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What is God like as our Father?
For some people, calling God “Father” immediately brings comfort.
For others, the word is complicated.
Perhaps your earthly father was absent.
Maybe he was emotionally distant.
He may have been harsh, unpredictable, or even abusive.
Therefore, when Christians say:
“God is your Father,”
you may instinctively imagine God through the lens of your human father.
But Scripture calls us to do the opposite.
We do not define God as our Father by projecting our earthly experiences onto Him.
Instead, we allow God to redefine fatherhood for us.
One of the clearest pictures appears in Luke 15.
Jesus tells three stories:
a lost sheep,
a lost coin,
and two lost sons.
The final parable is usually called the Prodigal Son.
Yet it is just as much a story about an extraordinary father.
Through that father, Jesus shows us something beautiful about God’s heart toward lost, repentant, and self-righteous people.
God as Our Father Must Be Understood Through Jesus
If you want to know what the Father is like, look at Jesus.
John 14:9 records Jesus saying:
“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
Jesus does not mean that the Father and Son are the same Person.
Rather, the Son perfectly reveals the Father’s character.
Therefore, your painful experiences with an earthly father should not become the standard by which you judge God.
Human fathers fail.
God does not.
Human fathers can misunderstand.
God knows completely.
Some fathers withdraw affection.
God’s character is faithful and steadfast.
Others use power selfishly.
Jesus reveals a Father whose love moves toward sinners.
This distinction is essential.
Your earthly father may influence how you emotionally experience God.
However, he does not define who God is.
The Context of Luke 15 Matters
Luke 15 begins with tax collectors and sinners gathering around Jesus.
Meanwhile, the Pharisees and scribes complain:
“This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
Jesus responds by telling three parables.
A shepherd searches for a lost sheep.
A woman searches for a lost coin.
Then a father deals with two lost sons.
Each story reaches toward the same theme:
God rejoices when the lost are restored.
Therefore, the father in the final parable should not be separated from the other two stories.
Jesus is responding to religious people who resent His welcome of sinners.
The younger son represents obvious rebellion.
The older brother represents a different kind of lostness:
self-righteousness.
Both need grace.
1. God as Our Father Loves Before We Deserve It
The younger son asks for his inheritance.
In that culture, his request would have been deeply dishonoring.
Essentially, he wanted his father’s possessions more than his father’s presence.
Then he leaves.
Jesus says he travels to a distant country and wastes his property in reckless living.
Sin still makes a similar promise.
It whispers:
“Life will be better away from the Father.”
Freedom appears to mean independence from God.
Yet eventually the younger son’s freedom becomes slavery.
His money disappears.
A famine comes.
Finally, he ends up feeding pigs.
For Jesus’ Jewish audience, the image would have emphasized how far he had fallen.
Nevertheless, something changes.
Luke says:
“He came to himself.”
The son remembers his father.
Then he turns home.
God as Our Father Is Not Indifferent to Sin
Sometimes Christians speak about God’s fatherly love in a way that makes repentance sound unnecessary.
Luke 15 does not teach that.
The younger son recognizes:
“I have sinned against heaven and before you.”
He turns around.
He goes home.
Therefore, grace does not mean sin is irrelevant.
Neither does repentance mean we earn grace.
Repentance is the turning of a sinner who has finally recognized that life away from the Father is not life at all.
The son does not return with a payment plan that could restore his status.
He returns dependent on mercy.
That is important.
The gospel is not:
“Come home because you can repay what you wasted.”
It is:
“Come home because the Father is merciful.”
2. God as Our Father Is Full of Compassion
Luke 15:20 says:
“While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”
The text does not explicitly tell us that the father stood at the same place every day watching the road.
We do not need to add that detail.
What Jesus gives us is already powerful enough.
The father sees.
He feels compassion.
He runs.
He embraces.
He kisses his returning son.
The son expects humiliation.
Instead, he encounters compassion.
This does not mean the father approves of everything the son did.
It means the son’s rebellion has not exhausted the father’s mercy.
Likewise, repentant sinners do not return to God because they have finally made themselves worthy.
We come because God is gracious.
God as Our Father Does Not Humiliate the Repentant
The younger son begins the speech he prepared:
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you…”
He knows he has done wrong.
Yet the father does not force him to grovel in front of the household until sufficient shame has been produced.
Instead, he commands his servants to bring:
the best robe,
a ring,
sandals,
and the fattened calf.
Restoration follows repentance.
This is especially important for Christians trapped in shame.
God’s forgiveness does not mean:
“Your sin never mattered.”
It means:
“Your sin does not have the final word when grace has received you.”
For more about God’s forgiveness:
https://onisim.net/gods-forgiveness/
3. God as Our Father Restores
The father does more than allow the younger son back onto the property.
