Topics from the Gospel of John
Part I: The Person of the Father
Merrill C. Tenney
The Gospel of John is a unique
document. It differs from the
Synoptic
Gospels in its language, in its structure, and in its approach
to
the Person of Christ. It differs from the Epistles because it is
concerned
more with viewing Christ through the glass of personal
contact
than through His significance in the theology of the church.
It
is unique in religious literature because it combines a mystical
relationship
("Abide in me, and I in you," John 15:4) with a
genuine
historical framework. The Prologue links the eternal Word,
a
suprahistorical being, with the manifestation of a
historical Person
in
the flesh (1:14).
Behind this revelation is the concept
of God. qeo<j
was a
term
accepted in the world of the first century for the sovereign
of
heaven and earth. The Greeks called Zeus "the father of gods
and
men." The Hebrews spoke of Yahweh: "Hear, 0
YHWH
our God is one YHWH" (Deut. 6:4). There could be no
mistake
about the meaning of the word. Furthermore, the theology
of
the Jews regarded God as a person, whose purpose and will had
chosen
them to be His people and to become the vehicle for His
revelation
to the world. The Exodus was the supreme demonstration
of
His power (Exod. 15:11-13). The Law given at Sinai declared His
holiness
and His ethical standards for men. The prophets had ex-
pressed
His love for His people, and His grief over their sins (e.g.,
EDITOR'S
NOTE: This is the first in a series of four articles, first de-
livered
by the author as the Louis S. Bauman Memorial Lectures at
Grace
Theological Seminary,
1974.
37
38
/ Bibliotheca Sacra — January 1975
Hos.
11:1-8). Nevertheless the revelation was incomplete. He had
revealed
Himself in historical action and in religious types and
symbols,
but they were external. How could His love for them
be
realized in personal experience and how could redemption be
more
perfectly manifested than through sacrifices which had be-
come
perfunctory ritual? Could He be found only in the
service,
or could He enter the life of the individual? Moses expressed
this
feeling in his intercessory prayer for a disobedient
he
included his own dominating desire: "Show me thy glory" (Exod.
33:18).
God refused him, saying: "Thou canst not see my face;
for
there shall no man see me and live" (33:20). Yet the dis-
content
with an invisible God was not allayed. The second com-
mandment forbade the
making of any image to represent God,
because
presumably no inanimate effigy made by man could ade-
quately represent the
living God. He could communicate Himself
to
man only by a personality that would express perfectly His
characteristics,
purpose, and mind through the medium of flesh.
The
incarnation is the answer; for, as John says, "The Word [the
expression
of God's personality] was made [became] flesh, and
dwelt
among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). The
Gospel
confirms the statement of Exodus: "No man hath seen
God
at any time; the only begotten Son [or, as the best Greek
MSS.
read, the only-begotten God], which is in the bosom of the
Father,
he hath declared (e]chgh<sato)
him" (John 1:18).
The revelation of God in Christ
depends on a unique rela-
tion between God and
the Revelator, Jesus, and implies also a
new
relation between God and man. God is not only the Sovereign
of
man's destinies, the Judge of man's sin, and the Redeemer of
man's
estate, but He is also a Father who can be approached
personally
and who creates a new family by His salvation. The
one
name for God that Jesus used constantly was "Father." The
term
predominates in the Gospels, and particularly in John, where
it
appears 118 times. It was Jesus' title for God; and only once
did
He ever address Him in any other way. That single instance
occurred
in the moment of death, when Jesus underwent the agony
of
alienation that was inevitable in being "made ... sin for us"
(2
Cor. 5:21). He called the Father "my God" (Matt. 27:46;
Mark
15:34). Even then, when the moment of agony had passed,
Luke
records that He said, "Father, into thy hands I commend
my
spirit" (Luke 23:46 ) .
The Person of
the Father / 39
THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME
The concept of God as Father
originated in the Old Testa-
ment. Hosea mentions
it with reference to God's concern for
"When
out
of
O
heavens, and give ear. O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have
nourished
and brought up. children, and they have rebelled against
me"
(Isa. 1:2). Later in his prophecies he appeals to God for
the
nation on the same basis: "Thou art our Father, though Abra-
ham
be ignorant of us and
Lord,
art our father, our redeemer; thy Name is from everlasting"
(63:16).
A closer relationship with the people is presented further
along
in the text: "But now, 0 Lord, thou art our father; we are
the
clay, and thou our potter, and we are all the work of thy hand"
(64:8).
Both of these appeals are for mercy toward the people
and
the land as viewed collectively. Malachi, in his discussion of
the
oppression of the poor by the rich, challenged the people by
his
question: "Have we not all one father? Hath not one God
created
us?" (Mal. 2:10).
