The Father and the Son

Several years ago, Mark Ashton-Smith was on a planned 4-day kayak trip around the Isle of Wight in England when his kayak capsized.  Unable to get back into the canoe and in frigid and rough waters, he reached for his phone (which he’d had the foresight to place in a watertight container) and called the first person that came to mind — his father.  Nevermind that his father was in the United Arab Emirates, some 4000 miles away, he was still the one he called.  Ashton-Smith’s father then called the Coast Guard, and within an hour, the 33-year-old professor was being pulled from the water by a helicopter.

The newspaper article said he “did what he thought best.”  He called his dad.

The familial bonds between father and son can run deep, as the Ashton-Smith family exemplified.  But the bonds between the heavenly Father and His Son run infinitely deeper.  So it should be no surprise to read in John 13, “Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father…” (v. 1).  His work on earth nearly complete, He was going home.  He was going back to the Father.

Here we find a hint to the bonds inherent in the Trinitarian relationship.  The relationship between the Father and the Son is central in John’s gospel, as Jesus addresses God or refers to God as His Father over 100 times.  The precious uniqueness of this relationship is hinted at by the intimacy with which Jesus speaks of the Father.  Consider some of these references:

• 3:35 “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.”
• 5:36-37 “But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish the very works that I do testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me. And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form.”
• 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”
• 6:40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
• 8:28 So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.”
• 8:42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.”
• 8:54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’…”
• 10:17-18 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again.  No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
• 10:30 “I and the Father are one.”
• 14:11-12 “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.  Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.”
• 14:28 “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”
• 15:23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also.”
• 16:15 “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”
• 16:27-28 “for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.  I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.”
• 17:24-25 “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.  O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me…”
• 20:17 Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”

How great is our God not only to have this love for His Son, but also to invite those whom He saves into His family, adopting us as His sons (Gal. 4:1-7).