These pages are designed for use to aid discipleship among Christians through individual Bible study, Cell groups, Home groups, or for meeting one to one. If you wish, you could use the questions, while leaving the group to choose their own translation of the Bible.
God is our Father in two key ways. He is our Father because He has created all of us. This creation is very special to Him and He longs for us to respond to His love. He is also Father in a special way to those who are His by receiving His Spirit, and so becoming His Spiritual children. None of these compare however to the only one who is God’s Son by nature, Jesus.
Bible Zone
The zone below looks at a number of passages.
- In Acts 17 we see the Creator God dealing with all people as His children.
- In John 1 we see how we become God’s children through faith in Him.
- In 1 John 4 we see how we take on God’s characteristics, principally love.
- In John 1 we see Jesus introduced as God from the beginning of creation.
The Creator God
God is Father because He has created us all. This means that He is Father to everyone and everything in all of creation. This is how the the Bible describes our creator God. In this passage Paul is speaking to Greek philosophers in Athens. Acts 17:24-28 (NCV)
- What has God made?
- What place does God have over creation?
- What special place do people hold in God’s heart?
- How does God want us to approach Him?
24 The God who made the whole world and everything in it is the Lord of the land and the sky. He does not live in temples built by human hands.25 This God is the One who gives life, breath, and everything else to people. He does not need any help from them; he has everything he needs.26 God began by making one person, and from him came all the different people who live everywhere in the world. God decided exactly when and where they must live.27 God wanted them to look for him and perhaps search all around for him and find him, though he is not far from any of us: 28 'By his power we live and move and exist.' Some of your own poets have said: 'For we are his children.'
Those who have received spiritual life have become God’s children in a special way. This way of becoming a child of God has a whole different aspect to it. John 1:11-13 (NCV)
- By what means does someone become a child of God?
- What difference in relationship does this dimension of childhood bring?
He came to the world that was his own, but his own people did not accept him.12 But to all who did accept him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God.13 They did not become his children in any human way—by any human parents or human desire. They were born of God.
Characteristics of a child of God
Children have characteristics of their parents. These are often physical marks, but also there are character traits handed down. God who is Spirit does not pass down what is physical, but those who grow in being His children have certain characteristics. 1 John 4:7-13 (NCV)
- What characteristic of God do we inherit?
- How is this characteristic shown by God?
- Be aware that we are our own worst critics. We have a hard time seeing anything of love in our own lives. Be careful not to judge yourself, rather ask those who are more mature and know you well. Nevertheless, how might this characteristic be developed?
7 Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God's child and knows God.8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.9 This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his one and only Son into the world so that we could have life through him. 10 This is what real love is: It is not our love for God; it is God's love for us. He sent his Son to die in our place to take away our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us that much we also should love each other.12 No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is made perfect in us.
13 We know that we live in God and he lives in us, because he gave us his Spirit.
Whereas all people are God’s children because we were all created by Him, and whereas some have received His Spirit and so have become His children in a special way, Jesus stands out above us all.
- How is Jesus, the Word described in this passage?
- What difference is there between our being sons and Jesus being God’s Son?
1 In the beginning there was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.3 All things were made by him, and nothing was made without him.4 In him there was life, and that life was the light of all people. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it.
14 The Word became a human and lived among us. We saw his glory—the glory that belongs to the only Son of the Father—and he was full of grace and truth.
God the Father