There is an eternal gospel that is being proclaimed in these latter days of this present earth, John the apostle said, “And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he said with a loud voice, ‘Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters’” (Rev. 14:6-7).

The eternal gospel is one that will be declared forever also on the new Earth joined to the new Heaven (Rev. 21:1-4).

ABOUT OUR FATHER

All of the “goodness” we know, is about our Father God, for He alone of the Holy Trinity has been revealed to mankind on earth. The Son of God and the Holy Spirit have always made known the Father rather than themselves. Jesus said, “…No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Luke 10:22).

“But when He, the [Holy] Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come” (John 16:13).

Therefore, there is only one disclosure of the three divine Persons of the Trinity on the present earth, and that is of the Father alone. All the goodness in the love that Jesus manifests on the earth and in the centuries that followed, were of the Father Himself.

“IN THE BEGINNING…”

“The glorious gospel of the blessed God” our Father, began on earth with the first man and woman (1 Tim. 1:11). The Bible begins in chapter one of Genesis with the Father as the central figure, the Creator. All of scripture is a revelation of God the Father in His self-sacrificial love. The heart of the eternal gospel is the awesome reality of His goodness and love in His coming down, time after time, from Heaven to be with His children throughout their history on earth.

OUR FATHER IN THE FIRST ACCOUNT OF CREATION

“Then God [the Father] said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness’” (Gen. 1:26). “Our image” is what God the Father and the Son look like outwardly. “Our likeness” is how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are alike inwardly. A major part of this inner resemblance of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity is the same inner-life of the spirit and heart.

In the second and third chapters of Genesis, the Father [Yahweh] walks and fellowships with Adam and Eve in the garden (Gen. 3:8). From the beginning of the human race, the Father has desired to have His children on earth close to Him.

The Holy Spirit was the first Person on the scene (Gen. 1:2). The eternal life of God’s Son was represented by the Tree of Life in the middle of the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:9). Also growing in the garden was the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” representing merely human understanding in the soul life of mind, emotions and will. These trees represent the same foundational choice by all humans. God did not create human beings to manifest either human good or evil, but as His children, to show forth the Person of the Father through His Son by the Holy Spirit. This is what it means to be a child of God. It is the choice between human reason or revelation concerning the life of God’s Son.

Some believers try to eat from both trees which cancels out all of the fruit, and they remain undernourished.

The Father’s coming to earth in person to be with His first two human children was also a prophecy of God in a future, renewed Heaven coming down to a renewed Earth, which will take the place of the old Heaven and Earth. In this final Heaven on a final Earth, Our Father God will reign with His Son forever in the midst of His children and the angelic host (Rev. 22:3-4).

From eternity past, the spirits of Adam and Eve had been foreknown by God – “Just as He chose us in Him [Jesus] before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him…” (Eph. 1:4).

After they sinned, the Father spoke the gospel of His Son’s coming victory over sin, Satan and death to them on earth, and they believed His word: “He [Jesus] shall bruise you [Satan] on the head, And you [Satan] shall bruise him on the heel” (Gen. 3:15).

Adam witnessed to his faith in God’s word by naming his wife Eve, a word meaning “life,” as the mother of all who would come after, including the Seed, Christ Jesus, who would be our salvation (Gen. 3:20).

Our Father God forgave them and clothed them in the skin of innocent animals as a sign of their salvation in the coming sacrifice of His Son on the cross (Gen. 3:21). [Remember that after His death He went down to Sheol and preached the gospel to those who had lived before His death (paying the price for mankind’s original and subsequent sins), so that everyone would be given the opportunity to receive salvation through Jesus Christ.]

It was also a sign of the future grace after His Son’s resurrection and ascension – for believers to be clothed with Christ (Gal. 3:27).

The glory of the Father’s goodness is such that the Son and the Holy Spirit initiate nothing of their own in word or deed but manifest only one life and Person – that of the Father (John 8:28 and 16:13).

PUT ON THE NEW SELF

When we believe unto salvation, we are exhorted to “Put on the new self, which in the likeness of God [the Father] has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph. 4:24). (Also Col. 3:8.) Note that this is not a better human self but the self-life “in the likeness of God.”

Throughout the Old Testament our Father God sought those who would “Walk humbly with our God,” (Micah 6:8) i.e. to walk in His presence and ways. He found such a one in Enoch who lived continually with God on earth for three hundred years and then was carried bodily into Heaven (Gen. 5:22-24). It may be that God could not bear to have him be as distant as earth any longer, and therefore, brought him closer.

Others in the Old Testament who walked on earth with our Father God were: Noah (Gen. 6:9); Abraham (Gen. 17:1, 24:40); Isaac (Gen. 48:15); Samuel (1 Sam. 2:35); Moses with Joshua (Ex. 33:11); Levi (Mal. 2:6); and King Josiah (2 Chr. 34:31).

THE GREAT LONGING OF OUR HEAVENLY FATHER

Our Father’s deepest yearning is to have children among whom He would walk and have His dwelling, and who would walk with Him (Lev. 26:11-12).

Part II of Our Father next month
(Continuing the Great Longing of God)