Preface

The message below is a cut down version of a much bigger topic. Space prevented me from looking into other implications of the central teaching. Interested readers can think and pray through for themselves how God as the Father of spirits relates to topics such as living by faith not sight, apostolic fathering and the discernment of spirits.

Introduction

After recently encountering a string of very disturbing situations to do with marital dysfunction, I began to meditate on what is breaking down around us at a foundational level. Surprisingly, the answer I found is in Hebrews 12:9, “Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?” (Heb 12:9). God is our Father and in every circumstance of life he is working to perfect our deepest personhood – our spirits[1].

The context for this intimate Fatherly relationship with humanity is broader than we may at first think. In the widest circle God is the Creator – Father of all humanity[2], in the next circle is the divinely instituted (pre- Fall) order of marriage[3]. Finally, there is the relationship God has with us in Christ. Whatever the differences in these relationships, they are bound together by the reality of covenant. A covenant involves promises whereby two parties are to love/honour each other unconditionally[4]. This means a covenant is NOT a contract, which is a mutual bargain of a conditional, “if….then”, sort. Relational breakdown in marriage, including that between Christ and his Bride, witnesses to a failure to understand and live in the intimacy of covenant love communicated by the Fathering of spirits.

This is a difficult subject to grasp, not because it is intellectually complex, but because it is known[5] only in relationship. Let me begin with the deepest of human covenantal contexts, marriage[6].

Marriage and the Covenant of spirits

Marriage is a covenant involving a union between the Spirit of God and the spirit of husband and wife. “Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth..””(Mal 2:15). The spiritual union of married people is a more than physical reality[7].

The “one flesh” nature of marriage (Gen 2:24) is well known to Christians, but few realise that God is “the God of the spirits of all flesh” (Num 16:22; 27:16). In Hebrew thought “flesh” does not exclude “spirit”. The “one flesh” of marriage incorporates a spirit- spirit bonding actualised by the Spirit of the Creator God in all marriages.

When Jesus said, ““So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”” (Matt 19:6), he was warning against attacking that supernatural act of God which created the intimacy of married love in all its dimensions. Since adultery is an attack on a God ordained covenant, it is an attack on God himself! The failure to grasp this explains the absence of the fear of God in the many Western churches where sexual immorality is a regular feature of life.

It is not by accident that the same Old Testament book (Malachi) that speaks so richly of the spiritual union of marriage and warns so directly against infidelity also speaks so clearly of the fear of the Lord. “If then I am a father, where is my honour? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts” (Mal 1:6). At the deepest level, it is ignorance and rejection of God as the Father of spiritual union in marriage that is behind the appalling marital breakdown in Western Christianity[8]. Only a revelation of Christ as God’s one faithful covenant partner can deliver us from sin[9].

Jesus and the Father of spirits

In seeking to understand how Jesus has redeemed all covenant relationships, and marriage in particular, we must begin with the reality of his human spirit. As God of the spirits of all flesh (Num 16:22; 27:16), God is the God of the spirit of the flesh of Jesus (John 1:14). The Father of our spirits (Heb 12:9) is first of all the Father of the spirit of Jesus.

This is most evident in the suffering of the cross for here the vocabulary of “spirit” finds its most intense expression. At the point of death, the Gospels record Jesus’ “yielded up his spirit.” (Matt 27:50), prayed “I commit my spirit!”(Luke 23:46) and “gave up his spirit.” (John 19:30). In each case the receiver of the spirit is the Father.

Since Jesus is made “perfect through suffering” (Heb 2:10; 5:9), then this must include the perfection of his spirit. John’s description of the passion points us in this direction. “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished (τετέλεσται), said (to fulfil (τελειωθῇ) the Scripture), “I thirst.” …30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” (τετέλεσται) and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (John 19:28, 30). The words in Greek include a sense of completion or fulfilment; the spirit of Jesus has become completely all that God ever desired of the human spirit in its relationship with him.

Accepting that the human spirit of Jesus was perfected in his death, we need to ask how this happened and for what purpose. The answer is found in his dying prayer, ““Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”” (Luke 23:34). In taking the place of covenant breakers who despise God as their Father and Husband[10], Jesus perfectly reflects the intimate heart of God in his act of forgiveness. In praying for the forgiveness of his persecutors he shows that the new covenant promise is real, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”” (Jer 31:34). It is pre-eminently Jesus forgiving that reveals that in him the union of the human spirit, the Holy Spirit and the Fatherhood of God have come to perfection[11].

Returning to our basic text, “be subject to the Father of spirits and live” (Heb 12:9) we are now in a position to understand how resurrection life flows from the cross. Jesus is “put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (1 Pet 3:18 cf. 2 Cor 13:14) because his obedience in sacrificially forgiving means that a human being has loved as unconditionally as God loves. Such a human being is eternally united to the life of God.

The resurrection is not a mere “reward” for his obedience[12], the resurrection life of Christ is the manifestation of the complete union between his spirit and the Spirit of his Father.

Receiving the Spirit of Jesus

To receive the Spirit of Jesus[13] is to be immersed in the most intimate covenantal relationship with God in Christ. Paul expresses this union in the context of discussing sex outside marriage, “Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” (1 Cor 6:17). How then do we become aware of this spiritual oneness?

If we would experience true spiritual intimacy and resurrection power[14] we must love as God loves – by the suffering that is involved in forgiving our covenant partners. Whether these are our fellow human beings who likewise have God as their Creator – Father, our brothers and sisters in Christ, or, for the purpose of this article, our life- partners in marriage.

It is our failure to forgive as Christ forgives[15] that has drawn the strong discipline of God upon the Western church. Wherever we see men and women measuring the performance of their partners, pastors, parents, politicians etc., in terms that are contractual, legal and unforgiving, we must recognise that we are living in a spiritual atmosphere unpleasing to God. Understood in this way, whatever the profession of our lips, in our lives we have abandoned the gospel of Christ.

Has there ever been a society that has put so many performance demands on God and marriage partners as ours? How conditional is our affection! Little wonder God is so poorly known as Father! We have deeply grieved “the Spirit of grace” (Heb 10:29; Eph 4:30). No surprise that there is so little intimacy at the level of holiness[16] and such an inability to sustain deep relationships when suffering is involved; and suffering is inevitable in every intimate relationship.

Conclusion

Haggai 4:6 has become a popular text in our days, “And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse.””(Mal 4:6). I do believe this is a text for our time, but Australia will never be released from the curse of apparent Fatherlessness[17] until we have many spiritual fathers[18] who can teach the sort of spiritual truths[19] I have been outlining in this article. Such men and women will be nothing less than practical expositors of covenant love.

Our need is plain, our path is clear. God our Father calls us to be subject to him at the level of our spirits (Heb 12:9), that is, at the deepest level of our being. All of us need to prayerful consider[20] to what degree we treat our relationship with God as contractual. If we are married, we need to examine ourselves as to what degree our love for our life partner is unconditional.

Of course, to live in the way I have been suggesting in this paper is humanly impossible, apart from our looking to Jesus (Heb 12:1). The total possibility of unconditional submission to God as the Father of spirits is found in Christ and Christ alone. Yet, this is exactly the divine glory; this is what pleases our Father. Jesus is eagerly waiting to pour out his Spirit on those who want to live in forgiving resurrection power as he lives. May this be you, may it be me.