How does the Father’s fatherhood to the Son differ from His fatherhood to the faithful?

Our Lord Jesus was accustomed to addressing the Father as “My Father” (John 8:19 and elsewhere) and He invites the faithful to share with Him in this relationship. Thus do we say in the Lord’s prayer: “Our Father” (Matt. 6:9). But the sonship of the Only Begotten Son is unique: since He is one in essence with the Father, His sonship is by His nature and eternal. As for the sonship of the faithf ul to the Father, it is a gift given to them through divine grace: we acquired the right to this relationship when we became members of the body of Jesus Christ. Thus, the Lord Christ distinguishes between His sonship and ours by saying, “My Father and your Father” (John 20:17), rather than “Our Father.”

St. Gregory of Nazianzus says that we use the titles of the two Hypostases, the Father and the Son, but without thinking that they refer to any material concepts or ideas in our minds. Here, fatherhood and sonship denote a unique relationship of love that cannot be conceived. The Father is the origin, and the Son is born of His essence. St. Athanasius says, “let every corporeal reference be banished on this subject.”²⁹⁵

The One God is love without any physical desires or gender. The Greek and Roman gods fall into desires, are identified as male and female, and struggle and fight among themselves.

The word “Father” refers to a relationship that originates before all ages. This is what it means to say that the Son is co-eternal with the Father. Without a son, there is no father, and without a father there is no son. The scholar Tertullian says, “Now a Father makes a Son, and a Son makes a Father.”²⁹⁶ When we confess that God is the Father eternally, we see in our minds that the Son is also truly eternal.

St. Augustine says, “We had a father and mother on earth, that we might be born to labours and to death: but we have found other parents, God our Father, and the Church our Mother, by whom we are born unto life eternal. Let us then consider, beloved, whose children we have begun to be; and let us live so as becomes those who have such a Father … We have found then a Father in heaven; let us take good heed how we live on earth. For he who has found such a Father, ought so to live that he may be worthy to come to his inheritance.”²⁹⁷

295 St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Defence of the Nicene Definition 24, (NPNF II/4:166).

296 Tertullian, Against Praxeas 10, (ANF 3:604).

297 St. Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament , Volume I, trans. R. G. Macmullen, (Oxford University Press, 1844) 7(57) and 8(58) 2: pp. 82, 90, amended.

St. Cyril the Great says, “And they also call him Father almighty in order that there may be brought in with the Father the manifestation of the Son, through whom he is the Father, subsisting with him and always coexisting.[”298]

St. Cyril of Jerusalem says, “Perfect Father, He begat a perfect Son, and delivered all things to Him who is begotten: (for ‘all things,’ He says, ‘have been delivered to Me by My Father’ (Matt. 11:27)) and is honoured by the Only-begotten: for, ‘I honour My Father’ (John 8:49), says the Son; and again, ‘just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love’ (John 15:10). Therefore we also say like the Apostle, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort’ (2 Cor. 1:3): and, ‘For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named’ (Eph. 3:14–15): glorifying Him with the Onlybegotten: for ‘he who denies the Father, denies the Son also’ (see 1 John 2:22): and again, ‘he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also’ (1 John 2:23); knowing ‘that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’ (Phil. 2:11).”²⁹⁹

It is fitting for us to cherish the title of the Father, for He is delighted when we call Him “Our Father.” For through baptism, we became children of God and of the Church. We rejoice continually in our acceptance of becoming the children of God and in embracing this. Thus, the apostle affirms: “And now little children abide in Him … if you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him ” (1 John 2:28–29). “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! … whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning … Whoever has been born of God does not sin , for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God” (1 John 3:1–10).