He restores him publicly.
The robe, ring, sandals, and feast all communicate welcome and belonging.
We should avoid forcing every individual object into a detailed theological symbolism.
However, the overall picture is unmistakable.
The father does not treat the returning son merely as hired labor.
He receives him as a son.
That points beautifully toward the gospel.
Through Christ, believers do not merely receive cancellation of debt.
We receive adoption.
Romans 8:15 says:
“You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’”
Christian salvation is not only legal forgiveness.
It also brings us into God’s family.
God as Our Father and the Gift of Adoption
This requires an important theological distinction.
The Bible can speak of God as Creator of all humanity.
However, the New Testament speaks about God as Father in a particular saving and adoptive sense for those who belong to Christ.
John 1:12 says:
“To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
Therefore, we should not flatten biblical fatherhood into:
“Everyone is already God’s child in exactly the same sense.”
Through Christ, believers receive adoption.
That makes Christian identity deeply relational.
You are not merely:
forgiven.
acquitted.
or religious.
In Christ, you are welcomed into God’s household.
4. God as Our Father Rejoices Over Restoration
Luke 15 is full of celebration.
The shepherd says:
“Rejoice with me.”
The woman says:
“Rejoice with me.”
Then the father says:
“Let us eat and celebrate.”
Why?
“For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”
Jesus wants the Pharisees to understand something about God that they have missed.
Heaven does not resent the repentance of sinners.
God rejoices.
Sometimes religious people imagine holiness as permanently suspicious of anyone with a sinful past.
Luke 15 gives us another picture.
Repentance should produce joy.
When someone genuinely turns back to God, the proper Christian response is not:
“Let’s make sure he suffers long enough first.”
It is joy accompanied by wisdom, truth, and appropriate restoration.
God as Our Father Does Not Ignore the Older Brother
Then Jesus shifts the camera.
The older son returns from the field.
He hears music.
Instead of rejoicing, he becomes angry.
He refuses to enter the celebration.
His words reveal his heart:
“Look, these many years I have served you…”
He thinks relationally like a servant rather than a son.
Then he compares himself with his brother.
“I stayed.”
“I obeyed.”
“He wasted everything.”
The younger brother was lost through rebellion.
The older brother is lost in self-righteousness.
One ran away physically.
The other stayed home but remained emotionally distant from the father’s heart.
Religion can do that.
You can remain near the Father’s house while failing to love what the Father loves.
5. God as Our Father Moves Toward the Self-Righteous Too
One detail in Luke 15 is easy to miss.
The father goes outside for the older son too.
He ran toward the younger son.
Now he comes out to plead with the older brother.
That is grace.
God’s heart is not merely toward people with obvious scandals.
It is also toward:
the proud,
the judgmental,
the resentful,
and the religiously self-sufficient.
Sometimes we identify so easily with the younger son that we overlook the warning of the elder brother.
You can avoid pornography.
Attend church.
Serve faithfully.
Know Scripture.
Yet become bitter when God shows mercy to someone whose sins look worse than yours.
Luke 15 exposes both forms of lostness.
God as Our Father Does Not Love You More When You Perform Better
The older brother’s mentality is transactional.
He effectively says:
“I served. Therefore, you owe me.”
The father responds:
“Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.”
The greatest gift was not the goat the older son complained about.
It was the relationship he had failed to enjoy.
We can make the same mistake.
Prayer becomes currency.
Bible reading becomes currency.
Church service becomes currency.
Holiness becomes currency.
Then we quietly expect God to owe us the life we want.
But sonship is not wages.
Grace cannot be purchased through religious performance.
For more about God’s love:
https://onisim.net/unconditional-love/
6. God as Our Father Welcomes Sinners Without Celebrating Sin
This balance matters.
Jesus welcomed sinners.
The Pharisees criticized Him for it.
Yet Jesus never treated sin as harmless.
The younger son had to come home.
Grace welcomes the sinner.
Grace also calls the sinner out of the far country.
Therefore, Christians should reject two distortions.
One says:
“God is loving, so repentance does not matter.”
The other says:
“You failed too badly, so you can never come home.”
Luke 15 destroys both.
God’s grace is greater than your rebellion.
At the same time, His grace calls you home from rebellion.
What If Your Earthly Father Hurt You?
For some readers, this is the most difficult part.
Perhaps your father abused you.
Abandoned you.
Manipulated you.
Maybe he was physically present but emotionally unavailable.
In that situation, phrases such as:
“God is like a Father”
may initially produce fear rather than security.
Do not shame yourself for that reaction.
Pain can shape emotional associations deeply.
However, healing involves gradually allowing Scripture to separate God’s character from your father’s failures.
