| Christian Life and Doctrine | February 1963 |
Our Great Provider
IN SCRIPTURE God is not only represented as the Author of our being, our great Creator, infinite in wisdom and power, but also as the benevolent Provider for his creatures of all those things they need. In harmony with this he reveals himself as the Father of all those who have come to him through Christ.
One of the early disciples said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Fattier, and it sufficeth us.” (John 14:8) That follower was, with the others, sad because the Master had said that he would leave them for a time. And the request was, “Show us the Father.” In other words, show us that God has the character of a father, and we shall be able to trust him in your absence, as we have been able to do while you have been with us, helping us to exercise that kind of faith.
Our Father
TODAY as we consider what is implied in the term “father,” we see it to be the closest and most precious illustration of God’s relationship to us. And Jesus said on one occasion: “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of.”—Matt. 6:8
Among our preliminary needs as human children we may think of (1) food and clothing; (2) instruction in orderly conformity to the rules of the home; (3) education and preparation for the days ahead. These are among the most important provisions that would be made by a good father for his children; provisions made both sympathetically and lovingly, such as would increasingly bring forth feelings of respect and love in return.
It is clear from a careful reading of the Old Testament concerning those who endeavored to draw near to God and walk in his ways, either through means of the Law Covenant, or during centuries before the Law was given, that they did not think of him as their Father, but as their Creator and rightful Lord who desired their reverence, and obedience to his righteous laws. The precious relationship of sonship had been lost through the fall into sin and death by Adam, the first human son of God.—Luke 3:38
But with the providing of the ransom by Jesus for those who come unto God through him, desiring to be his disciples, and consecrating themselves to the will of God, this blessed relationship is restored, and God sends forth his Spirit into their hearts, causing them to specially think of him as their Father, and to cry “Abba, Father.”—Rom. 8:14,15
A Family’s Need
FROM the earliest days of belonging to a human family children need food and clothing, and these blessings the Heavenly Fattier graciously provides for his spiritual children. In addition to this temporal provision he also provides spiritual food and raiment. No matter how much of the new life in Christ the Lord’s children may enjoy, they will still need certain material blessings, as Jesus said on more than one occasion, “Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” (Matt. 6:32) These temporal needs the Lord has graciously promised to supply. But, the Master says to us, I want you to seek first and chiefly the interests of God’s kingdom, and all your earthly needs shall be added unto you.—Matt. 6:33
It is easily understood that loving and obedient children would not continually say to their father and mother, “Will you please give me something to eat before I start for school tomorrow?” or “It seems very cold today; please get me some warmer clothes for tomorrow.” Kind and loving parents would feel very much hurt if they had such requests from their children, because they know that their children have need of these things, and are only too willing to provide them as best they are able.
So it is with our Father in heaven. He knows we need these temporal things, and will surely bless our efforts to secure them. As the Father’s mouthpiece, Jesus says (paraphrasing his words), “Do not take any anxious thought about what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall be clothed, (such things are the chief concern of the Gentiles) for your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”—Matt. 6:31,32
But as spiritual sons of God, we in addition need spiritual food and raiment, and this our Father promises to supply abundantly. To those who hunger and thirst after righteousness the promise is that they “shall be filled.” (Matt. 5:6) Not only will they be filled with the rich spiritual food from his Word, but also with experiences that will give them opportunities for putting into practice the righteous principles of his Word of truth. Especially in these days of the second presence of the Master has he made us sit down to meat, and come forth and served us with “meat in due season,” and with many opportunities of inviting others to the feast.—Luke 13:37
As an earthly father provides for his children raiment as well as food, so the Heavenly Father provides for us spiritual clothing as well as spiritual food. There is the “robe of righteousness,” which covers our unintentional and unwilling imperfections and shortcomings. (Isa. 61:10) And to use the Apostle Paul’s words, there is that righteousness “which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” (Phil. 3:9) This robe we are to keep without “spot or wrinkle or any such thing,” seeking to have the spots removed through the forgiveness that comes to us through the precious blood of Christ.—Eph. 5:27; 1:7; Col. 1:14; I Pet. 1:19
Obedience
IN AN earthly home there can be no true blessedness unless there is a spirit of law and order, and a loving, reverent, and obedient attitude toward the father and mother as the heads of the house. So also in the house of God, there is a scriptural order to be observed. When the Master left his “house” he gave authority to his servants, giving each one his work, and also commanded the porter to watch. (Mark 13:34) How blessed it is when all the members of the one body of Christ, “the house of God,” seek to be submissive to their Lord and Head, observing carefully the requirements of his household, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures.—I Tim. 3:15
The Apostle Paul wrote: “Let all things be done decently and in order.” (I Cor. 14:40) Note also the satisfaction it gave him as he remembered the order and smooth working of the church at Colosse: “For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.”—Col. 2:5
Education
IT IS important that parents provide for their children the necessary education, including special endeavors to give them some particular knowledge and qualifications which will enable them to live a normal, rational life, so that they will be capable of providing for themselves and for those who, in due course, might be dependent upon them.