Although these texts assert that God
is a Father to His people,
their
emphasis is on His creative purpose rather than on a direct
relationship,
on concern for them rather than on close and con-
tinuing contact with
them. The revelation of the fatherhood of
God
through Christ did not introduce a new concept, but it effected
a
new contract. Jesus expressed that when He said to Thomas, "No
man
cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). He did
not
imply that the title was unfamiliar, but that the means of
realizing
its significance depended on Him.
THE RECOGNITION OF FATHERHOOD
The prologue of John presents the fact
that the normal rela-
tion between a
believer and his God is like the relationship of a
son
to a father. "But as many as received him, to them gave he
power
[the right] to become the sons [children] of God, even to
them
that believe on his name" (John 1:12). The believer is not
a
follower of a new system, nor a worshipper of a vague and distant
deity,
nor the subject of a capricious tyrant; instead he is the
member
of a family. It is normal for him to regard God as a
Father
who is personally concerned for him and with whom he
can
communicate freely.
The prayer that Jesus taught to His
disciples begins with the
salutation,
"Our Father," and all its subsequent petitions and im-
40
/ Bibliotheca Sacra — January 1975
plied
relations depend on that recognition (Matt. 6:9-13; Luke
11:2-4).
Jesus impressed on the disciples that the Father loved
them
(John 16:23), and when speaking to Mary Magdalene after
the
resurrection He told her that He would ascend to "my Father
and
your Father, and my God and your God" (20:17). He regard-
ed
this title of "Father" as expressive of the new relationship be-
tween the believer
and God.
THE REVELATION OF FATHERHOOD
One purpose of this Gospel is to
elucidate for the believer
what
the proper consciousness of the fatherhood involves. The
author
does this through the demonstration of how Jesus, the per-
fect Son of God,
conducted Himself in a society where many were
sons
of the devil (8:44). Their nature was revealed by their atti-
tude of unbelief and
hatred toward Him. Had they really been
sons
of God, they could not have taken an attitude of hostility
toward
Him who more than any other person could rightly be
called
the Son of God. In what did this sonship consist?
The establishment of this relationship
began with a super-
natural
transformation in response to faith. Those who believed on
His
name were made sons of God, not by a natural birth, but by
a
new birth in which the nature of God was implanted in them
(3:5).
Jesus' parable of the vine (15:1-10) indicates that they
become
part also of the divine life, drawing on it for their strength
and
for their fruitbearing. In that context He used the
word abide
(me<nw), which implies
a close and enduring connection with the
source
of life. Severance from it means death.
Jesus Himself was born supernaturally,
and the language of
John
1:13 in its literal rendering may reflect His birth: "Who were
born
not from bloods [the ancients thought that conception origi-
nated in the mingling
of the bloods of the parents], nor from
biological
impulse, nor from a husband's [a]nh<r] will, but from
God."
A number of ancient witnesses including OL b,
Irenaeus,
Tertullian,
Origen, and some others read the singular pronoun
"who"
while seven Syriac MSS. read the plural pronoun and a
singular
verb. The resultant reading in the singular would be:
"who
was born, not of bloods," etc. Although the genuineness of
the
singular reading is highly improbable, it does reveal that at an
early
time the spiritual birth of the believer was regarded as an-
alogous to the
miraculous birth of Christ. While it may be asserted
that
the fatherhood of God is universal in the sense that He is the
The Person of
the Father / 41
Creator
of all men, the spiritual relationship is established not by
physical
birth but by a distinctive and supernatural impartation of
His
nature and life to the believer.
Christ reveals the fatherhood of God
not only through His
birth
but also through His nature. There could be no adequate
revelation
of God to men unless the mediator of that revelation
were
able to communicate exactly with both God and men. He
must
be, to use a modern metaphor, the transformer by which
the
frequency of the divine message may be brought over into
the
frequency of human understanding. Nor does this depend wholly
on
speech; it involves also the total being and life of the mediator.
Jesus
asserted that He possessed complete experiential knowledge
of
the Father (ginw<skein) . He observed the Father at work
(5:17),
and cooperated with Him. He was the object of the
Father's
affection, and consequently was given insight into all that
the
Father did (5:20). The Father had committed to Him the
prerogative
of judgment (5:22). The Father had sent Him with
full
endorsement of His mission and with the honor that such a
mission
deserved (5:23). Jesus asserted also His unity with the
Father:
"I and the Father are one" (10:30). Concerning this claim
of
unity, Stevens says:
When every concession to those who
maintain the ethical import
of these passages (John 6:46; Matt.
