The Fatherhood of God

Our Father in Heaven

Pastor’s Study

April 19, 2009

…holding forth the word of life (Philippians 2:16a)

God the Father in the Old Testament

In the Old Testament, God is designated as Father only eleven times (Deut 32:5; 2 Sam 7:14; 1 Chr 17:13; 22:10; 28:6; Ps 89:26; Jer 3:4-5; 31:9; Isa 63:16; 64:8), “a reticence which may, in the early texts, reflect a desire to dissociate the God of Israel from those gods who were held to be ‘fathers’ and ‘mothers’ of their peoples in some biologically generative way.”[1] Generally, the fatherhood of God is a metaphor for God’s covenant relationship to Israel, which Moses described as one of election or adoption (Exod 6:6-8).[2]


When Israel broke covenant with God, the prophets of the eighth century and later employed the symbol of God as Father to urge national repentance (Deut 32:1-18; Jer 3:19-20; Isa 64:8-9; 63:16). “That Israel might one day call God ‘Father’ as a title of intimacy is suggested in the prophetic writings (Jer 3:19-20) and it may be that Jesus, in calling God ‘Father’, was suggesting that this hour had arrived.”[3]

In summary, the fatherhood of God in the Old Testament denotes God’s covenant love for Israel, demonstrated in their deliverance from Egyptian bondage and their subsequent settlement in the land. Despite the people’s intractable perfidy, God the Father did not forsake his children. As Isaiah cried in the midst of the exile, though the patriarchs might forsake Israel, God the Father would remain constant in his devotion. “For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not recognize us. You, O Lord, are our Father, Our Redeemer from of old is your name” (Isa 63:16). The Father’s covenant fidelity will be displayed in the life and work of Messiah, the Son (Jer 31:29ff.; 32:36-41; Ezek 36:25-27; Mal 3:1).


God the Father in the New Testament

Compared to the eleven times God is referred to as “father” in the Old Testament, the term πατήρ (father) appears in the New Testament over four hundred times. Of this number, Jesus designates God as Father about one hundred and seventy times, and he unfailingly calls upon him in prayer, using the name Father.[4] The only exception to Jesus’ use of Father for God is the cry of dereliction from the cross (Mark 15:34). God as Father is clearly the dominant motif in the New Testament, occurring in every book except 3 John.


Generally, in Semitic terms, father evokes images of the personal king and, simultaneously, the benevolent, merciful God. The New Testament repeatedly emphasizes that “God is seeking out sinners and inviting them to submit themselves to his reign that he might be their father.”[5] The relationship between God’s sovereign rule and his gracious fatherhood is indisputable; and this correlation is noted frequently in an eschatological milieu. “In the eschatological salvation, the righteous will enter into the Kingdom of their Father (Matt 13:43). It is the Father who has prepared for the blessed this eschatological inheritance of the Kingdom (Matt 25:34). It is the Father who will bestow upon Jesus’ disciples the gift of the Kingdom (Lk 12:32).”[6] The supreme gift of the Father is participation in his sovereign rule, which is to be exercised over all his creation. In that eschatological day, the Son “will enjoy a renewed fellowship with his disciples in the Father’s Kingdom (Matt 26:29).”[7] Since the chief delight of God’s children is that of participating in the blessings of the Father’s Kingdom, Jesus exhorted his followers to pray, “Our Father who art in heaven . . . thy kingdom come” (Matt 6:9, 10). Undeniably, kingly rule and gracious fatherhood are interrelated concepts.[8]


Jesus sometimes addressed God by using the Aramaic word abbā, and he also encouraged his disciples to do so. With the use of this word, Paul stressed the idea that believers are no longer slaves, but sons of God. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry ‘Abba, Father.’” (Rom 8:14, 15; see also Gal 4:4-6). The word abbā was used by children and is equivalent to the English word, “Daddy.” “Abbā represents the new relationship of confidence and intimacy imparted to men and women by Jesus.”[9] Jesus’ own use of abbā is an expression of filial obedience to and unique communion and relationship with the Father. As the μονογενής υίός (only begotten Son), Jesus interprets the Father for us. Consequently, “if God is our Father through the Son and for his sake, then he can only be called ‘Abba, dear Father’ (Rom 8:15; 2 Cor 3:17) under the inspiration of the Spirit, who is the Spirit of freedom.”[10] Through the doctrine of the Trinity, God’s name ‘Father’ is indissolubly linked to Jesus the Son.”[11]


Edgar Krentz provides a fitting conclusion to our study on the fatherhood of God. The author demonstrates that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the God of covenant, the one who, in faithfulness to his Word, is gathering a people for himself under the lordship of his Son in the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of his name. Krentz writes:
Jesus taught his disciples to pray to God as Father. The term “Father” is familial, that is, relational. Its function is not to stress God’s sex, God’s maleness, but God’s close immediacy to Jesus and his disciples. . . . The Lord’s Prayer, in Luke 11:2-4, explicates what “Father” means by the content of the petitions. God hallows his name by vindicating himself through the gathering again of his people (cf. Ezek 36). God is called to rule as king, a message of comfort for his people (Isa 40); he will gather the scattered exiles and bring them to the land. The prayer for bread asks that God act in care for his people as he did in the exodus. “Father” is a term that expresses faith in God as one who keeps his covenant promises.[12]

Faithful appropriation of the traditional, Trinitarian language is, therefore, enjoined: God is
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we must praise Him for our covenantal sonship. As Peter says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for [us], who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (I Pet 1: 3-5).



[1]Janet Martin Soskice, “Fatherhood,” in The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, ed. Adrian Hastings et al. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 237.
[2]Robert Hamerton-Kelly, “God the Father in the Bible and in the Experience of Jesus: The State of the Question,” in God as Father?, ed. Johannes-Baptist Metz and Edward Schillebeeckx (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1981), 96-97.
[3]Soskice, “Fatherhood,” 237.
[4]Hamerton-Kelly, “God the Father,” 98. See also Samuel Laeuchli, The Language of Faith: An Introduction to the Semantic Dilemma of the Early Church (New York: Abingdon Press, 1962), 32. The only exception to Jesus’ use of Father for God is the cry of dereliction from the cross (Mark 15:34).
[5]George Eldon Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, rev. ed., ed. Donald A. Hagner (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 82.
[6]Ibid., 83.
[7]Ibid.
[8]Ibid.
[9]Ibid., 85.
[10]Ibid.
[11]Ibid.
[12]Edgar M. Krentz, “God in the New Testament,” in Our Naming of God: Problems and Prospects of God-Talk Today, ed. Carl E. Braaten (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1989), 89.


No other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 3:11).