The Role of a Christian Father

“God grants offspring and commands that they be brought up to worship and serve him. In all the world this is the noblest and most precious work, because to God there can be nothing dearer than the salvation of souls… There is no greater or nobler authority on earth than that of parents over their children, for this authority is both spiritual and temporal.” – Martin Luther

To Christian Dads,

God blesses you through His New Covenant, not your parental assessments. The most common command in Scripture is “do not fear.” It is commanded in some facet to God’s people 365 times from Old Testament to New Testament. Clearly, we are a fearful people. Fear is not far from us. We can find ourselves fearing in the most mundane moments. For instance, as I watch my son walk down the stairs seemingly a foot taller than he was last year, one year closer to a driver’s license, liking girls, or working a job I can easily begin fearing all the things I have not done to prepare him well for life. Okay, so we are prone to fear and we are commanded not to fear, but what is it that we are to believe? Well, all throughout Scripture God is making covenants with his people, binding promises with accompanying blessings and curses. Blessings for keeping the covenant and curses for breaking the covenant. What is amazing is that despite man’s covenant breaking, God promised to be faithful to keep his covenant. Fast forward to the New Testament and Scripture tells us that God has made a New Covenant in Christ.

“But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant that he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.” –Hebrews 8:6.

The author of Hebrews then goes on to explain that the better promises of this New Covenant in Christ is that God will put His laws into our minds, and write them on our hearts, He will be our God, and we will be His people. God will be merciful toward our iniquities, and He will remember our sins no more. This New Covenant is not only made by God with Christ, but Christ is the mediator of the promises that accompany this New Covenant. God’s New Covenant is with those who trust in Christ.

Therefore, it is Christ and his mediation of the blessings and promises of God’s New Covenant by the power of the Holy Spirit that continually transforms me into the type of father my children need, the type of husband my wife needs, and the type of father and husband God commands me to be.

Fathers, this is the New Covenant that we are commanded to “raise” our children in. Just as parents were instructed in the Old Testament to raise their children in the Old Covenants that God had made with His people, (Deut. 6) so now we raise our children in the New Covenant that has been made in Christ (Eph. 6:4). It is the responsibility of the father, or mother where dad is not present, to teach his children that God has put his law in our minds and written them on our hearts. We have the great privilege of showing our children in our acknowledgment and confession of unloving actions, that because God has placed His law on our hearts and minds, we know what is loving and what is unloving towards God and others. Also, in the confronting and disciplining of the sin in our children, may we teach them that their sin is against God. Let us teach and show that God is our God and we are His people by submitting to Him alone. Let us teach our children to submit to Him alone, and not to our own feelings and desires. Let us show and teach that God is merciful toward our iniquity and remembers our sins no more, by confessing our own sins, being merciful to our children in their sin, forgiving their sin, and remembering it no more.

I could quote statistics of the ravaging effects fatherlessness has on communities, or where the marriage rates are high the crime rates are lower. But what about the effects of Christian fathers who live in the fear of their own failing performance instead of living in faith in the New Covenant, its promises, and its Mediator? What effects might faithless/passive “Christian” fathers have on culture, their wives, their children, and their churches? I think I can guess. This type of “Christian” fathering would, at best, have a “non-transformative” effect on culture, wives, children, and churches. Most likely, this type of fathering would be destructive and confusing to our children whom we are called to shepherd. But, what might the effects on culture, wives, children, and churches be where fathers joyfully take responsibility to lead their families to trust in God’s New Covenant, its promises, and it’s Mediator? Think fruit and a tree.

“Lord, I believe, help my unbelief” – Mark 9:24

Your servant brother,

Joey Turner
Pastor of Student Ministries