The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — Matthew Cain

Let's open our Bibles and I hope you don't roll your eyes if I ask you to turn again to Romans chapter 15. I do expect I'll give you this commitment in my final message of the afternoon if you're still present.

The Titles of God in Romans 15

I expect to read elsewhere other than Romans 15. Saturday morning we looked at one of the titles of God in Romans 15. He is the God of patience and consolation or as you could render it the God of endurance and encouragement.

And then in the afternoon we considered another title of God that he is the God of hope. There's another clear lovely title of God in chapter 15. At the end of the chapter he's called the God of peace and you find it again in chapter 16.

The God of peace will shortly bruise Satan under your feet. That's a lovely title to consider and we're not going to consider that right now. I'd like to look at a somewhat hidden title of God in Romans 15.

Let's read again these verses at verse number 5. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus that ye may with one mind and with one mouth glorify God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Now it is verse 6 that we're considering and if you're holding a King James Bible it says that we are to glorify God even the Father.

But I think in every other English translation of the scriptures, at least the ten that I took the time to check, it just makes a slight emendation. It reads this way, that ye may with one mind and with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's what we're going to consider, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It happens a few other times in scripture, it's not exactly common, but there are a handful of other passages that we read that title, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is obviously a New Testament title. In the Old Testament, Old Testament believers would have loved to take the title the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and know that the God of those great men was their God.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But in the New Testament we have been given additional and greater revelation, revelation of God in relationship to his son. And so five times in the New Testament, you have it twice in 2nd Corinthians, you have it in the longest sentence of the New Testament in Ephesians chapter 1, you have it in what I think is the second longest sentence of the New Testament in 1st Peter chapter 1, and now you have it in Romans 15.

But there is something unique about this particular occurrence of the title, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every other one of those usages, it appears in a bit of a doxology, a burst of praise.

So in 1st Peter 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2nd Corinthians, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And then I think it's 2nd Corinthians 11, or a little bit later, it speaks of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever. So in every other occurrence, it is in the midst of a doxology, it's a burst of praise, the title invokes praise.

Not in Romans 15, and yet I think that is related to Romans 15, and it's very instructive for the implications of this passage. Because here's the one occurrence of the title that isn't inherently a doxology, but he is looking for praise, he is looking for a doxology from his people, that you may with one mind and with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is worthy of the doxology. It's wonderful to trace the mouth through Romans, in Romans chapter 3, the mouth of unconverted men and women is full of cursing and bitterness. And then again in chapter 3, every mouth is stopped.

All the world guilty or accountable to God, they're convicted. And then in Romans 10, with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. If you believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, and say with the mouth, Jesus as Lord, you shall be saved.

And now in Romans 15, a group of converted people, they share this in common, they love the Lord Jesus. And now he anticipates this diverse group of people with their different backgrounds, their different ethnicities, their different religious heritages, their different cultures, their different opinions on a variety of secondary issues, and he sees them unitedly praising God with one mind and one mouth, praising the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, blessed above all others.

And he says, I want you to unitedly praise him and glorify him as we did this morning in a lovely way. So the very title is meant to invoke worship and praise. Let's think first of all of the relationship of the Lord Jesus to his Father.

The Eternal Son and His Equality with the Father

He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And to speak of the Lord Jesus as the Son of God is to imply his deity. There are cults that say that Jesus never claimed equality with God or never claimed to be God, he never claimed deity, they say.

That's only what his followers say. Well, the listeners of the Lord Jesus obviously felt otherwise. In John chapter 5, the Lord Jesus heals a man at the Pool of Bethesda, he purposely does it on the Sabbath day, and he says, my Father is working and I am working.

And the Jews wanted to destroy him, it says, because not only was he healing on the Sabbath, but because he called God his Father, thereby claiming equality with God. Why does calling God Father, why for the Lord Jesus did that imply equality with God?

Isn't the Father greater than the Son? My son, my oldest son, is with us this weekend. Don't I have authority over my son? He told us once that what he wanted to be when he grows up, he wants to be in charge.

He would look forward to that opportunity, but it's the Father who's in charge right now. The Father is greater in his wisdom, in his experience, in his intelligence, I'm speaking human-wise now, so in what sense does Christ being the Son equate with deity of the Father?

Well, as much as my son may be younger than me and less experienced than me, my son is of the exact same nature as me. In that sense, we are entirely equal. When the Lord Jesus speaks of God as his Father, he's claiming the same nature as the Father, and his listeners understood that, and they said, by calling God your Father, you are making yourself equal with God.

It comes up again in John chapter 10, when they pick up stones to stone him, and the Lord Jesus says, for which of the good works that I am doing do you stone me? I like that reply. To me, that's a divine sanction of a little bit of sarcasm, isn't it?

Which of the good works that I am doing do you stone me for? No, no, we're not stoning you for the good works. We're going to stone you because you being a man make yourself out to be God. He says, are you saying that I am blaspheming because I say I am the Son of God?

That's the Lord's reply. So the Lord very much claimed equality with the Father. To be the Son of the Father is to possess as much deity as the Father. If he is God, then he must be eternally God. He could not become God.

