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The Heavenly Father is so intrinsic to the Bible
that we often forget to search out His wonderful person and
character. He is holy without a single mar, but love without a
moment of forgetfulness. He is Sovereign but never imposes Himself.
His tender concern for every living soul is without question and He
even knocks softly at each heart's door. It is now reported that six
million Islam followers are turning to Christ yearly because of a
sovereign work of the Father's love. His Spirit is drawing them
under the radar of the terrorist-dominated Muslim government.
A story that Jesus Christ declared in the Gospels
presents the perfect picture of our Father God. It is the story of
the Prodigal Son but it is also a portrait of the Heavenly Father.
This Father had two sons, who clearly revealed His earthly kingdom.
One was a faithful, disciplined son and the other was a selfish,
young man determined to find his own niche in life only to be
utterly disappointed. Let's look at the Father's beautiful character
in this lifelike drama. It is the second son that provides us with
this great insight.
This undisciplined son actually began the story as
he demanded his freedom. (Luke
15:12). The father never argued for the son to change his mind. This
is the basic premise of Holy Scripture. Man has a choice of free
will that was given by the Father Himself. It's like He said,
"I want your love, your worship, but I want
it freely, not by constraint." Nothing describes the
"Love of God" more than His open
heart towards His creation. He actually loves us in our failures as
profoundly as He loves us in our obedience.
When the son began his journey away from his
Father, he was given every benefit of the Father's love. His entire
departure was overshadowed with sufficiency. Whatever sin was going
to cost this undisciplined son had to come from his own failures and
not from the Father's revenge. He "took his
journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with
riotous living" (Luke 15:13b).
The only thing that chased the son was the
"Father's love." He could not forget
how much his Father loved him. Nothing describes our Father better
than the love that never forgets. It is evident that this young man
wasted all the benefits the Father had given him. He had left the
Father's house with a song, a knapsack -- gold was hidden in secret
places of the knapsack, and a healthy, well-fed body. How could he
forget?
When the wages of sin had taken its normal course,
this young man remembered. Sin always leaves a mess.
"And he would fain have filled his belly
with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And
when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my
father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger?"
(Luke 15:16-17).
Grace always reminds us of what the Father's
family enjoys. Grace is the unmerited favor of God. We never need to
earn His grace because it is freely given. This grace changes us to
the point that we want to go back to the Father's house where love
abides. The grace of God is never without willing obedience.
The Father was waiting on the same road which the
son had traveled when he left. The Father's character is perfect in
forgiveness. It does not wait on a trial period. It forgives
immediately and it welcomes us back to the place of safety and
fullness of joy. In repentance, the son asked only for the right to
return, but the Father wanted a son not a servant.
"But the father said to his servants, Bring
forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand,
and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill
it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is
alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry"
(Luke 15:22-24).
This story must have been given to us by the Lord
Jesus Christ to give us a revelation of His Father. The six traits
of His Divine characteristics as it relates to this revelation are
indeed divine:
- He has given to all a
choice.
- He pours out blessings on
the just and unjust.
- He is chasing us only in
His love.
- He waits with a heavy heart
while sin works its sorrow.
- He welcomes home with
perfect forgiveness.
- He returns the repentant
soul to full fellowship.
Our Heavenly Father is faithful and full of
forgiveness. His holiness is perfect and it is His joy to welcome us
into the purity and righteousness that grace has freely provided.
The Father's house is truly a house of plenty.
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