The Fatherhood Of God

Spurgeon opens with the surprising claim that the Lord's Prayer was not designed as a universal formula for all people, but specifically for genuine believers — since calling God "Father" is meaningless or even presumptuous for someone who has never been adopted into his family through new birth and faith. He then unpacks the two relationships in the opening words "Our Father": sonship, which comes not from creation but from God's sovereign act of adoption and regeneration, bringing with it God's deep love, the duty of obedience out of love rather than fear, and the security that nothing can sever the parent-child bond even when we fail; and brotherhood, which means every believer's prayer must be wide enough to include fellow Christians of all backgrounds, the poor, the spiritually lost, and believers in distant lands. He concludes by showing that the words "Our Father" are themselves a powerful double argument in prayer — a child has the right to be heard by a father, and a right to expect a father's provision — and he urges those who have never known this relationship to seek it through Christ, so they too can approach God with the confident love of a child, not the fearful distance of a stranger.A sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on September 12, 1858.