor systematic theology and homiletic at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. he also serves as pastor of the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids. Doug Wilson is senior pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, and senior fellow of theology at New Saint Andrews College. He regularly blogs at www.DougWils.com. Taken together, these two books give us one of the most thorough treatments of the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God and its implications for our personal and social good.

Interview with Joel Beeke

Tell us a little a bit about this volume, its origin and why its theme was chosen.

We desired to consider the wonders of the triune God. The Beauty and Glory of the Father originated in a series of conferences sponsored by Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. We had done conferences on the Son and the Spirit, and so in August 2012 we gathered together under the theme of the Father. Various pastor-theologians joined our own faculty in preaching a series of stirring messages, and the manuscripts of those messages were published in this book.

There are churches named after the Son and churches named after the Spirit. Why not the Father? Do you think the Father tends to be neglected in contemporary Evangelicalism?

Church names notwithstanding, the entire Trinity often seems to be neglected in contemporary churches. If we are thinking biblically, then we cannot begin to meditate on one person of the Trinity without quickly being led to exult in the others. However, modern Evangelicals tend to focus so much on their feelings and activities that they neglect God Himself. If they speak much of God, then they tend to focus on His attributes–which are glorious–but remain strangely silent about the divine persons united as one God: Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

What would you say is the difference between the revelation of the “Father” in the Old Testament and in the New Testament?

God’s fatherhood is revealed in the Old Testament (Ex. 4:22; Ps. 103:13; Isa. 63:16; 64:8; Mal. 1:6), but this theme appears with brilliant and pervasive radiance in the New Testament. One reason for this is that God the Son has come in the flesh, and His relationship with the Father illuminates the relationship of God’s redeemed children to their Father (John 1:12-14).

This may seem like a no-brainer, but what is the relationship between God as Father and the image of our salvation as “adoption”? What does this say about the nature of our salvation?

The relationship between God’s fatherhood and our adoption is Christ, for He is the Son of God. This tells us that at the core of our salvation is union with Christ (being “in him,” as Paul repeatedly says in Eph. 1:3-14). The Father sent His Son to redeem sinners from the curse of His holy law and give them adoption, and He sent His Spirit to make their adoption a reality in their personal experience (Gal. 3:13-14; 4:4-6). It is only in union with the Son of God that we have this adoption and the Spirit of adoption.

What was it about Puritan reflections on “adoption” that struck, warmed, and edified you?

More than I can say in a short space! (See my book, Heirs with Christ: The Puritans on Adoption.) One thing that encouraged me is that the Puritans were the first people to put a separate section in a confession of faith on the Christian’s adoption (Westminster Confession of Faith, XII). Another thing was that the Puritans emphasized that adoption was both a legal, positional status, and also an experience to be cultivated in the Spirit of adoption. They were concerned that believers have an assurance that they are children of God, and that they enjoy fellowship with the Father in His love.

What’s so great and life-changing about the  “unlimited access to the Father we have through Christ Jesus”?

It brings the church into communion with the triune God! Paul summed up the blessings of our peace in Christ by writing, “For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 2:18). In this short statement we see that: (1) our adoption leads us to consider and rejoice in the riches of Christ’s mediatorial person and work (“through him”) for His church; (2) it brings us into an experience of the fellowship with God given by the Holy Spirit (“by one Spirit”) to God’s worshipers; (3) it draws us through Christ and in the Spirit to the Father Himself (“unto the Father”) to delight in the wonders of the love that planned our salvation from eternity and now embraces us forever; (4) it unites us with other believers from Israel and Gentiles of many other ethnic backgrounds (“we both”) to know and enjoy God, not in isolation but as a loving community of brothers and sisters, God’s many colored family.

Interview with Doug Wilson

What does the Fatherhood of God have to do with the fatherhood of everyone else?

In Eph. 3:14-15, the apostle Paul says that all fatherhood (patria) derives from the Father of Jesus Christ. This makes His fatherhood archetypical, and the font of everything else.

 You trace many of our current social, moral, and spiritual maladies to “father hunger.” What do you mean by this and why does it hold such explanatory power for all these other concerns?

The Bible teaches that we have fallen into sin as a race, which means that we are estranged from our heavenly Father. When we come back to Him, Jesus teaches us to pray, “our Father . . .” All our problems are in some way reflections of this central dislocation. When Jesus says that He is the way, the truth, and the life, He is saying that no one comes to the Father except through Him. That is what we need.

 What’s the difference between “male-ness” and “masculinity”? How has the latter been “redefined by the conservative American church”?

Being male is a feature of biology. Since God the Father has no body, His masculinity cannot be a function of biology. It must therefore be something else. Masculinity in our day is defined in terms of bravado, bluster, or machismo.

 I benefited from an illustration you provided for how children learn to respect a father’s authority, namely, its like writing a check. Could you explain that illustration for our readers and how it translates into the day-to-day of fatherhood?

Exercising authority is like writing a check. Establishing a deep relationship of trust is like making deposits in the bank. When it comes to the time when you need to write a check with your kids (by saying no to something they really want), it is not enough to prove that the checkbook is yours. You have to have put money in it.

 You suggest, “I would recommend that men who have had a real shortage of practical examples should read biographies of fathers.” Any particular examples you would recommend?

Iain Murray on Jonathan Edwards, For Kirk and Covenant on John Knox, and Peter Lillback on George Washington.

 “Gratitude declares the meaning of fatherhood like little else can.” What do you mean?

Gratitude is contagious, and when a father is grateful for what he has, he is modeling for his sons and daughters how to be grateful for what they have.

 In what ways does a free society depend on families lead by masculine men?

Effeminate men can be manipulated and worked. There will always be someone available to do that. Masculine men can be led, but not manipulated. Political liberty therefore depends on a recovery of masculinity.

 “In this world, a woman is God’s chief instrument for making a man responsible.” Really?

Really. A man cannot be responsible unless there is someone to be responsible for. He needs to be needed. Without that, he is down the road.

 How should pastors resist the bumbling, nerdy stereotypes of Mr. Collins and also the testosterone induced-coma of a Leonidas? What does it mean to be a “masculine” minister?

Masculinity means to take responsibility. If a man is ordained, he is responsible to preach what the Bible says. If he does that, he will need courage enough.

Matthew Claridge is an editor for Credo Magazine and is Senior Pastor of Mt. Idaho Baptist Church in Grangeville, ID. He has earned degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is married to Cassandra and has three children: Alec, Nora, and Grace.