For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Summary: Paul’s sentence describes how we can gain access to God. To do so we need to reach out through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Throughout this paragraph, Paul alludes to Jesus.
Jesus is our peace.
It was Jesus who destroyed the “wall of hostility.”
Jesus set aside the law in his flesh, and it was Jesus who reconciled Jew and Gentile.
Now, through Jesus, both Jew and Gentile have access to God.
Except that is not exactly what Paul says. He says, “through him [Jesus] we both [Jew and Gentile] have access to the Father by one Spirit.”
In both the Old Testament and New, much is made of the “spirit of Elijah.” Before Elijah is taken up into heaven, he asks Elisha if there is anything he can do for him. Elisha’s response is, “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit.” (2 Kings 2:9) Later, when the birth of John the Baptist is prophesied the angel says, “he [John] will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah.” (Luke 1:17)
If the spirit of Elijah can be made manifest in two other people, then what about the Spirit of God?
Our “access to the Father” is through Jesus by “one Spirit.” It is an interesting formula, isn’t it. In this sentence, Paul recognizes and honors all three faces of our God.
“What?” you ask. “How can someone have ‘three faces’?” That is a great question. Perhaps you have heard the expression that so-and-so is “two faced?” It refers not to our physical face but to our inner faces. To one, we show our “nice” face. To another, our “devious” one.
But maybe those are not the kind of faces you were thinking of. After all, no one can look at the face of the Father and live (Exodus 33:20). The people of Jesus’ day were able to see his physical face, although according to Scripture, it wasn’t much to look at (Isaiah 53:2). The face of God’s Spirit is a mix of both the Father, and the Son. We can see it if we look with spiritual eyes, and yet we can’t see it because it is spirit.
God is not a being who fits within our mental constructs. We cannot “know” the mind of the Lord in the sense that we fully understand God (Romans 11:34, 1 Cor 2:16). We only know what God shows us. Thank God He cared enough to show us how to come home to Him through Jesus!
Application: The power of God’s Spirit and the salvation offered by Jesus brings all of us together.
Food for Thought: Why do we want “access to the Father?”
The question that comes to my mind is “Why do I want ‘access to the Father?’”
I want to live.
I want to love and be loved.
I want to give and I want to receive.
I believe everyone desires these; both believers and non-believers. In this we have a commonality, but also a commonality in our inability to accomplish it through ourselves.
Who, then, can we turn to for life, love, and relationship? Only to the One who knows perfect life, love, and relationship. He demonstrated this to us by sending His Son. His Son demonstrated this to us through His sacrifice. Then God demonstrated His love again by raising His Son from the dead. Is that not a perfect example of what God can do in your life? Picture in your mind God’s hand reaching into a vast darkness to raise you out in the light of life!.
1 John 4:9-12 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
Psalm 31:7
I will be glad and rejoice in your love,
for you saw my affliction
and knew the anguish of my soul.
Psalm 36:7
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
Thank you, Chris!
What a beautiful testimony to the love of our Father!
Great response Chris.
The first thought I had is a short one. I want access to the Father because He is my Creator and I long for being connected to my Creator (Genesis chapters 1 and 2).
Rich,
You have tapped into something that is a primal need in all of us — to know where we come from and what we are.
04-25-2023, Why do we want “access to the Father?
He is our Father, our Creator, we have been chosen by Him to be His children, and only He can give us the power to live our lives in the way that pleases Him.
In Luke 11 His disciples asked Jesus, “ How to Pray.” The very first words were to begin with “ Our Father .” Jesus is telling us, when we begin to pray we are not only approaching Jehovah God, we are approaching “OUR FATHER.” We have the privilege, the honor of approaching and speaking with “OUR FATHER”, but it’s not just saying the words that matters. It’s what we mean when we say them, the condition of our heart.
The word Father, implies ACCESS. We can come into God’s presence and sit at His feet because God is our Father or to put it another way, he’s our Daddy.
Jesus is not diminishing God’s position as Jehovah. He is shifting the paradigm in how we should relate to God. To Believers, He is our God and Our Father. We can relate to Him as Father, we can place our trust in Him as we live within His will.
John 1:12, Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
Ephesians 2:18, For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Galatians 4:6-7, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now we are no longer a slave to our flesh but God’s own child. And since we are His child, God has made us His heir.
Not only do we have access into God’s presence, more importantly He wants us to come to Him. As our Father, He wants us to share our hearts, our joys, our fears, and our worries with Him.
He wants to be connected to the most intimate issues of our lives, hold us when we feel alone, comfort us when we are feeling sad or low, rejoice with us in victory, give us wisdom when we don’t know what to do.
God wants us to live our new identity as children of God, not children of this world and because we belong to Him, all the rights and privileges of being a son or daughter of God are ours.
My children don’t worry about food, clothing, or having a place to stay because they know I will work to provide that for them, because they belong to me.
Because we now identify with, belong to God as His children our, we can can live in confidence, He will take care of us. Our identity is sealed in Him, we are a child of the living God. We live in His protection, provision, and promises because we identify with him as out Father.
1 John 3:1, See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
Romans 8:6, The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
Thanks, Ron!
What a great privilege to have access to our Father of fathers.
🙂