The Father's Family

Hebrews 2:10-12 (NLT), “God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation. So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. For he said to God, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people.”

How do you view yourself in relation to Jesus?  Do you view yourself as one with Him?  Are you really part of His family?

Look at these Scriptures today, for they really say it all. But why does it matter to hold this view correctly?  Let me start by first saying that many people view God by a lot of times their own beliefs and concepts.  To many, He is a distant God who seems too far to reach?  Others may say, well if He is really God, why doesn’t He do something?  The truth is any concept that does not come from the Bible, the Word of God is faulty and will actually cause one to fear God in the wrong sense of the word.  Don’t get me wrong our walk of faith is entirely dependent on our true fear of God.  The true fear of God is a deep reverence or respect for Him.  After all, He created us, we did not create Him.  Therefore, we must fear and revere Him.  However, many feel out of touch with God because their perception or concept of God is out of tune.  What I mean is that if we are to approach God, let us figure out what that looks like.

The truth is that Christ paid a huge price to accept us and grant us access to the Father.  And there it is right there, He is our Father.  Now if our earthly Father was no good, then naturally we will figure our Heavenly Father is the same.  But again we come to God the Father with the right concept and perspective wrought by the Word of God.  

In the context of the passage of Scripture, we can see that Jesus was made perfect through His suffering on the cross.  In like manner, we are made perfect through His suffering on the cross.  What an amazing invitation to be a part of.  So through the suffering of Jesus, we have been born again.  The perfection is that now through His suffering and blood we are brought near (Ephesians 2:13) and able to hear.  The fact that we can come to the Father and that He hears us and we hear Him is because the captain of our salvation, Jesus, has made the way behind the veil and has become our anchor to the Father (Hebrews 6:19).

Moving on from here, we see just how close He has brought us near when the writer of Hebrews says, “So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father.”  Ok, so as part of the complete package of salvation, there is now the component of it where the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit make their residence in us.  While in us, they are indefinitely making us holy.  The contrast here would be considered one who has not been made part of the family.  The one who was not part of the family would also not have the Holy Spirit living in them making them holy.  Holiness is sanctified and set apart state of being.  In other words, if Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have made their residence in you, then you will be continually made to look like them in righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30), for this is all part of salvation.  Very simply, it will be made known who belongs to what family by the fruits they bear.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit just like a freshwater spring cannot bring forth bitter water (Matthew 7:16; Luke 6:43; James 3:11).

So the exciting part is that Jesus, who makes us holy, is not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters.  The reason being is that we have the same Father.  Now, this should really shed some light into the hearts of God’s people and give them the right concept to believe with.  Here we can say that God the Father looks at His true children literally the same way that He looks at Jesus.  And Jesus is not ashamed to be called your brother or sister.  The question is, do you believe this?  I would imagine that this is not an easy thing to wrap one's mind around.  Especially in light of the many mistakes that we can make at times.  But let's face the music, we cannot view ourselves any different than God would or else we would always be lacking in the grace to overcome.  I hope this is all sinking deep within your heart.

It’s the truth, that Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sister.  Yet how often do we feel everything but this?  Let’s renew the spirits of our minds (Ephesians 4:23) to receive this truth.  Now in saying this, we do not have a license to sin or to keep coming up short.  On the contrary, this type of access to the Father as Jesus’s brothers and sisters actually gives us everything we need to succeed at this Christian walk.  That is why it is imperative to bear this concept and right belief in mind.  Part of sharing in the family of God is access to the very same things that Jesus had in His walk.  I want us to note, that if we are still coming up short in any way, it is not God’s fault.  The reality is that 100% of the blame is on us.  You see, it is actually really simple, Jesus was amazing and died so we could bear that same image.  Let all that we are glorify all that He is because we are literally part of the same family.

We have this in other passages of Scripture as well.  Look in Jesus’s prayer in John 17:23 (NLT), “I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.”  Here it is, the Father loves us just as much as He loves Jesus.  Those are some powerful words of acceptance if you ask me.  Now, we literally have everything at our disposal that Jesus did.  We can then walk as He walked.  First of all, no matter what, Jesus knew that He was loved by the Father. Do you know the Father's love for you?

       And next, everywhere He went was simply because He wanted to please the Father and do just as He does and did.  Therefore, we too can walk as He walked with the same power and anointing that He had on His life.  If we abide in Him and He in us, we have everything needed to live a life of godliness and holiness and acceptance.  We should very simply walk as He walked and live as He lived (1 John 2:6).