Day 3: The Father’s Side

Scripture

Today’s full reading is John 1:14-23

“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
John 1:18

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Observation

Let’s look at this verse together and walk through what it means. Keep it in front of you if you can as we go.

The statement contained in this verse is linked to the statement about grace and truth mentioned in the previous one. The law, we’re told, came through Moses whereas grace and truth came through Jesus. It’s interesting to note that the arrival of grace and truth, in the way it’s written here, reads as though it is comparable to the promise made by God in Moses’ day. The word that’s often used for this promise is ‘covenant’ which means ‘binding promise’. In the way that John introduces the idea here it seems that grace and truth is not just a nice concept it’s a new covenant, a new binding promise between man and God. It’s a covenant based not on the written law but on the character of God, the one abounding in grace and truth.

The Father’s side.

The word used here for ‘side’ can also be translated as ‘bosom’. Elsewhere it’s used in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-32). When Lazarus dies it is said that he is taken by the angels to Abraham’s side, a euphemism for the place of rest and peace after death. To be at someone’s side seems to have that meaning attached to it. It’s an intimate place of identification and belonging after death.

Now, let’s focus on the Father.

Here, in verse 18, the Father is described as one who is able to be known by and because of the Son. The Son is full of the same stuff as the Father (v14) and has come from the place of intimate nearness to him (his side), to make him known (this otherwise unseen God). So the Father, it can be said, is seen in the Son and because of the Son. This reveals a Father who is familiar and tender, allowing the Son to reside in his bosom. The image that springs to mind is of John (the writer of this gospel) reclining at the table with Jesus at the Last Supper, his head resting on his chest in an intimate expression of friendship and acceptance.

This is what God the Father is like. He is someone who, though unseen and invisible, sent his Son from the place of intimate friendship and nearness to be with us in order that we might see him and be drawn to him and his side, just like the Son is.

Application

Do you relate to the Father like that, as one you can be affectionately familiar with? The sheer fact that the Father has a ‘side’ at all reveals an aspect of God we may not be too used to relating to. If you’re a Christian then you can approach him confidently (Heb. 4:16) today and enjoy friendship with him.

Why not express that boldness today by jumping into random moments of praise and thankfulness at regular intervals in the day. Why not set an hourly alarm (on your watch or phone perhaps) and every time it goes off (or vibrates in your pocket!) thank the Father for something from the hour just past and ask him for something you need help with.

Prayer

Father, thank you that you love me. Today I want to know you more, delight in you more and grow in friendship with you more. Help me to remember you and enjoy your company throughout the day today.

Day 2: God the Father: Grace & Truth

Scripture

Today’s full reading is John 1:1-17

“and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14

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Observation

To begin with, let’s ask a couple of questions about this verse: What is glory and whose glory have we seen?

Glory; it’s a hard word to properly define and explain. It’s a word that’s similar to majesty except less inseparable from royalty, and it’s shinier in appearance. The dictionary uses words like resplendent, honour, praiseworthy to describe it. It could also be simplified to mean ‘value’ or ‘worth’ and in this sense John (the writer of this gospel) is saying, ‘we have seen his value.’ or ‘we have seen how worthy he is’.

But whose value or worth is John talking about? We can’t just assume we know the answer to this.

The answer John provides is ‘glory as of the only son from the Father’, and what I find so fascinating here is the way that it reads — only son from the Father — it sounds like a title or name. Jesus is (take a deep breath) the ‘only-son-from-the-Father’, rather like how many of my friends from Africa have names that actually mean something, like my friend Msizi, who’s name (Msisiwhethu) means ‘God is my helper’.

Jesus is the one who isn’t just called ‘The-Only-Son-From-The-Father’, he actually lives up to it. He is the only one whose entire life and being can claim to be like that of the Father’s enough that it can be said of him that ‘he’s the true son’. Based purely on Jesus’ character, behaviour and life God the Father could say (and does) ‘you’re a true son’.

Understanding this is important, and understanding it means that whatever we can say about Jesus’ character we can say about his Father. Jesus has always been ‘Son’, therefore it is true that God has also always been ‘Father’. God is a creator and a ruler, but before he was those things (before he made anything or ruled over anything) he was still Father.

Finally it can also be said that since Jesus is ‘full of grace and truth’ the Father is also, or more accurately — the reason the Son is FULL (bursting to overflowing) of grace and truth, is precisely because the Father is.

This is our God and as one author puts it: ‘there is no God behind Jesus’ back.’

Application

Sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking that the Son is different in character to the Father; that the Son is approachable and the Father austere, that the Son is full of grace and the Father lacking in it.

This is not the case and we must adjust our thinking about the Father if we’re to know him as he really is, rather than as we’ve come to think he is by taking our lead from the poor imitations of him we are surrounded by.

If this is a problem for you why not use today’s prayer to begin a ‘decluttering’ of wrong ideas about the Father.

Prayer

Thank you Father that you are FULL of grace and truth. Help me to ‘get my head around that’. Help me to know you as you actually are, not as I’ve been conditioned to think you are. Help me to see how you manage to hold both grace and truth in tension and aren’t soft or lacking in either of them. Help me as well to behave like you toward others and show them the kind of grace and kindness as well as truth that you have shown me.

Day 1: The Forgotten Father

“Now when all the people were baptised, and when Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.'”
Luke 3:21-22

All of us are the son or daughter of some father but few of us have ever heard words from our fathers like Jesus hears here at his baptism.

This is a problem.

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The revelation of God in Jesus is the crowning moment of human history. It is the moment the Earth had been waiting for, the moment that creation up until that point had been holding its breath in anticipation of. At that moment, when the Son of God walked upon the Earth we saw more clearly than any previous generation had ever done that God the creator, ruler, author and sustainer was, originally and eternally Father.

According to Doug Wilson (no relation to Andrew I’m afraid) ‘The Father is the forgotten member of the Trinity.’ We talk about having a ‘personal relationship with Jesus’ and are familiar with being ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ but whoever heard an altar call to come and ‘know the Father’?

There’s a lot we’re missing out on in our Christian lives if we don’t learn to love and appreciate God as Father. All of us have a father hunger within us, an immaterial invisible ache that longs for and calls out for a father, but not just any father; we long for the true Father.

For the next 5 weeks I want to invite you to join in with a journey of discovery. I want us, together, to explore in detail through the pages of John’s gospel exactly what God the Father is like. I want those of us who are Christians to discover just how good and affirming our Father is so that we might hear, maybe for the first time, those words the Father spoke over Jesus; spoken over us as well.

To draw out the richness of this revelation and to help us become transformed by it, each day we’ll publish a scripture for you to read, a verse to focus on and some observations to go along with it. We’ll use the method of Bible reading I’ve always found helpful, explained by the acronym S.O.A.P.

S – scripture
O – observation
A – application
P – prayer

I’d like to encourage you to read the text for yourself, jot down your own observations and applications, and then read our blogs or watch our videos to hopefully get a little more out of it for yourself.

The daily readings and verses for the first week are:

Day 1: John 1:1-17
Day 2: John 1:17-24
Day 3: John 2:13-25
Day 4: John 3:31-35
Day 5: John 5:1-17

I’m praying that we’ll all discover God the Father as he actually is: generous, loving, life-giving and good. I’m hoping that we’ll find our father hunger satisfied, maybe for the first time, not by a counterfeit god or an imitation father but but by the true and living eternal God.

Here goes.

Jez