Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”1
It is difficult to grasp intellectually God’s holiness—purity, moral excellency, rectitude, honor, truth and righteousness, uncreated and eternal. These are concepts that do not describe holiness well enough. Language cannot express the holy, so God resorts to association and suggestion.2
Through names and attributes, God partially and progressively reveals himself. Some of the names he calls himself: In the beginning God . . .3 God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.4 I am God Almighty.5 I AM WHO I AM.6 I am the LORD.7
Confronted with these revelations our vileness is exposed. We are like a flea in a jar that leaps and constantly hits its head on the lid.8 Thus, we learn to hide and excuse ourselves from a holy God. Yet, as a Father, who unconditionally loves us, he uncovers the jar. But we have settled and are content in our rebellion, seeped in pride and hardness of heart. In a song Moses spoke, They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation. Do you thus repay the LORD, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?9 Relentless, God woos us into a relationship with him. To David he promised, I will raise up your offspring after you . . . He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod . . . but my steadfast love will not depart from him . . . .10 My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him, . . . He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation,’11
Left to ourselves we are unable to fulfill God’s requirement for holiness. For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not?12 God said, How I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me. . . . “Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.”13
His plan shall prevail. Through grace God paves the way for our reconciliation. The LORD said to [Jesus], “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.14 Just as we learned in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, it was the father who initiates, who comes out and entreats the sons and be reconciled to him.15
“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”16 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.17
Notes:
1. Matthew 6:9
2. A.W.Tozer, The Attributes of God—A Journey into the Father’s Heart, p.120
3. Genesis 1:1
4. Genesis 14:19
5. Genesis 17:1
6. Exodus 3:14
7. Exodus 6:2
8. https://leadingpersonality.wordpress.com/tag/fleas-in-a-jar-experiment/
9. Deuteronomy 32:5-6
10. 2 Samuel 7:12-15
11. Psalm 89:19-37
12. Isaiah 63:15-19
13. Jeremiah 3:19-23
14. Psalm 2:7-8
15. Luke 15:11-32
16. Romans 4:7-8
17. Ephesians 2:8-9
