Why is God called Father?

God & the TrinityIn theological review

The short answer

God is called Father because he is eternally the Father of the Son, and because he makes believers his children by adoption. Scripture calls Israel his firstborn son, Jesus taught his followers to pray 'our Father', and Paul says the Spirit enables God's adopted children to cry 'Abba, Father'.

The fuller answer

God is called Father because fatherhood is not something borrowed from human families and projected onto him. In Scripture the direction runs the other way: God is the original, and human fatherhood, at its best, is the copy. He is Father in two great senses in the Bible. He is the Father of Jesus Christ in an eternal, unique sense, and he becomes the Father of all who are adopted into his family through Christ. Names in the Bible are rarely decorative, and this one is given by God himself rather than invented by religious people searching for a comforting picture of heaven.

Then tell Pharaoh that this is what the LORD says: ‘Israel is My firstborn son,

Exodus 4:22 (BSB)

The Old Testament lays the ground gently. God calls Israel his firstborn son and sends Moses to demand the son's release, picturing the whole nation as a child he has claimed and will protect. Deuteronomy asks Israel whether God is not their Father and Creator who made and established them (Deuteronomy 32:6). The picture is of origin, authority, provision, and a bond no circumstance can dissolve, long before Jesus gives it its fullest meaning.

So then, this is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.

Matthew 6:9 (BSB)

Jesus then does something startling: he teaches his followers to pray to God with the address our Father in heaven. What had been Israel's corporate comfort becomes the personal prayer of every disciple. And Paul explains how it happens. Believers receive the Spirit of adoption, by whom they cry Abba, Father, the intimate family word Jesus himself used (Romans 8:15). Galatians says the same in its own way: God has sent the Spirit of his Son into the hearts of his children, prompting that same family cry (Galatians 4:6).

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption to sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Romans 8:15 (BSB)

So God is called Father because the name tells the truth about both who he is and what he does. Eternally he is Father to the Son. Toward his people he originates them, adopts them at the cost of his Son, disciplines them for their good, and hears them as a father hears his children. For those whose earthly fathers failed them, Scripture's claim is that God's fatherhood is the standard theirs fell short of, not the other way round. It is also why Jesus taught his followers to approach God in prayer with confidence rather than dread, as children who expect to be heard by a father who delights to give.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

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Is God male or female?God is neither male nor female, because God is spirit and sex belongs to created bodies. Genesis says male and female together bear God's image, the Bible says God is not a man, and Scripture pictures his love with both fatherly and motherly imagery while revealing him as Father, the name Jesus taught.How should I pray?Simply, honestly, and to the Father, in the pattern Jesus gave. His own prayer starts with God's name, kingdom, and will, and only then asks for daily bread, forgiveness, and protection. Prayer is not a performance or a formula. It is talking to a Father who sees in secret, at whatever length the moment actually needs.How can I know God personally?You can know God personally through Jesus Christ, whom God sent to make him known. Jesus defines eternal life as knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent, Jeremiah calls knowing God the one boast worth having, and Scripture tests that knowledge by a life that keeps God's word.What is the Trinity?The Trinity is the Christian confession that there is one God, and that this one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, each fully God, equal in power and glory. The word itself is not in the Bible. The reality is taught everywhere in it, and the church forged the word to protect what the Bible says from being flattened in either direction.Bible Character: MosesThe prophet who led Israel out of slavery in Egypt, received the Law on Mount Sinai, and brought the people to the edge of Canaan.Bible Character: JesusThe Son of God, born of Mary in Bethlehem, who preached the kingdom of God, was crucified for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was raised on the third day.Bible Character: PaulThe Pharisee who persecuted the church until the risen Jesus stopped him on the Damascus road, and who became his apostle to the Gentiles, travelling the Roman world and writing many of the New Testament letters.On the map: EgyptEgypt is the land along the lower Nile where Jacob's family settled and where their descendants later lived as slaves under Pharaoh. The Exodus begins here, and Jesus is taken here as a child.Lesson: I believe in God, the Father almightyThe Creed opens by naming who God is before it says anything about us. Take the first line apart, word by word, with the Scripture under each word.