Who

The Tempter came to Jesus: “If you are the Beloved Son of God…Is God really your Father?”

The Tempter comes to us: “If you are loved….If you are Christian. If you are….Is God really….”

Every temptation: “Are you really? Is God really?”

Every temptation makes us question our identity in God and question the identity/character of God.

We are surrounded by false fathers. The world fathers us as Americans, of a certain race, a certain career, socioeconomic class, the one who has it all, the partier, the top dog, the soccer mom, the smart one. Religion fathers us as the one is trustworthy, the one who always carries through, the workaholic, the giving one, the one who is always at church, the good one, the missionary, the bold evangelist. Satan, the father of lies, fathers us as the abandoned, the alone, the depressed, the worthless, the guilty, the shamed one, the sick one. And these latter can comfortingly become who we are.

From missionarying to motherhood to moping, we can all find our identity in what fathers us. We find more love from doing for God than in God. We find more love in the role of mother than from God. We find more love in the pity of moping than God. We are Missionary. We are Mother. We are Moper.

Not the Beloved Child.

Each time, we’ve told God, “You’re not my Father.” Each time, we’ve disowned him. Dishonored him. Said “No” and exerted self-will and toddled off to do it ourselves. We’ve taken all the Father has given us his children and squandered it, using it for ourselves, robbing him.

It is the temptation of the desert and the temptation of Eden. It accompanies us in pain and pleasure, every step. Who are you? Who is God? Are you Beloved or X? Is God Father, your life?

That is why Jesus is the only way. The only one who truly passed the test, and passed it as a human. He proved himself to be the true Adam, true human, the true Son. He knew he was Son and didn’t have to find it by providing for himself—Father provided. Or by proving God was Father by protecting him—Father would protect in his own time. Or by finding his identity in fame—God was Father and would honor.

Temptation of Eden, temptation of the desert, was the temptation of the Garden of Gethsemane and the cross. Jesus, Son of God. We, his true children again. The way to adoption open. The way to the Father open.

We beloveds.

And our faith, salvation, is finding our Father, letting him Father us, instead of the sin of going our own way, finding our own life, deciding for ourselves, finding our own love.

P.S.: DOES THIS UNDERMINE SIN?

Does this undermine sin by putting the emphasis on the unfaithfulness of identity and fatherhood? Its only one aspect of our relationship. But I would argue Fatherhood/sonhood is a chief aspect.

God was Father, Son was Son, Spirit was the United Bond between them before creation; unlike Judge, etc. God’s Fatherhood is part of his essence as love. This would make Fatherhood a core part of any temptation, unbelief, sin, aspect of our relationship to God. (Michael Reeves; Jonathan Edwards).

“Our first point about adoption is that it is the highest privilege that the gospel offers” (J. I. Packer, Knowing God, 206).

Sin is traditionally defined as creature refusing to be creature, or going our own way. But if we are created in the image of a Father/Son/Spirit God, then sonship is a chief part of our image. And what is more heinous than a son/daughter refusing to acknowledge his/her father? The closeness of the relationship heightens the horror, not diminishes it. So too with sin. Sin is relational at its core—not just breaking a moral code, but going against the character of the Father in our behavior. Sin is refusing to be a son to that God, but finding our identity, father, sonship, love in other things (career, our own moral perfection, drugs, etc.). And "sin" as often defined as moral missteps will flow from a wrong identity; morality will flow from a right identity connected to the right Father. He produces his character in us.