He is God, always has been God, eternally the Son. A child was born, but a son was given, the eternal Son of the Father. And that father-son relationship is just touched on a little bit in the book of Romans as well.

Romans chapter 6 says, he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. That's a lovely expression. It is saying that God's glory demanded the resurrection of this sinless man. They had treated him as a criminal, but God is saying, my honor, my glory is at stake.

He must be raised from the dead. But it doesn't just say he's raised by the glory of God. There is a bit more warmth in it. It's as if God is saying, this is my son we're talking about. My son is the one that you've treated this way.

He's raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. And it's only in Romans where the gospel is unfolded like no other epistle. It's only in Romans that we have this title, the gospel of his son. And the gospel, God's love, is on display.

He spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. His great purpose in the gospel is that we will be conformed to the image of his son. And I know we enjoy and we should enjoy thinking about the perfect son, but I want you to remember that God is a perfect father.

I would love to have just a couple beautiful summary statements that I could give to you about the father-son relationship that would just rivet into your soul, but I haven't discovered them yet. I'm still looking for them.

I love that phrase that is first found in 2 Samuel and it comes again in Hebrews 1, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. I want to understand and explore that even more. I need more light on it because it just it strikes me as so beautiful and I can't convey anything from it hardly.

It must have meant something special to David to hear God say that in regards initially to Solomon, but it's fulfilled in Christ. I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. They have they have had and have a perfect father-son relationship.

And so the father encourages his son with that declaration at his baptism and again at the transfiguration, this is my beloved son, and he announces it for others to hear. And he's with the son in his suffering because the Lord Jesus says in John 16 in anticipation of the cross, I am not alone, the Father is with me.

And a father and son moving in harmony towards the cross. And from the cross the Lord Jesus continues to address his father. Father, forgive them. That's the first one. And the final one, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

At the beginning and at the end he's speaking with his father. In his suffering he prays with confidence to his father. But I'd like to think just a little bit longer about God as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ as the Perfect Man and Worshiper of God

The relationship of the Lord Jesus Christ to his God. And I think that this aspect of the Lord Jesus life is not explored as often. We may say the words, we may quote some verses, but how often do we think of the Lord Jesus as a worshiper of his God?

And my guess would be, if I am correct that we don't consider it as often, my guess would be we likely don't because we're conscious of wanting to preserve the deity of the Lord Jesus who himself is God.

And that's important. Bishop Hanley Mool, maybe you have heard him referenced on another time, he was a Bible scholar of many years ago, he says that a Savior that is not quite God is like a bridge that is broken at the far end.

Okay. Now FF Bruce is another Bible scholar, lived his days in assembly testimony in the United Kingdom. He agrees with what Mool said, so Mool says a Savior that is not quite God is a bridge broken at the far end.

But Mr. Bruce adds, with equal truth it must be said that a Savior and an exemplar who is not quite man is a bridge that is broken at the near end. And then he says this, and I'd like you to listen and consider it.

Our Lord's deity is not enhanced when men thinking to do him honor detract from the completeness of his manhood. Our Lord's deity is not enhanced when thinking to do him honor we detract from the completeness of his manhood.

And as a complete and a real man he served and he worshiped God. Because the law said, the law demanded, worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. And the Lord Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly.

So with the Father the Lord Jesus is a perfect son and with his God he is a perfect man and a perfect worshiper of his God. Now we have very few New Testament references of the Lord Jesus speaking or addressing God, speaking of him as his God.

They are few. You have it in the resurrection in John 20, you have it a couple of times in the letters to the seven churches, the risen Christ in Revelation chapter 1 and 2 and 3, but to hear the Lord Jesus speaking to him and calling him God directly, the only New Testament references are quotations from Messianic Psalms.

And so I'm going to quickly explore some of those references from the Psalms to hear the Lord Jesus with his God. And I want you to think about them as we reference them, to think about what the Lord Jesus is saying about his God.

Psalm number 22, I was cast upon thee from the womb, you are my God from my mother's belly. That's a remarkable statement about the Lord Jesus as a dependent man, because seemingly what that is telling me, in the mystery of the incarnation, seemingly the Lord Jesus was dependent consciously upon his God from the very outset.

We have a little baby who's obviously very dependent upon us, but it's, I don't think, I don't know if it is so much this conscious expression of trusting in us. He couldn't express it that way, but that's the Lord Jesus' thoughts and words.

You are my God from my mother's belly, from the outset all the way unto glory, the Lord lived unto his God, dependent. Psalm 40 is quoted in Hebrews 10, a body you have prepared for me. I have come in the volume of the book it is written of me, I have come, I delight to do your will, oh my God.

There's the ideal man, the obedient man who could perfectly fulfill God's desires. He says, sacrifice an offering you did not desire. They weren't satisfying God, but here's a man who satisfied God. God delighted in this man because this man delighted in the will of God and it thrilled God.

Psalm 31 is where the Lord Jesus takes the words from a father into your hands, I commend my spirit, and in Psalm 31 it says, while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life, but I trusted in you, O Lord.

