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Understanding God the Father

NIV Study Bible Excerpt: Understanding God the Father

It can be hard (or to be honest, impossible!) to wrap your mind around the Trinity. So let’s take one quick, clear look at who God the Father is with an NIV Study Bible excerpt.

God the Father is Our Father

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. Romans 8:14-15 NIV

God is Not Everyone’s Father

God is the Father of all in the sense that he created all and his love and providential care are extended to all (Mt 5:45). But not all are his children. Jesus said to the unbelieving Jews of his day, “You belong to your father, the devil” (Jn 8:44). People become children of God through faith in God’s unique Son (Jn 1:12), and being led by God’s Spirit is the hallmark of this relationship.

He Became Our Father Through Adoption

The Greek word for adoption into sonship occurs four other times in the New Testament (Romans 8:23; 9:4; Gal 4:5; Eph 1:5). Adoption was common among Greeks and Romans, who granted the adopted son all the privileges of a natural son, including the inheritance rights. Christian are adopted sons by grace; Christ, however, is God’s Son by nature.

God the Father NIV Study Bible excerpt

He Became Father to the World Through Creation

God is the creator of the heavenly bodies, which give light to the earth, but, unlike them, he does not change.

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. John 1:12-13 NIV

Membership in God’s family is by grace alone – the gift of God (Eph 2:8-9). It is never a human achievement, as v. 13 emphasizes; yet the imparting of the gift is dependent on human reception of it, as the words “did receive” and “believed” make clear.

The “children of God” (v. 12) have been given a new openness and relationship with God that was not theirs as a result of their natural birth (John 3:3, 5; 2Co 5:17; Gal 6:15; Titus 3:5).

NIV Study Bible Notes God the Father

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2 Comments

  1. Ahmed Mustapha Ali

    Thanks for the exposition.
    If I understood this exposition very well, it means a ‘Child or a Son’ is one who shares the inherent qualities of either God or the devil.
    The Child/Son of God is one who, by the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, shares the innate qualities of God, and by this, is qualified to all the privileges and blessings of Godliness.
    The Child/Son of the devil is one who shares the innate qualities of the devil, and by this, is automatically entitled to all the curses of the devil.
    If this assertion is right, it means that if one has to escape the curses of the devil, one must seek the Sonship of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
    Once again thank you for this eye opening exposition 🙏🙏🙏

  2. Stephen Bowie

    Thank you. These days I believe it would be helpful to include notes about the gendered nature of the word Father and how it relates to the “being” of God. God is not male, nor in a sense is Jesus in “his” eternal nature.

    Grace and peace, and thank you for your ministry.