Your heavenly Father is not an improved version of your earthly father.
He is the standard by which all fatherhood should be judged.
Therefore, begin with Jesus.
See how He treats the weak.
How He welcomes repentant sinners.
How He confronts hypocrisy.
How He sacrifices Himself.
Let Christ teach you what the Father’s heart is like.
God as Our Father and Healthy Boundaries
The original article says:
“Never close the door on someone who acted wrongly toward you.”
I would remove that completely.
It can become dangerous pastoral advice.
Grace does not require unlimited relational access.
You can forgive someone and still maintain boundaries.
In cases involving abuse, violence, manipulation, or persistent destructive behavior, separation may be wise and necessary.
Luke 15 is a parable about God’s welcome of repentant sinners.
It should not be turned into a command requiring people to restore every harmful relationship immediately.
Forgiveness, reconciliation, trust, and access are related—but they are not identical.
7. God as Our Father Invites Us Into His Joy
The father tells the older brother:
“It was fitting to celebrate and be glad.”
Why?
Because restoration matters.
The Father wants more than outward compliance.
He wants sons and daughters who share His heart.
Do we rejoice when sinners repent?
Do we celebrate grace?
Can we welcome someone whose history is very different from ours?
Or do we secretly believe some people deserve a smaller portion of mercy?
Luke 15 asks us not merely:
“Are you the younger brother?”
It also asks:
“Are you the older brother?”
Ultimately, both sons need the father.
So do we.
God as Our Father Is Revealed Through the Gospel
Luke 15 gives us a beautiful picture.
Yet the New Testament gives us something even greater.
God does not merely stand at a distance inviting sinners home.
He sends His Son to seek and save the lost.
Jesus bears our sin.
He dies.
He rises.
Through Him, sinners receive forgiveness and adoption.
Galatians 4:4–6 says God sent His Son so that we might receive adoption.
Then God sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying:
“Abba! Father!”
Therefore, Christian fatherhood language is rooted in the gospel.
We know God as Father through the Son and by the Spirit.
Come Home to the Father
Perhaps you identify with the younger son.
You wandered.
Sin promised freedom.
Instead, it produced emptiness.
Then hear the invitation:
Come home.
Repent.
Trust Christ.
Do not wait until you become respectable enough to return.
You return because you need grace.
Perhaps you identify more with the older brother.
You stayed near church.
You served.
Yet comparison, resentment, entitlement, or self-righteousness has quietly hardened your heart.
You need grace too.
God’s grace is not only for obvious rebels.
Religious people need the gospel just as deeply.
God as Our Father: Remember These 7 Truths
Luke 15 reminds us that:
1. The Father loves sinners before they deserve anything.
2. The Father shows compassion to the repentant.
3. The Father restores rather than merely tolerates.
4. The Father rejoices when the lost return.
5. The Father also reaches toward the self-righteous.
6. The Father welcomes sinners without making sin irrelevant.
7. The Father invites His children to share His joy and heart.
Do not build your picture of God from your worst experience with a human father.
Build it from Scripture.
Look at Jesus.
Listen to Luke 15.
Then allow the gospel to reshape what the word Father means.
God as our Father is not merely a comforting metaphor. Through Jesus Christ, believers are forgiven, adopted, welcomed, and invited to live as children who know the Father’s heart.
Continue Learning About the Father
For God’s unconditional love:
https://onisim.net/unconditional-love/
For God’s forgiveness:
https://onisim.net/gods-forgiveness/
For fellowship with God:
https://onisim.net/god-wants-fellowship/
For repentance:
https://onisim.net/repentance/
For anger or disappointment toward God:
https://onisim.net/forgive-god/
I am a blogger, writer, pastor, Director of Zion Romania Bible School, husband to Olguta, a father and, most importantly, a child of God. I also completed my studies at the King’s University where I earned a B.A. in Theology with a concentration in Messianic Jewish Studies. I love Israel and I love the ‘Jewishness’ of the Bible.
My God bless you Onisim! Enjoyed your message very much.
Thank you, Valentina! Your comments bless me very much! Feel free to share it with others!
Great story about Richard Wurmbrand. Very encouraging and uplifting truth about God as a Father who loves us in such an incomprehensible way. Also read the post “Unconditional Love”. These are truths and wonders indeed that only the spirit of revelation from God can impart I suppose, and requires multiple readings and time of meditation in order to let them fully sink in. I am thankful for the work of God in your life and your submissive and humble response to Him – I don’t think it’s easy to have come this far. Thanks for taking the effort to share your life experience and thoughts, brother. It really encouraged me to know afresh that God is a loving Father.
Thank you, Vincent! All glory to God! You are a special man of God! Feel free to share this message with others!