Just as an earthly son will sometimes be given a special education by his father in hope perchance that he will eventually occupy a high position in the world of business, science, or art; so those who, through full consecration and a begettal by the Holy Spirit, have become sons of God, have been called to the very exalted position of joint-heirs with Christ in his coming kingdom. (Rom. 8:17) And they must accordingly undergo an exacting period of preparation for their future work.
In Hebrews 2:10 we learn that during the Gospel Age God has been “bringing many sons unto glory.” And this we may think of, not only as a personal glory, the glory of the divine likeness, but also a position of very great honor in connection with the future work in the kingdom. Just as God’s sons in the future will differ from one another in glory and honor, so from the earliest days of creation there have been similar differences respecting the degrees in honor and glory in the great family of God in heaven and in earth.—I Cor. 15:39-42
We know that father Adam before his fall was a son of God, crowned with glory and honor. (Luke 3:38) The glory he possessed was that of a perfect human organism, plus a mental and moral likeness to the Creator, his Heavenly Father. Man, we are told, was made “a little lower than the angels.” (Ps. 8:5) Hence the glory and honor of the angelic sons of God would be a little greater in range and scope than that of one on the human plane of existence, even though perfect.
Heavenly Calling
THE divine nature (II Pet. 1:4) to which the church is called is a plane of existence with her glorified Lord, far above angels. Ephesians 1:21 says of Christ that he was raised “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named.” The preparation or education for such a position, reason tells us, would be proportionately strict, severe, and protracted.
Therefore, even the Father’s only begotten Son, the first to be called to this divine glory, we are told was made perfect (complete) through suffering. (Heb. 2:10) He suffered (1) as a result of the sacrifice of his perfect human nature during the three and a half years of his ministry; (2) on account of the gracious message of salvation he continually proclaimed to the sin-darkened people around him, being continually, and sometimes forcefully opposed; and (3) because of having all manner of evil said about him personally, and his claimed relationship to the Father, and of being the long-promised Messiah, denied, ridiculed, and violently rejected.
Just as a father whose son shows exceptional promise will endeavor to give him special education and opportunity of being prepared for the calling for which he seems to show special ability, so the Heavenly Father’s arrangement for perfecting, or completing, not only his only begotten Son, but also the church, through sufferings, and by passing through similar experiences as their great Forerunner, has been preparing them for reigning with Christ and sharing with him the work of blessing and restoring to life all the families of the earth.
The School of Christ
ALTHOUGH the Scriptures do not tell us in so many words that the Lord’s people at consecration enter a school, “the school of Christ,” there are many scriptural implications that this is the case. For instance, the Apostle Paul says of some Jewish believers, “The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.” (Gal. 3:24) The Greek word here translated “schoolmaster,” paidagogos, used to be a name applied to one of the servants in a family whose duty it was to lead his young master to and from school. (Dr. Strong) So the Law acted as a paidagogos. It showed the fallen condition and imperfections of even the most faithful in Israel, and the impossibility of any gaining the reward of life offered by the Law Covenant as a result of performing the works of the Law perfectly.
