Evangelical Movement of Wales (EMW) Statement of Faith
- The Infallible Word Of God (1)
- The Holy Trinity (2)
- God And Father Of Our Lord Jesus Christ (3)
We believe:
In the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is holy, righteous, full of grace, mercy, compassion and love. In His infinite love he sent forth the Son that through Him the world might be saved.
The triune God whom we worship is ‘the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’. This fulsome language is used of no one else. God is the God of Abraham and the God of Israel, but nowhere does it say the God and Father of Abraham or the God and Father of Israel. It is Paul and Peter who write in this way of Jesus (2 Cor. 1:3; Eph. 1:3; 1 Pet. 1:3) but it was Jesus himself who suggested this phraseology when he informed Mary Magdalene: ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God’ (John 20:17).
The God of Jesus
How can Jesus speak of God as his God? How can Paul refer to God as ‘the God of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Eph. 1:17)? Isn’t Jesus God? Indeed, he is! Jesus is God the Son, co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. But as Calvin helpfully comments, the Bible often uses the term ‘God’ for the Father, and especially when the Father and Jesus the Son are mentioned together. Take, for instance, the benediction: ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God…’ (2 Cor. 13:14).
It’s because of the incarnation and his work as Messiah that Jesus calls on God as ‘my God’ (Matt. 27:46). When the Son humbled himself to become the man Christ Jesus, he willingly placed himself in a position of dependence on God, his heavenly Father. He committed himself wholly to God the Father and carried out his will as the perfect man right through to the cross. Even now in his resurrected, glorified human state he is at his Father God’s right hand. There is only one God and the God-man, Christ Jesus, is the one and only mediator between God the Father and humans (1 Tim. 2:5). Christians have the assurance that in praying through Jesus to the Father they are heard for he is the God of Jesus who is the only way to the Father.
The God of the new covenant
‘The God of our Lord Jesus’ also echoes phrases we hear in the Old Testament which speak of God’s gracious covenant promises. God was worshipped by people who had a special relationship with him: ‘Blessed be the Lord the God of Shem’ (Gen. 9:26). God reminded Moses: ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ (Ex. 3:6). After God’s covenant with the Israelite people at Sinai, God was known especially as ‘the Lord God of Israel’.
With the coming of Jesus, all the promises to Abraham and Israel found their realisation and the phrase ‘the God of our Lord Jesus’ draws attention to God as the God of the new covenant. The astounding thing is that this covenant was established with the blood of Jesus. Abraham didn’t shed his blood for people. Israel didn’t save us from our sins. Jesus did! He is the mediator of the new covenant.
The Father of Jesus
The nation Israel and each Judean king were seen as a son of God with God as their Father (Ex. 4:22; 2 Sam. 7:14; Is. 63:16) but there’s no record of anyone in Israel calling on God as ‘Father’ or ‘my Father’. Yet Jesus frequently prayed to God as his Father and encouraged his disciples to do so. However, a fundamental difference exists between Jesus’ relationship to the Father and the Christian’s relationship to God as Father.
God has always been Father because Jesus is the only-begotten Son of the Father from all eternity. There is a unique filial relationship within the triune God and the Father’s immeasurable love was demonstrated in the giving of the Son to be the Saviour of the world. The Son willingly took human nature, revealing perfectly how holy, righteous and good God really is. His goodness is especially seen in the grace, mercy and compassion that Jesus displayed toward needy sinners. For those who have only known cruel fathers, Jesus reveals the ideal Father who is actually there for us.
During his time on earth as the flawless man, Jesus knew God as his heavenly Father. At the age of twelve, he referred to God in this way (Luke 2:49) and in prayer, he used the very familiar term in Aramaic for father, ‘Abba’ (Mark 14:36). In this he has set Christians an example. However, whereas we need to be born again and adopted into God’s family, Jesus did not need to be born again. It is by the fulness of God’s grace that we are made children of God but Jesus was always God’s beloved Son. If we are to call God ‘Father’, we must first belong to God the Son, our Saviour. It is only through Jesus the Son and by the Holy Spirit that we can cry, ‘Abba, Father’ (Rom. 8:15). What a privilege and blessing this is!
Summary
- The living God is not some impersonal power or unitary being but one who is relational. A world of love exists in the Persons of the Holy Trinity from eternity and this love expressed itself supremely in time in the gift of God’s unique Son.
- God is not an unknown God. He is knowable especially because he is the God of Jesus the Messiah. No one has seen God the Father at any time; it is always through the Son that God physically appears to people (John 1:18). In fact, Jesus is the only one who can bring people to the true God and for them to have fellowship with him.
- It follows that Christians cannot unite with other religions or say that all religions are the same. They are not. There is no true God but the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And God is our God and our Father only through God the Son, Jesus Christ.
- It was the Father who sent the Son to take on human nature in order to be the Saviour of the world (1 John 4:14). What is revealed about the Trinity as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the outworking of salvation is true of God from all eternity. God has always been Father, Son and Spirit, one God in three Persons.
