The Fellowship of the Father and the Son
Since the day God made man, He has sought to have a relationship with him. The Creator God Team became a Father and a Son for the purpose of bringing humans into the God Family. God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ have a deep desire to make friends and establish family ties with any human being who is willing to meet Their conditions. Eventually both the Father and the Son will leave Heaven to come down and fellowship with man forever and ever!
by Aloysius Abdiel
The very beginning of the Bible speaks of a Team of
Supreme Beings involved in the creation of man. They stated Their purpose of
creating man: "Let Us make man in our image, according to Our likeness . .
. " (Gen. 1:26). They wanted to create a species that would
resemble Them, with whom They could share Their lives and eventually transform
to be of Their kind.
Somewhere in the middle of the Bible, these Creators
are identified: They are God and the Word of God (John 1:1). But God
became the Father and the Word of God became the Son, to put into effect a
great master plan of bringing humans into the glorious family of God (Heb.
2:10).
The Father and the Son created us so that we could
have a relationship with Them. We were not designed to live our lives merely
with fellow human beings, we were made so that we could become the friends and
family of the Creator of the Universe!
It is The Fellowship
I John 1:3 properly
translated from the original Greek text should read, "That which we have
seen and have heard we are reporting to you, in order that you also may have
fellowship with us; and truly THE FELLOWSHIP [namely our fellowship] is with
the Father and with His own Son, Jesus Christ."
For three-and-a-half years, Apostle John and the
other Apostles were eye-witnesses of the Son of God who had come down from
Heaven. They saw His face, they heard His voice, they observed His mannerisms,
they watched His habits. They spent hours talking to Him, listening to Him,
walking with Him, eating with Him, staying with Him — sharing His life!
All this communicating, socializing, sharing, was of
The Fellowship. And it was during this fellowship, He constantly spoke about
and revealed the Father to hem.
Then the Son of God went back to Heaven. But He did
not abandon them. The Father did a profound thing: He sent the Spirit of the
Son into the minds and bodies of the
disciples of the Son (Acts 3:26; Gal. 4:6). Now the Son was not only
with but inside His disciples; the
entering of the Son's Spirit was the complete fulfillment of Immanuel; God WITHIN us (Mat. 1:23).
The Father is calling people into fellowship of His Son (I Cor. 1:9). The Father offers His Son as a gift (Isa. 9:6). He wants to share His Son with humanity. He wants us to become eternal companions of His Son. The Son has the power to bestow eternal life; those in whom the Son has entered to live, are already entering into eternal life (John 20:31; l John 5:11-12).
The Father and the Son have a worship system, and They
are looking for people who would faithfully abide by Their system, in order to
bring them into an intimate family relationship with Them (John 4:23).
The Son stated two simple
criteria of the worship system: all worship must be done in spirit and in truth
(John 4:24). Anyone who wants to worship the Father and the Son must
completely believe in Their active and dynamic presence, although the Father
and the Son cannot be seen, heard, or felt (Heb. 11:6). An invisible God
needs no physical representations and symbols, those who persist in using them
are going to find the Father and the Son turning a deaf ear to their prayers.
The Son has declared Himself as "The Truth"
and the Son has testified that all the words of the Father are truth (John
14:6, 17:17). This shows how
immensely important the truth is to the Father and the Son. True words always
came out of the Son's mouth because He spoke the Father's words (John
12:49-50). The teachings of the Son are found in the entire Bible, from
beginning to end, because the Son is the real author of the Bible.
Those who love the Son and His true words will make
sure their beliefs and doctrines come solely from the Bible. There can be no
fellowship with the Father and the Son, when one does not live by the Bible (l
John 1:6; 2 John 9). The Father demands that we walk in truth, and the
Bible is what defines truth (II John 4; II Tim. 3:16).
The Son has said that many are paying Him lip service
and worshipping Him with the traditions of men (Mark 7:6-7). Those who
worship on the false Sabbath of Sunday, and on bogus festivals such as Easter
and Christmas are doing just that. They
should wake up and realize the Father and the Son are not there to fellowship
with them in their services and gatherings.
In the worship system of the Father and the Son, the
Father sits on a Throne and the Son stands at the middle of the Throne (Rev.
5:6, 7:17).
Why is the Father sitting
and the Son standing?
The Father sits because He is the Ultimate, the
Supreme, the Highest, the Most Holy. The Son stands because He functions and
works as a Minister and a Priest to purify worshippers and bring them near to
the Father (Heb. 8:2, 9:14). No one is allowed to go to the Father
without the Son's permission (John 14:6). The Son holds the key which opens
and shuts the Throne Room of the Father (Rev. 3:7). Unclean sinners have no access to the
Father. They must come to the Son — and come before it is too late. If a person
comes with all his filthy sins to repent and beg for forgiveness, the Son will not
cast him out (John 6:37). The Son will lovingly forgive and cover all
his sins with His shed blood (I John 1:9). By continual coming to the
Son, the worshipper will be perfected and will have the confidence to approach
the Father (Heb. 10:14).