11:27; Luke 10:22) is made,
there still remains the capital fact
that Jesus makes claims for Him-
self which would be preposterous in
any other.l
Not
only is this unity the ethical unity of purpose and desire, but
it
implies also a metaphysical unity of nature.
The fact that His enemies so
understood His claim is proved ,
by
their attempt to stone Him for blasphemy. Neither did He deny
their
charge, but rather replied: "Though ye believe not me, believe
the
works: that ye may know and believe [gnw?te kai> ginw<skehte,
realize
and go on to experience] that the Father is in me and I
in
him" (10:38). He repeated the same statement later in His
prayer
on the eve of His death (17:21).
Jesus thus definitely claimed to know
the Father and to possess
the
Father's nature. Likewise, Jesus was human. He "became flesh,"
and
His humanity was neither an illusion nor an artifical
device. He
shared
the joys of a wedding (2:1-11) and the sorrows of a funeral
(11:1-44);
He was thirsty (4:7), troubled by danger (12:27),
1
G.
B. Stevens, The Johannine
Theology (New York: Scribners, 1894),
p.
112.
42
/ Bibliotheca Sacra — January 1975
and
fully aware of human obligations (19:26). He did not appear
among
us as a disguised angel, but as a man.
John thus represents the God-man to
whom God was in a
peculiar
sense His Father. It is noticeable that never in the Gospels
does
Jesus say "our Father" except when He taught His disciples to
pray.
When addressing Mary He spoke of "my Father and your
Father"
(20:17), referring not to two different individuals but
to
two different relationships. God was His Father from eternity;
He
becomes our Father by the new birth.
THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF FATHERHOOD
The consciousness of God as His Father
is marked strongly
in
Christ. At the cleansing of the
early
in his narrative Jesus expressed His motivation by saying,
"Make
not my Father's house a house of merchandise" (2:16).
He
regarded the commercialization of the
insult
to His Father, and He resented it deeply. Not only was He
scandalized
by the impropriety of making a business venture out
of
worship, but also He felt that the priesthood had dishonored one
who
was dear to Him. God for Him was not simply an object of
religious
worship nor a philosophical absolute like Plato's Demi-
urge
or Aristotle's Prime Mover, but a beloved Person whose name
and
interests He should defend at all costs. He was constantly aware
of
the Father's love and trust (3:35) and of an intimate partner-
ship
with Him (5:17). God was profoundly involved in Jesus'
experience
(10:15), and the nature of that involvement became
the
pattern for the relation of His disciples to Him. He was confi-
dent
that the Father always listened to His petitions and answered
them
(11:42). In the uncertain fluctuations of His fortunes the
Father's
presence was His ultimate destination and abiding hope
(14:2;
17:24). From the beginning of His ministry to the end,
Jesus'
fellowship with the Father was the mainspring of His activity
and
the stabilizing factor in His life.
This consciousness gave Him His sense
of mission which was
expressed
in the formula, "The Father who sent me" (o[ pe<myaj
me path<r), which is used
twenty-three times in the Gospel. The
verb
a]poste<llw, which has much
the same meaning, is used
concerning
Christ seventeen times. The difference between them in
the
Gospel of John seems to be minimal, though a]poste<llw con-
tains a connotation
of equipping or commissioning that is generally
lacking
in pe<mpw.
These verbs appear most frequently in the pas-
sages
which describe Jesus' controversy with His enemies. In the
The Person of
the Father / 43
argument
with the Jews after the healing of the man at the pool
the
word sent occurs five times (5:24,
30, 36, 37, 38); in the
sermon
in the
40,
44) ; in the debate with the crowd in the
(7:16,
18, 28, 29, 33) ; in the controversy over the spiritual ances-
try
of the Jews, five times (8:16, 18, 26, 29, 42); and in the utter-
ance of Jesus that
closed John's account of His public ministry,
two
times (both in 20:21). His commission was His authority and
His
defense.
In the First Epistle of John the term
is used three times to
express
the purpose of the Father in sending Jesus: to give men
eternal
life (4:9) ; to be a propitiation (i[lasmo<n) for sin
(4:10);
and
to be the Savior of the world (4:14).
Jesus remarked to His disciples,
"My meat [food] is to do the
will
of him that sent me and to accomplish his work" (John 4:34).
He
asserted that He could do nothing of Himself, but that He was
dependent
on the Father both for His direction and for His power
(5:19).
His final report indicated that He had completed the
commission
which the Father had given Him (17:4), and in the
tension
of Gethsemane He reaffirmed His complete obedience:
"The
cup which the Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?"
