8.14.2009

God The Father

The relation between Jesus the Son and God the Father is unique. It is not to be understood on the pattern of human fatherhood. In neither Testament is God sexual, nor does he have a wife or mistress, as did many pagan deities. Human fatherhood derives from God the Father and is to be measured by him, not vice versa (Eph. 3:15). The Father has a unique relation to the incarnate Son within the being of God. God’s revelation as the Father does not refer to his general fatherhood with respect to all his creatures. Moreover, as Toon comments, the Father is not merely a simile (as if God is simply like a father) or even a metaphor (an unusual use of language drawing attention to aspects of God’s nature in surprising terms), but rather a definite personal name. In contrast, the term mother, when used in reference to God in the OT, is a simile, but never a metaphor, and it is completely absent in the NT. Father is the proper name for God and does not merely describe what he is like.

- Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity

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