God Is Father Because the Son Is Son

Series: God the Father: Knowing the First Person of the Trinity

Fatherhood Rooted in the Trinity

What makes God Father? Is it His relationship to creation? To mankind? To believers?

No. God is Father not because He made the world, nor because He adopted the redeemed, but because He has eternally related to the Son. The title “Father” only makes sense if there is a Son.

This is not semantic or optional—it is foundational. You cannot understand God’s identity as Father unless you begin with the eternal Sonship of Christ. God is not Father in isolation. He is Father only in relation to the Son.

Before Time: The Father and the Son

Jesus declares in John 17:5:

“Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.”

Before creation, before time itself, there was glory. There was love. There was God the Father and God the Son, dwelling in perfect communion through the Spirit.

The Gospel of John opens with a staggering truth:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

To say the Word was “with” God is to say the Son was in personal, relational fellowship with the Father. He was not created. He was eternally begotten—always proceeding from the Father, yet always existing.

The Doctrine of Eternal Generation

The church has long used the term eternal generation to describe this relationship. This means the Son is eternally from the Father—not made, not created, but begotten in eternity. This is not physical, not temporal, and not sequential—it is relational and eternal.

John 1:18:

“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known.”

The Son is not merely like the Father. He is of the same essence and eternally at His side—God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.

The Creeds Affirm It Clearly

The Nicene Creed (A.D. 325) boldly proclaims:

“We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ… the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds…”

The Creed doesn’t teach that God became Father when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. It teaches that God was already Father, because the Son already existed.

Eternal generation maintains both the unity of essence and the distinction of persons within the Trinity. The Father is unbegotten. The Son is begotten. The Spirit proceeds. These relationships are not changeable—they are the very being of God.

Why This Truth Matters

1. It Defines the Nature of God

To call God “Father” is to confess that He has eternally existed in relationship. He is not solitary, self-centered, or distant. He has always been a God of love because He has always loved the Son (John 17:24).

2. It Protects the Deity of Christ

If Jesus were not the eternal Son, then the Father would not be eternally Father. And if the Son is not eternal, He cannot be truly God. The Gospel collapses without the full deity of Christ—and His deity is grounded in His Sonship.

3. It Secures Our Adoption

We are adopted in Christ (Eph. 1:5). That means our place in the Father’s household is not based on sentiment or good works—it is based on being united to the eternal Son. Only the Son has the right to call God “Abba.” We call Him “Abba” because we are in Him (Rom. 8:15–17).

Avoiding Two Common Errors

• Denial of Distinction

  • Some wrongly believe that “Father” and “Son” are simply two names for the same person. This is the heresy of modalism. But the Bible shows the Father sending the Son, the Son praying to the Father, and the Spirit descending from both.

  
  

• Denial of Deity

  • Others say Jesus became the Son at His birth or baptism. This makes the Fatherhood of God dependent on history. But Scripture says the Son was in glory with the Father before the world was made.

A Glorious Truth for Worship

When we understand that God is Father because the Son is Son, our view of God is lifted. We no longer worship a generic deity, but the Triune God—eternal in being, perfect in love, overflowing in grace.

This is why Christian worship is distinctly Trinitarian. We praise the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are welcomed into the fellowship that God has always enjoyed.

Conclusion: The Son Reveals the Father

Jesus said:

“No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

And also:

“Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)

To know the Father is to behold the Son. To confess the Son rightly is to know the Father truly.

God is not Father apart from the Son. He is Father because the Son is Son. This is not only the key to understanding God—it is the key to understanding grace, salvation, and eternal life.

“And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3)