Paul wrote, when summing up his argument: “By the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.” (Gal. 2:16) Hence the Israelites indeed (living when our Lord walked this earth, and who heard and accepted his message of salvation by grace) allowed the Law and its teachings to lead them to justification through faith in his blood, and to enter the school of Christ, thus to learn of him, and be prepared for association with him in his kingdom. Jesus is repeatedly referred to in the New Testament as “Master,” but the Greek word here, didaskalos, actually means “teacher.”
Young people today may spend ten, twelve, or more years at school to prepare for some position later in life. But the high calling of the Gospel Age to joint-heirship with Christ in his kingdom is such a great, honorable, and even momentous calling that when our Father thus calls us, individually, he requires that we spend the remainder of our lives in the school of Christ.—Phil. 3:14
Valuable Training
OUR lessons and training in this school consist in obtaining a clear knowledge of the great doctrines of the divine plan, and God’s will for us. They also include learning how we may conform ourselves to the great moral principles of the Word of God, and particularly how we may be transformed into the character likeness of our great Teacher.—Rom. 12:1,2
Jesus said: “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.” (Matt. 11:29) Meekness is indeed an all-important quality if we would be ready scholars, and eventually copies of God’s dear Son. It is important to note of Jesus that “though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” (Heb. 5:8) From the beginning of his creation our Lord was always obedient to his Heavenly Father. (John 8:29; Col. 1:15, R.V.; Rev. 3:14) At no time did he desire, like Lucifer, a higher place in the universe than the one the Father had given him. (See Isa. 14:12-15) When he was in the flesh he was “lowly in heart.” He learned what it meant to be obedient, yet suffer, because he maintained that attitude of heart and mind.
The Apostle Paul also learned how to be obedient while suffering in the school of Christ, and these are his words recorded in Philippians 4:11, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” It should be noted that when these words were written Paul was enduring the rigors of a Roman prison for his faithfulness to the Lord. In spite of such trying circumstances it seems clear that he knew the blessing of a peaceful, happy, and contented frame of mind, come what may; for said he: “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: … to be full, and to be hungry, to abound and to suffer need.”—Phil. 4:12
At the close of his earthly pilgrimage, the Apostle Paul was able to say: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day.”—II Tim. 4:7,8
The World’s Salvation Later
IN SPITE of the “ransom for all” that Jesus gave, and that God “desires all men to be saved, and to come to an accurate knowledge of the truth” (I Tim. 2:4, Diaglott), we find that the vast majority of the human family have lived and died without any knowledge of God or his Word of truth, and the great plan for human salvation therein revealed. And it must be added that until recent years, little light was enjoyed upon this all-important subject. But with the light now shining upon the Word of God, it is made clear that, with the completion of the church and the setting up of the messianic kingdom, another great schooling period is to come, this time for the whole world of mankind.
It is recorded in Acts 17:31 that God hath appointed a day [the millennial day], in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man [Christ] whom he hath ordained.” During that time Satan is to be bound, that he should deceive the nations no more (Rev. 20:1-3)—that false teacher, and the misleading text books will all be removed. The Bible states: “Prepare ye the way of the people; cast up the highway; gather out the stones [stumbling blocks]; lift up a standard for the people.” (Isa. 62:10) And as the same prophet tells us: “In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.”—Isa. 29:18
Further, the Great Teacher, Prophet, Priest, and King will, during the Millennial Age, be instrumental, with his glorified church, in raising earth’s dead millions and establishing fully and completely the long prayed for kingdom of God in the earth, which kingdom of life, joy, and peace shall never pass away. (Dan. 2:44) During that glad time, when God’s judgments [his righteous dealings] are abroad in the earth, and clearly manifest to all mankind, “the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.”—Isa. 26:9
They will appreciate the great principles of the divine law operating in themselves and towards their fellows. God, describing through the Prophet Jeremiah the great and successful work then to be done under the New Covenant, says: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jer. 31:33) The outcome of this great work is further described in Isaiah 60:21: “Thy people [those who in that day become God’s people] shall be all righteous [all perfect] [now “there is none righteous no, not one]: they shall inherit the land [the earth] forever, the [human] branch of my planting [of many sons, on many planes of being], the work of my hands, that I may be glorified,” reverenced, hallowed, and properly appreciated.—Rom. 3:10,23; Rev. 15:4