Hearing of YOUR[i] faith in the Lord Jesus and love towards all the saints, I ·do not cease to give thanks for YOU, making mention of YOU in my prayers ·that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give to YOU the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in fully knowing him, ·with the eyes of your understanding being enlightened towards knowing:

• what is the hope of his calling; and what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints;
• and what is the exceeding greatness of his power for us who believe… ·which he exercised in the Messiah, when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his own right hand…

·The Holy Spirit…·is the deposit of guarantee on our inheritance (Eph.1:15-20a,13-14 PH[ii])

Paul wrote these words to Christians—to people who had come to faith in Jesus as their Lord, and who were seeking to obey his command to love one another. Yet these disciples still needed the Holy Spirit to give them wisdom and revelation{r}.  so they could come to know the ‘God of Jesus’ as ‘Father’. Paul’s words, in the form of a prayer for these Christians, demonstrate clearly that this ‘understanding’ does not come automatically. You may be in Christ and be filled with the Spirit, but may not be growing in the wisdom and revelation of knowing God as your Father.

Many Christians who read the above text rearrange the words of it in their mind, like one Bible translator, to make it read ‘God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (NLT). Why? They have been programmed to think of God as only a real Father to Jesus {√}{r}{m}. We are only ‘adopted’ children. Yet Paul opens this letter by referring to God first as ‘our Father’, and then as the Father of Jesus. As we shall see in the coming meditations, the Greek word that is often translated ‘adoption as sons’ is not used by Paul to mean adoption in the usual English sense of that word (Med.#4 & Med.#5) {r}. Like Jesus, Paul saw that we needed salvation through the cross: not to make us into sons and daughters but to restore us to God’s family—as the Father’s lost children {r}{m}.

By referring to God as ‘the glorious Father’, and by calling him ‘the God of our Lord Jesus Christ’, Paul is saying two more important things about God as ‘Father’. First, he is contrasting God as ‘Father’ to all other ‘fathers’ we might ever have known in our lives. For Paul, God is the Father from whom all other human fatherhood is derived (Eph.3:14-15).{m} And he is the most incredible (‘glorious’) father any of us could ever have. Thus for Paul, human fatherhood is the metaphor, and God is the real thing! It is not the other way around, as many theologians would have us believe.{√}{r}{m}

Also, Paul refers to the Father as ‘the God of our Lord Jesus Christ’ and not ‘the God of Israel’, because in Jesus Christ our Father is inaugurating something new in his eternal purpose for human beings. The ‘inheritance’ and ‘power’, which are now ours in Christ, were pre-planned yet kept hidden—also from those who knew the Scriptures, the people of Israel. So even biblically trained scholars, like Paul, needed a special revelation in order to grasp ‘the mystery’ of now being an ‘heir of God’, together with men and women of all nations (Med.#6) {m}. Thus, the New Testament understanding of God as ‘Father’ is anything but a throwback to some patriarchal past, as some modern theologians would have us believe. Instead, this new Time in the Father’s plan is about all believers coming of age as his adult sons and daughters.{√}{r}{m}

This can be seen in how Paul prays for these believers: to be ‘enlightened’ by the Spirit with ‘wisdom’ so they can understand and know the Father’s ‘(his) inheritance’, as well as ‘his power’. Both are ‘for us’; and both words describe characteristics of an adult relationship with our Father. Yet many Christians who do teach about knowing God as Father would have us think that we experience this relationship primarily as little children. As the many scripture texts in these meditations will show, we are more like young adults in our Father’s family than like little children. For in Christ we are ‘called’ into a new relationship with our Father: where we already have the ‘deposit of guarantee’ on our inheritance in the Holy Spirit, yet where we must also live in ‘hope’ of some other aspects of the inheritance that we don’t yet possess.{√}{r}{m}

If you desire to know God as your Father in the way he has revealed himself in Jesus, then you need to do more than just read the Scriptures with an analytical mind. You need to join Paul in asking the Father for a revelation by his Spirit, as you read his Word.{r}{m}{ƒ}

Glorious Father, God of our Lord Jesus Christ, give me the Spirit of revelation so that I may come to know You more fully. Enlighten the eyes of my understanding: towards knowing what is the hope of Your calling, and towards knowing what are the riches of Your glorious inheritance among the saints. (Eph.1:17-18)

Father, give me the Spirit of wisdom so that I may walk in this revelation, in the exceeding greatness of Your power, which is also for us…in Christ, because with Your great power, You raised him from the dead and seated him at Your right hand among the celestial ones... far above every name that is named in this age and in the one to come. (Eph.1:19-21)

For you have also raised us together and seated us together among the celestial ones…as heirs together…: in Christ Jesus, through the Gospel…; and with the Holy Spirit… as the deposit of guarantee on our inheritance. (Eph.2:6; 3:6; 1:13-14)