Father is the Christian Name for God

I came across this quote from J.I. Packer last week. It's from his wonderful book Knowing God. It isn't directly related to The James 1:22 Project, but I find it so smart and wise and helpful that I wanted to share it.

“You sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.

For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. ‘Father’ is the Christian name for God. Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.”

J.I. Packer

Also, if you receive these posts by e-mail and haven't checked out the web site recently, then maybe you've missed some additions and updates to The James 1:22 Project site. There are several new links on the sidebar and new ways to explore the site and to connect to some of my friends and favorite links.