(18:11)
Jesus' relation to the Father exemplified completely what
the
believer's relation was intended to be.
THE ATTITUDE OF THE FATHER
If Jesus' relation with the Father
revealed what the nature
of
the believer's sonship should be, the response of the
Father to
Him
exemplifies also God's attitude toward the believer. He told
the
woman of
would
approach Him "in spirit and in truth" (4:24). God is not
austere
and distant, but welcomes the love and fellowship of His
creatures.
He draws men to Himself (6:44), and desires that be-
lievers should have
eternal life (6:40). He answers the prayers of
those
who approach Him rightly (11:41-42; 15:16; 16:23). The
normal
relationship is not fear, but love; for Jesus promised the
disciples
that "If a man love me . . my Father will love him, and
we
will come unto him and make our abode with him" (14:23).
He
confirmed the promise by saying that "the Father himself
loveth you"
(16:27). In His valedictory prayer He twice stated
that
the Father loved the disciples whom He was commending to
Him
(17:23, 26).
44
/ Bibliotheca Sacra — January 1975
THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE FATHERHOOD OF
GOD
The full implications of God's
fatherhood for the daily life of
the
disciples are not stated categorically, nor would one expect them
to
be. If, however, the fatherhood of God is basic to the entire
revelation
of His person in Christ, the nature of that fatherhood
should
be apparent in His dealings with men through Christ.
First, as the potential Father of
every believer, God is reveal-
ing the normal relationship of men
to Him. By normal is meant
the
standard of what the relationship should be, not a consensus
of
what it is. Jesus told His adversaries that they were descended
from
their father, the devil, and that they reproduced his nature
(8:44).
Their obvious opposition to God was evidence that they
did
not belong to His family, and their rebellion was an abnor-
mality. Jesus was
desirous that all should believe on Him and be
brought
into the family relationship.
This introduction could be
accomplished only by the new
birth.
The confession of faith evinced by baptism and the indwell-
ing of the Holy Spirit would mark
the implantation of a new
nature
that would recognize and respond positively to the person
of
God the Father. This response involves confidence in God's
promises.
He becomes the focus of interest and of devotion. He is
no
longer a distant person whose power and holiness must be
acknowledged
without any further concern for relationship with
Him.
He becomes at once an intimate Friend, a personal Counselor,
and
the gracious Arbiter of life. God is no longer a name or a
power,
but a Person with whom the believer maintains daily
contact.
Such a relationship means that God
becomes knowable. Jesus
claimed
a perfect experiential knowledge of God. He said to the
Samaritan
woman, "Ye worship ye know not what: we know
what
we worship, for salvation is of the Jews" (4:22). The Sa-
maritans' religion had
suffered corruption by an admixture of pagan
rites
and attitudes at the time of the Exile, and in subsequent times
had
accepted a syncretism that united their deity with Zeus. In such
worship
there could be no contact with a personal God. Jesus said
also
to the recalcitrant Jews, whose worship was not diluted by
paganism,
"He that sent me is true [real], whom ye know not. But
I
know him, for I am from him, and he hath sent me" (7:28-29).
On
another occasion He repeated almost the same words: "Ye
neither
know me nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should
have
known my Father also" (8:19). At the conclusion of this
The Person of
the Father / 45
interview
with the Jews He said: "Ye have not known (e]gnw<kate )
him,
but I know (oi#da) him; and if I
should say, I know him not
(oi#da), I shall be a
liar like unto you: but I know him (oi#da)
and
keep his saying [word]" (8:55). Both verbs employed in this
context
indicate knowledge: oi#da is generally
used of knowledge
concerning
facts; ginw<skw, of the
knowledge which comes from
experience.
In either case Jesus indicated that not even a factual
understanding
of God is possible to unbelief.
Jesus' knowledge of the Father
involved also a comprehen-
sion of the Father's
purpose for Him. On the occasion of the Last
Supper,
when the disciples exhibited a remarkable obtuseness to
the
significance of the situation, Jesus knew (ei]dwj) that His hour
had
come, and that the Father had committed to Him all respon-
sibility (13: 1, 3). Not
only was He aware of impending death, but
also
He was absolutely confident of His destiny. The contrast between
His
calmness and the anxiety of the disciples is striking.
An illuminating difference between
these two verbs is illustrated
in
Jesus' reply to Thomas after the latter had said, "Lord, we
know
(oi@damen) not whither
Thou goest; and how can we know
(oi@damen) the way?"
(14:5) Jesus replied, "If ye had known
(e]gnw<kate) me, ye should
have known (h@deite) my Father
also"
(14:7). Although the significance of the interchange of verbs
in
this passage may be argued either way, either that there is a
subtle
difference or that they are completely synonymous, it is
probably
better to assume a distinction. Jesus is saying that if the
disciples
had become fully acquainted with Him by experience,
they
would have had a correct concept of the nature of the Father.