No one but the Son is to come between us and the Father. He plays a central role in our relationship with the Father — He is so important that there can be no salvation of humans without Him (Acts 4:12). He is always needed even after we have the confidence to go directly to the Father. The Father's love for us is regulated by our affection for His Son (John 14:23, 16:27). We cannot be intimate with the Father without first going through the Son. The Son is a channel we must use to draw near to the Father (Heb. 7:19).
It is sad, but true, many who call themselves
Christians, do not really understand what Christianity is all about. They are
fixated on the idea that Christianity is the church. But Christianity is more than a church, even more than a
religion! It is the Life of Christ reproduced and relived in
His followers. If this vibrant life of Christ is not present and manifesting
Itself in you, then all your church affiliation and fellowshipping is
meaningless!
Christianity is a calling by God the Father, that one
should die to the self and live to Jesus Christ (II Cor. 5:15; Rom. 6:11).
This is something we must do on an hour-to-hour and a day-to-day basis. True
Christianity is being in constant fellowship with the Father through the Son.
It is feeding on Jesus Christ — eating His bread of life and drinking His water
of life (John 6:35). It
is humbling oneself as a little child before God, clinging on to the robes of
the Master Jesus, and running to the Father for every need (Mat. 18:3).
It is personally coming to know the
Father and Christ (John 17:3). It is constantly seeking the face of
Jesus Christ in prayer (Psa. 27:8).
Many Christians are seeking the fellowship of a church
instead of first seeking the fellowship of the Father and the Son. They are
hopping from one group to another to find a fellowship which fulfills their
needs.
No human fellowship — no matter how large and how
glamorous — can compare with the fellowship of the Father and the Son. Those
who place greater value in the fellowship of man than the fellowship of God,
are like many branches of a tree joined together without being connected to the
trunk of a tree! The Bible says Christ is the True Vine (John 15:5). But
many churches are functioning as if they are the Vine, people are more attached
to the church than to Christ, their sense of belonging is more to a church than
to Jesus Christ. They are more tuned in to the activities of the church than to
the real workings of the Holy Spirit. That is why there are so many
spiritually-dead Christians around!
Many know in their hearts their churches are not teaching what the Bible says. But they don't want to leave, take up the cross, and follow the Son. They want the fellowship of the church. This is where one makes the choice of fellowshipping with man rather than with God. They prefer the company of humans rather than the company of the Father and the Son. They believe in the security and comfort of a human organization.
But are people really fulfilled and secure when they
rely on the comfort of man and the strength of human organizations?
It is no great secret that in many churches, people
experience a great vacuum in their lives. Despite having the structure of the
church and hundreds of members with which to fellowship, they suffer spiritual
malnutrition, intense loneliness, and a total loss of direction.
The Bible declares in unequivocal terms that
salvation belongs to the Father and the Son (Rev. 7:10). Real security and comfort is not found in
physical strength and numbers but in the Father and the Son.
There is no deliverance and security for those who
trust in a church organization, but the Bible prophesies in the last days even
weaklings who trust in power of the Son of God will become brave and strong (Zech.12:8).
Jesus said that knowing the Father and the Son is an
occupation equivalent to ETERNAL LIFE (John 17:3). The thrust of the New
Covenant is knowing the Lord (Heb. 8:11). And everyone — not only
leaders of the church — must come to personally know the Lord. Many are not
close to the Lord because they are held captive in a church system, or in a
church organization, which cuts them off from God. They are involved merely in
the outward form of religion, but their hearts are not converted. Jesus said
MANY — not few, but MANY — will take the easy road leading to destruction (Mat.
7:13). Could you be one of those
whom Jesus prophesied about?
The Father is going to send His Son to restore the
Kingdom of God on earth. Those who are faithful to the SON will bask in His
glory, live with Him, and rule the earth with Him for 1000 years (Rev. 5:10,
20:6). After the 1000 years, the Son will create a new Heavens and a new
Earth and the Father will come down to the earth to dwell among men forever (Rev.
21:3, 22:3)!
The true God — the Father and the Son — want to
fellowship with us, share Themselves with us, even give all things in the
universe to us (Heb. 2:8; Rev. 21:7).
Those who spurn Their
offer, and decide not to know and obey Them, will suffer eternal destruction at
the second coming of the Son (II Thess.1:8-9)!