Not Many Fathers

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of His name.
I am writing to you, fathers, because you have come to know the One who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men, because you have had victory over the evil one.

I have written to you, children, because you have come to know the Father.
I have written to you, fathers, because you have come to know the One who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, God’s word remains in you, and you have victory over the evil one. – 1 John 2:12-14

Some days I am, at best, a child. With all that goes on, I can do no more than cling to the fact that Jesus had paid it all, and that I have access to the Father, and acceptance in Him. The Christian life begins with the Cross, a once-for-all transformation that turns us right side up in an upside down world. Through the Cross, we are delivered from sin’s bondage, the will is liberated, and we are free to walk in obedience to God. That part is easy for us because Jesus did the hard work, and we have only to believe it.

Christianity doesn’t end there, though. Every moment of every day we face the choice of whether to continue living under the deceptive rule of the soul. Some have compared the soul to a shell that surrounds the spirit man. It must be cracked in order for the spirit to take its proper place of rule in our lives. Our own personal cross must be borne day by day, or hour by hour for that to happen. There is no victory except to put to death the soul’s natural inclinations. Only in dying to self can we overcome. Attempting to defeat the enemy through self-denial either fails or leads to self-righteous pride.

It would seem that John has things out of order. We would think he should have had children then young men, and finally fathers. That is the natural order of things, isn’t it? We are born, we grow, and we become stronger. But we are dealing with the supernatural rather than the natural. In the realm of the spirit, one moves from knowing their sins are forgiven and knowing God as Father -- the position of child, to submitting to the Spirit and becoming a sort of spiritual father to the new nature. We must be fathers in spirit before we can be warriors, overcoming and conquering the soulish self.

It is an impossible move for the natural man. It is hard for me to even contemplate. It makes much more sense that we should clean up as we grow up, working from the bottom up. God appears to be making an unreasonable demand -- that we move from a newborn to a father in one swoop, and only then work out our salvation from the position of walking in the spirit -- top down.

The One who is from the beginning is certainly the Father. Father, though, is relational. God is my Father from the point I was born into the Kingdom, just as my natural father was my father when I was born in this world. But my father had an existence prior to my birth. He had other relationships, other roles – so, too, with our heavenly Father. To know Him only as Father is reassuring. It brings us peace. But to know Him as the One is to know Him beyond all knowing. Thus did the Old Testament saints – the patriarchs, that is, the fathers, know God. Those of old said, “Hear, O, Israel, the LORD your God is One.”

The father knows YHWH – I AM THAT I AM. The child knows the Father through Jesus and His finished work. The youth knows, the Logos, the indwelling Christ. Child, father, young man is not so much a progression as a dance within us. We are child in relation to the Father. We are fathers in relation to the Spirit who must impart to us wisdom, insight and discernment so that we can conquer as brothers with Christ.