I said, you are my God, my times are in your hand. People have turned against this man, and when people have turned against him, the dependent man knows where to turn. He lifts his eyes to his God. You are my God, my times are in your hand.

Or in Psalm 102, that is also quoted in Hebrews. That's the quotation that he will, as a vesture, he will fold them up. It's a wonderful psalm, but earlier in Psalm 102, this is what it says, he weakened my strength, he shortened my days.

I said, oh my God, take me not away in the midst of my days. Can you capture something of the urgency of that cry? A dependent man, it sounds like Gethsemane, doesn't it? The dependent man pleading with his God, oh my God, take me not away in the midst of my days.

I want you to listen how God reassures that blessed man. The Lord Jesus, take me not away in the midst of my days, and God responds to that blessed man, your years shall have no end. You will go through the agony of the cross, but you are an everlasting man.

There's a promise of resurrection, and he lives in the power of an endless life, a real man in the glory. Psalm 118, one of the Hallel Psalms, the Psalms that were sung at Passover time, so likely the Lord Jesus has sung these words the night before his death.

The stone which the builders refused has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it, bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.

You are my God, and I will praise you. You are my God, and I will exalt you. So that's what the Lord Jesus is singing unto his God. He's worshiping his God as he's moving out towards the cross. He has kept the Passover.

He has instituted the very supper that commemorates his death, and he's singing praise to the God whose will it is that he would die. He will go rejoicing and worshiping. The obedient man will go all the way to the altar for his God, rejoicing and worshiping.

You are my God, I will praise you. The God of the Lord Jesus was thrilled with the obedience of this lovely man, and then in Psalm 69, it's not just the anticipation of the suffering. He says, I am weary of my crying, my throat has died, my eyes fail while I wait for my God.

Not just anticipating it, but now he's going through it, and the ideal man is still worshiping and trusting. Even in his agony, he looks to his God and he waits upon him. So I notice these three things now, the Lord Jesus and his God.

The Lord Jesus is a man who worshipped, trusted, and obeyed his God. He worshipped, he trusted, and he obeyed. And I have skipped maybe one of the most well-known ones, which is Psalm 22, again. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

A real man offering a real cry, the depths of horrors of his suffering, he has worshipped God beautifully, he has trusted him unceasingly, he has obeyed him completely, but now he's taking in himself the chastisement of God because of our sin, so he's abandoned, forsaken of his God, and he cries, my God, why?

And I just, I'll clarify one thing. I'm a fairly approachable fellow, even if I don't appear that way at the moment, so if you want to take me up on this after, I'm happy to have the conversation with you, and open to what you would suggest.

But in regards to that cry from Psalm 22 and the cry from the cross, I would suggest it is not a cry from an orphaned son. It's not a cry from an orphaned son. To me, it is highly, highly significant that the first cry and the last cry of the cross are both addressed to the Father, and this cry of being forsaken is addressed to my God.

He is always the Son of the Father. He could not cease to be the Son of the Father, and yet this blessed man is forsaken of his God. And if that maintains a bit of a mystery in your thinking, then you're just where I am, a little bit of a mystery, and I wonder at the work of the cross and the truth of the Trinity.

The Resurrection and Our Adoption Into Christ's Relationship

Having suffered and died, he is raised from the dead by that one to whom he prayed. And so Romans 6 says he's raised by the glory of the Father. Romans 10, God has raised him from the dead. He is the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is our Savior's God and Father. And Romans 8 says we are joint heirs with Christ. Think again of John 20, where in resurrection the Lord Jesus says, go and tell my brothers. He says that now on resurrection ground.

Go and tell my brothers, I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Go and tell my brothers, the other disciples, and you can tell my brothers in Garnevillo, go and tell my brothers that I'm ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.

So the Lord Jesus is inviting us into the full enjoyment of that relationship that he has with God. He's inviting us in to that relationship. Maybe that's just a little bit of a clue of what that next verse in Romans 15 means in verse number 7, where he says, receive one another as Christ has received us.

Receive one another into your hearts, because he has received us into the full enjoyment of that relationship with heaven, and we are Christ, and what God is to Christ, God is also to us. God and Father.

God as the Perfect Father of His Children

So the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our perfect Father. And in Romans 8, you have received the spirit of sonship whereby you cry, Abba, Father. There is a unique father-son relationship that God has with Christ.

But God calls us his children, and we call him Father. He's a father of mercies. In 2 Corinthians 1, in Hebrews 12, in the context of child training, disciplining his children, he's the father of spirits, doing it with our good in mind.

In James chapter 1, he's the father of lights, no variableness, no mood changes with our Heavenly Father. Doesn't just lose patience because he's stressed out like I may do at times. It's a perfect father.

He is our Father, and he is our God. And as our God, he is worthy of the same that he received from the Lord Jesus. Our trust, our obedience, and our worship. And now we're back to Romans 15 and verse 6.

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the God and Father of all of us. So receive one another, he says. Receive one another, and unitedly with one mind and one mouth, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.