The sin of men can be attributed to
experiential ignorance
of
God. Jesus, in describing His persecutors, said, "These things
will
they do unto you, because they have not known (e@gnwsan)
the
Father nor me" (16:3). Sin is not caused simply by intellectual
ignorance
or bewilderment, but by an alienation of will that pre-
cludes acquaintance
with the holiness and protection of the Father.
Another corollary of the fatherhood of
God is protection. He
guards
the destinies of the members of His family. John states
that
when Jesus fell into disfavor with the Jews no man took Him,
because
"his hour was not yet come" (8:20). On another occasion
"they
sought him . . . but he escaped out of their hand" (10:39).
His
life was preserved until His destined work was completed.
Jesus'
relation with the Father explains His prayer for the dis-
ciples: "The
world hath hated them, because they are not of the
46
/ Bibliotheca Sacra — January 1975
world,
even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst
take
them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep
them from
the
evil one" (17:14-15). The protection of God does not mean
immunity
from danger, but it does mean protection from the power
of
evil and from ultimate disaster.
The fatherhood of God is a motive for
life. In explaining the
figure
of the vine and the branches, Jesus impressed on His dis-
ciples that they were
obligated to bring forth fruit (15:2, 5). The
motive
for fruitbearing is the glorification of the Father.
The ulti-
mate
purpose of all life is to honor the wisdom and power of God,
who
has created man and placed him in the world for a construc-
tive purpose. To
fulfill this purpose is the way to the fullest realiza-
tion of the
fatherhood of God.
The fatherhood of God implies also a
destiny. Jesus' parting
promise
was that He would go to prepare a place for His disciples
in
the Father's house (14:2-3). He certainly would not prepare a
place
for those whom He never expected to arrive. Jesus knew
that
He was going to God via the suffering of the cross (13:1;
17:11),
and He was promising to them what He expected on the
basis
of His knowledge of God's fatherhood (17:24).
SUMMARY
From the beginning of the believer's
spiritual life to his final
glorification
the fatherhood of God is the basis for the believer's
experience.
It is not surprising that Paul speaks of "the Father of
our
Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family [every fatherhood,
patri<a]
in heaven and earth is named" (Eph. 3:14-15). This
relationship
of God to men, perfectly exemplified in the life of
the
Lord Jesus Christ, is both the highest expression of His con-
sciousness of His relation
to God and the fullest attainment that
man
can reach through union with Him. In this way Jesus' prayer
reaches
its full fruition: "That they all may be one; as thou, Father,
art
in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the
world
may believe that thou hast sent me" (John 17:21).
:
|| Pope Shenouda || Father Matta || Bishop Mattaous || Fr. Tadros Malaty || Bishop Moussa || Bishop Alexander || Habib Gerguis || Bishop Angealos || Metropolitan Bishoy ||
|| The Orthodox Faith (Dogma) || Family and Youth || Sermons || Bible Study || Devotional || Spirituals || Fasts & Feasts || Coptics || Religious Education || Monasticism || Seasons || Missiology || Ethics || Ecumenical Relations || Church Music || Pentecost || Miscellaneous || Saints || Church History || Pope Shenouda || Patrology || Canon Law || Lent || Pastoral Theology || Father Matta || Bibles || Iconography || Liturgics || Orthodox Biblical topics || Orthodox articles || St Chrysostom ||
|| Bible Study || Biblical topics || Bibles || Orthodox Bible Study || Coptic Bible Study || King James Version || New King James Version || Scripture Nuggets || Index of the Parables and Metaphors of Jesus || Index of the Miracles of Jesus || Index of Doctrines || Index of Charts || Index of Maps || Index of Topical Essays || Index of Word Studies || Colored Maps || Index of Biblical names Notes || Old Testament activities for Sunday School kids || New Testament activities for Sunday School kids || Bible Illustrations || Bible short notes|| Pope Shenouda || Father Matta || Bishop Mattaous || Fr. Tadros Malaty || Bishop Moussa || Bishop Alexander || Habib Gerguis || Bishop Angealos || Metropolitan Bishoy ||
|| Prayer of the First Hour || Third Hour || Sixth Hour || Ninth Hour || Vespers (Eleventh Hour) || Compline (Twelfth Hour) || The First Watch of the midnight prayers || The Second Watch of the midnight prayers || The Third Watch of the midnight prayers || The Prayer of the Veil || Various Prayers from the Agbia || Synaxarium