Coming to the Father

 

“…no one comes to the Father but through Me.” John 14:6b

 

The essence of life is coming to the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

It is coming to the Father through Jesus as His individual sons and daughters, and it is most certainly coming to the Father in koinonia with one another (1 John 1:3; Hebrews 10:19 – 25).

 

Those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes have the Lamb’s Name, and the Father’s Name, “written on their foreheads” (Rev. 14:1). That is, they have the Nature of the Lamb and the Father infused in their minds, their hearts, their souls. We learn to live by the Light of the Lamb and of the Father exclusively, and we have no Temple but the Father and the Lamb (Rev. 21:22 – 23).

 

And so we see that our Father is “bringing many sons [and daughters!] to glory” through our Lord Jesus Christ, our Elder Brother. (Hebrews. 2:9 – 13).

 

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3).

 

The Upper Room, John chapters 13 – 17, is about coming to the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, the Gospel is about coming to the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. In John 13:1 we see that Jesus is departing from the world to the Father, in John 17 we see Jesus bringing us to where He is in the Father.

 

In Matthew’s Gospel, in the beginning of the teaching of Jesus Christ, we see Jesus teaching us to pray “Our Father” and teaching us to be perfect and mature “as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt. 5:9, 45, 48; 6:9, 32).

 

Paul writes that we cry out, “Abba! Father!” “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.” (Romans 8:15c – 16).

 

Are we declaring the Name of our Father to our brethren? (Heb. 2:12).

 

Do we realize that the creation is travailing for the manifestation of the sons of God? (Rom. 8:22).

 

In the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15, the wayward son comes to his senses while in a far country and eating the food of pigs, as wonderful as this story is, and by no means to diminish it – there is yet the story of Advent, the story of the Word being made flesh and living among us and giving His life for us (John 1:1 – 18).

 

For in the Incarnation it is the Elder Brother who leaves His Father’s House and goes into the far country, goes into the place of the unclean with its unclean food, in order to bring His wayward brothers and sisters back to their Father (Hebrews 2:9 – 18).

 

The essence of life is our returning to the Father through Jesus Christ.

 

Isn’t this a message worth sharing?

 

“When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.” (Luke 2:17 – 18).