The notion of God as Father is the ultimate contradiction. Over 300 times in the New Testament, the word Father is used to describe God. In the Old Testament, the word Father is not used even once in the same sense. Jesus came for one purpose and one purpose only: to reveal God as Father. All of His words and all of His works served that one grand purpose. Because the law is written in your heart, and not grace, apart from the revelation that comes only through Jesus, you simply cannot conceive of God as Father. Here’s how Jesus explained it to His disciples:
No one had ever even imagined God as Father before.
For the first time ever in the history of the world, Jesus declares the unimaginable aletheia: God is your Father. And what does your Father really look like?
He that hath seen Me, Jesus says, hath seen the Father.
The Father looks like Jesus. The Father does not look like Moses. Study the photo. You need to know the difference. Because according to Jesus, what distinguishes those who have eternal life and those who don’t is just one thing: you either know the Father, as only Jesus shows Him, or you don’t.
The Father doesn’t look like Moses. The Father looks like Jesus. And not as Moses, says the writer of Hebrews.
The Father also doesn’t sound like Moses. The Father sounds like Jesus.
The Father doesn’t condemn sinners like the law of Moses condemns sinners. The Father justifies sinners like Jesus justifies sinners.
FOR GOD SENT NOT HIS SON INTO THE WORLD TO
CONDEMN THE WORLD; BUT THAT THE WORLD THROUGH
HIM MIGHT BE SAVED.
(JOHN 3:17)
And that’s the whole problem. Many who call themselves the Church, who insist that they speak for God, speak not to the sinners of this world with the loving voice of the Father, but rather, with the voice of Moses.
They would have you believe that God condemns sinners for their sins. That God judges sinners for their sins. That God rejects sinners for their sins. The way they tell it, God sends the Pharisee home justified and the publican home condemned.
But nothing, nothing in the entire universe, could be further from the truth about the Father.
What is the most miraculous work of God that there is? Is it not the salvation of sinners? Of the very worst kinds of sinners? Of the very vilest kinds of sinners? Is the miraculous work of God not, above everything else, the amazing grace and the astounding mercy extended, without deserving merit, to the most debauched of sinners? Did He not come into the world, strictly and only, to save sinners? (1 Timothy 1:15)
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a what like me”?
Don’t get confused. God saves only wretches. And He saves no one else.
And when you get so confused about the real nature of the work of the Holy Spirit, and the real eternal goal of God, and the real power of His sin-justifying resurrection, that you begin to believe that those who offer His grace to the very worst among us are actually doing the work of the devil, have you not committed blasphemy?
They assigned His healing work to the devil and Jesus Himself called it blasphemy. Will you now assign His saving work to the devil and think that He won’t call it the same? They assigned that which was only temporary to the devil and He called it blasphemy. Will you now assign what is eternal to the devil and think that He won’t call it the same?
Stop saying that it is the work of the devil when those who are truly sinful lay claim to Christ’s forgiveness. That is the work of God. And that is the only work of God.
Do you not understand? The more sinful you are, not the less sinful you are, the more grace you get.
Stop telling people that the more sinful you are, the less grace you get.
Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. Only where sin abounds does grace much more abound. Look around you. Where does sin abound? That’s where you’ll find the work of God abounding. And absolutely no where else.
Whose work is it? His. For we are his workmanship.
And whose work is it not? Yours. Not of works, lest any man should boast.
And what will be the eternal theme of His display? That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Are you so confused that you think that in the ages to come the theme on display will be your own sweaty work of righteousness and not His eternal grace and kindness?
Do you not understand what the word freely means? It means “without a cause.” When you look into your own soul to find sufficient cause for His justification, you must find none. Stop telling anyone else that they must find some. Stop thinking that you provide sufficient cause for your justification by your righteous behaviour, but someone else, who is more sinful in your estimation than you are, does not.
The redemption, your redemption, is in Christ Jesus, not in you. Therefore, their redemption, anyone’s redemption, everyone’s redemption, is also in Christ Jesus, and not in them. Stop telling them that their redemption must be in them, like you think your redemption is in you.
And how, by what manner and means, through what, are you now saved? For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
It’s not of you. It’s not in you. It’s not of your works. It’s not in your works. It is a gift and nothing else. It’s in Christ. And it’s of Christ. Your exclusion of any other sinner from His grace, no matter what is their sin, is nothing other than the boast on your part that you are deserving of what you got from God because of your works, but they are not, because of theirs.
Your boasting is nothing less than blasphemy.
Either you will extend His grace, as He most certainly does, to the most sinful you can imagine, knowing that in the ages to come, it will be the most sinful by which His grace is most gloriously displayed, or you will find that the grace that you needed Him to extend to you is not.
You cannot lock the Door to anyone else, and still go in yourself.
Do you really want to stand before God on judgement day and tell Him how you faithfully guarded the door so that none of those undeserving ones could come in?
Do you really think that He’ll say to you on that day, Well done, thou good and faithful servant? Good job of keeping the truly sinful out?
My friend, I don’t even want to be standing close to you on that day as you lift your voice in the highest praise you can imagine, saying, God I thank thee that I am not as other men are.
Don’t be confused. If you’re confessing that to Him now, you’ll also be confessing that to Him then.
Repent of your righteousness. Christ, in the cross, has already taken care of your sinfulness.
The Father loves sinners. Sinners who are sick with the sickness of sin. Period. And if you’re not sick, the Physician that the Father has sent will do you no good.
Simply said:
It’s an utter contradiction to believe that God thinks nothing like you and you think nothing like God. Believe and confess it anyway. And it’s an utter contradiction to believe that every man is a liar and only God is true. Believe and confess it anyway. And it’s an utter contradiction to believe that truth is only what you hear from Christ and nothing of what you see for yourself. Believe and confess it anyway. And it’s an utter contradiction to believe that you’re not really righteous and your faith is only counted for righteousness. Believe and confess it anyway. And it’s an utter contradiction to believe that God wills for your life in this world a cross and death and not a crown and life. Believe and confess it anyway. And it’s an utter contradiction to believe that God receives only sinners and always rejects the righteous. Believe and confess it anyway.
Go back to the temple for one more look. You’ve been told that the justified one looks like that guy standing over there inventorying his successes. And that your goal should be to look like him, to talk like him, and to act like him. But Jesus says differently. See the one in the corner over there alone, inventorying his failures? Jesus says you should look like him, talk like him, and act like him. There’s only one going down to his house justified. And it’s not the one they think it is.
Who’s really failing and who’s really succeeding here? See the one reminding God of his righteousness? That’s the real celebratory failure. He’s celebrating the law’s failure to make him guilty. And though he doesn’t know it, the publican, by a entire universe of contradiction, is actually celebrating the law’s success in making him guilty. That’s why the angels in heaven are celebrating with him.
Every man, without exception, is either a Pharisee or a publican. There is no third category. You’re either confessing your righteousness, or you’re confessing your sin. Which are you confessing?
Yes He does.
Let all the publicans and sinners continue to draw near and continue to hear and continue to be received. And let all the scribes and Pharisees continue to judge both the ungodly and the Christ who justifies only the ungodly.
That’s the contradiction of God.
God thinks nothing like you think He thinks.
That’s what Isaiah thinks. And that’s what Paul thinks. And that’s what Jesus thinks. And that’s what the Father thinks.
But then again, that’s just how God tells it.
You, of course, may disagree.
Apparently, most people do.