Who Is God The Father?

If we are to know the Trinity, we must start with the First Person of the Trinity. He is not first because He is greater than the other two or more important. Rather, He is first in order. We must know God as Father. The name “God” can be terrifying to us especially when we think about holiness, justice, power, and glory. But, Jesus has told us that we are to know this God as Father and our Father. In order to know this Father, we need to ask: Who is He? And, what does He do?

Who Is The Father?

The Father is the great “I AM” (Ex. 3:14). The Father is God. He has always existed. There has never been a time that He has not been in existence. Indeed, He Himself is outside of time and the Maker of time itself. He never is “I was” or “I will be”. He is always “I AM”. No one stands behind the Father to give Him existence. He is the Unmoved Mover. He is the Origin of all things. No one begets Him or gives Him origin. 

What makes the Father the Father in distinction from the Son and the Spirit? Never was there a time when the Father was without the Son. The Father is always Father and in that relation. He never became a father at some point in time.

At one point in time, I became a father. There was a time when I “begat”, or gave being to my son. My relation to my son makes me a father.

In an analogical¹ way, the Father’s eternal relation to the Son is what distinguishes Him as Father. He is not greater than the Son or different in His Being. But, in relation to the Son, He is the unbegotten Father. There was never a time when the Father was not begetting the Son (Psalm 2:7²). From all eternity, the Father was overflowing in giving Being to His Son. The Father has always been and will always be Father. As one author says, “From all eternity, the Father communicates the one, simple, undivided divine essence to the Son.”

What Does The Father Do?

The Trinity is revealed in the works of creation and redemption. The Father is someone who overflows, gives, sends, reaches out, and loves. He is not a vending machine demanding pay first and then giving us a product. He doesn’t have His hands tied or someone standing behind Him giving Him some sort of “holy peer pressure” to create or to redeem. He delights with an infinite delight to do what He does.

The Father overflowed in creation. He creates as Father. He cares for it as Father. He nourishes it as Father. He is never not Father. 

The Father is not only Father in the work of creation but He is also the Father in redemption. If the Father begets the Son in eternity then it is very fitting in His character to send the Son to save us. The Father freely sends the Son. He is not obligated to do so. That is what makes His infinite love so gracious (Jn. 3:16).

As a new parent, I had to fight against the temptation to take time off in my fatherly duties. Typically, it happens when I smell a poopy diaper follow by my wife and I having a staring contest to determine who will change the diaper. This is not like the Father. He never “takes time off” being the Father (even when we are at our worst). 

Why Does It Matter To Know God The Father?

What does this mean for us? How does this change our Christian life? Because the Son of the Father comes down to save us, He brings us to the Father and restores our relationship to Him. Ephesians 2:18 says, “For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” Jesus brings us into a familial, personal, and loving relationship with the Father. The Father is no longer far off, distant, or merely Judge towards us. He is near, kind, and tender Father to us in Christ.

It also means we are adopted by the Father. That’s what Galatians 4:4-5 says:

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,  to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

In Christ, the Father gives us infinite love that envelops us for all eternity. 

As the Father is Father in His Being, He is Father in all His works. This means that He is always dealing with us in Fatherly love. We are often suspicious of authority today; often teaching younger generations to despise and distrust authority sometimes as if to say that any authority or hierarchy of any kind is bad and bound for immeasurable corruption. We despise anything that reminds us of patriarchy. But, you cannot measure God’s Fatherly love, protection, and discipline by earthly, fallen, sinful examples.

The philosopher Michael Foucault fell into this trap because of his relationship with his father.³ Much of Foucault’s life work was about how evil authority is. He wrote this way because of how his sinful father treated him. His father, who was a surgeon, used to force him to watch amputations so that he could “toughen him up”. For the younger Foucault, this was a nightmare of a demanding sovereign patriarch. Michael Reeves says, “for Foucault, paternal power was not used to care, nurture, or bless”. 

But here is the thing about God the Father: He is nothing like that. He is always, truly, and infinitely fatherly because it is who He is. He is the measure of all fatherhood, authority, and love. You simply cannot be habitually unloving if you really know Him. That is why we must first think about God as the Trinity.

And as the first Person of the Trinity, we must always think about Him as Father. When you do, it will radically change the way you relate to God and to the world.What you know influences who you are.

1. Analogical is different from identical. It is an analogy but it is not the exact same thing in every detail.

2. It is interesting that this verse says, “Today I have begotten you.” When was “today”? God the Father begat His Son before time even existed. Therefore, “today” is always. The Son never came into existence but has for eternity been begotten by His Father.

3. The following example is taken from Michael Reeves’ fantastic book on The Trinity, Delighting In The Trinity.