Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father and we ask no more." John 14:8, N.E.B.

Thanks be to God. The Father Himself initiated the plan of redemption to save us. The Son of God descended to reconcile and redeem us back to God. The Holy Spirit takes us out of the hands of Satan, supports and strengthens us. He takes up His abode within us, purifies us, changes our whole nature, fills us with love, joy, peace. He gives us courage and spiritual power.

Think of it: Jesus our lord, Friend, Saviour, an ever-present attorney for our defense in heaven. Who can harm us if we belong to Him? Satan cannot, for he has been defeated. Fears as to the future—there can be none.

We now glorify the Father whose name is love. We glorify the Son whose love has redeemed us in order to make us loving persons. We glorify the Holy Spirit who empowers us for love, because He has shed abroad the love of God in our hearts (see Rom. 5:5). Their love for us stands in contrast with our sin and our selfishness. Hope for salvation and restoration is not in our efforts, but in the opening of our hearts to Their love. We love because They first loved us.

That the Father as revealed by His Son Jesus Christ was different, is the ground of the only hope we have. We call His Son not Jesus the Great, Jesus the Philosopher, Jesus the great Teacher. Rather we lift Him above all merely human titles. His is the Name that is above every name. One of His titles is "The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6). He brought God to us.

A student said to me some years ago that in a Christian college like the one we were in, the name God was used more frequently than anywhere else he had been. In view of that he wondered why it was so hard for him to find God. He finally came to see that Jesus was the answer. He accepted the Son of God as the Father's reaching out His love to him. His doubts were turned into a doxology. He resolved to live and love and plan by faith in such a divine Father revealed to him in Jesus. When he left college, it was God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom he was certain and in whom he trusted.