of GOD our father !
When we read of God as Father in Matthew, we are not encountering a new or previously unknown deity, but are reading about the same God of the Old Testament, the covenantal God of Israel. Therefore, we must understand the foundational self-revelation of God in the Old Testament to understand the context for God in Matthew. It will be helpful to delineate three overarching aspects of the theology of Matthew.
New Testament, Same God
First, God is the God of Old Testament Scripture. We can readily see Matthew’s indebtedness to the theological outlook of the Old Testament by observing the frequency with which he quotes from and alludes to the Old Testament throughout his Gospel. The number of quotations from the Old Testament is well over fifty (including ten notable fulfillment formula quotations), and allusions and other subtle references are too numerous to count. These quotations often point to the role of Jesus in relation to the Old Testament, but we should also not miss their role in underscoring the theological presuppositions established in the Old Testament.
To contextualize what we learn about God in Matthew, we must appreciate the continuity of God’s character with the Old Testament.
A brief survey of some of the Old Testament texts that Matthew references will give us a sense of his overall understanding of God. Jesus states that God is in control over the affairs of humanity, and even over the created realm (Matt. 6:25–33; 10:26–33), which echoes the descriptions of God we find in the Old Testament as one who cares for his people (Ps. 37:4, 25). God hears the prayers and knows the needs of his children (Matt. 6:5–13), which is consistent with his responsiveness to prayer in the Old Testament (Gen. 35:21; Exod. 3:7–8; 1 Kgs. 9:3; 2 Kgs. 19:20; 20:5; 2 Chr. 7:1, 12, 15; Pss. 6:9; 65:2; 66:19–20; Pro. 15:8, 29; Dan. 9:21). In Matthew we read that God is good to all, and sends rain on the just and the unjust (Matt. 5:45), which is consistent with the psalmist’s poetic reflections on the goodness of God towards all that he has made (Ps. 145:9). Jesus further declares that God resides in the power and holiness of the heavens (Matt. 6:9), which reflects the transcendence of God’s power in the Old Testament (Deut. 4:3; 10:14; 1 Kgs. 8:23; Ps. 115:3; Dan. 2:28, 44). In sum, to contextualize what we learn about God in Matthew, we must first of all appreciate the continuity of God’s character with the Old Testament.
Worship of the Only God
Second, building on the previous point, in Matthew’s theological outlook God alone is truly God: he has no rivals to his supremacy. God’s dwelling in his glorious, heavenly habitation is consistently explained as the unique prerogative of the God of the Bible. Thus Moses proclaims in Deuteronomy 4:39 that the Lord is God in heaven, and there is no other. Additionally, the heavenly God alone is to be worshipped. We see this explicitly affirmed in Jesus’s response to Satan’s third temptation (Matt. 4:10). When Satan promises Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if he will worship him, Jesus responds by quoting Deuteronomy 6:13, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God and serve him only’ (my tr.). Thus we find in Deuteronomy two fundamental tenets of the New Testament’s understanding of God alone is the supreme Creator, therefore he alone is to be worshipped. We see this again at Caesarea Philippi in Matthew 16. Here, in the ancient city that was the legendary home of the Greek god Pan, Peter affirms Jesus’s identity as the Son of the ‘living God’ (Matt. 16:16). The phrase ‘living God’ highlights the reality and the activity of the biblical God in distinction from idolatrous so-called gods who did not intervene because they were not the Creator. Therefore, they were not to be worshipped (Deut. 5:26; Josh. 3:10; 1 Sam. 17:26, 26; 2 Kgs. 19:4; Pss. 42:2; 84:2 [84:3 EVV]; Jer. 10:10; Hos. 1:10).
It is difficult to overestimate the significance of God’s uniqueness as the Creator who is to be worshipped in Jesus’s day; this was fundamental to the worldview of Jewish monotheism that emphasized the Creator-creature distinction: God alone is the Creator, and all else falls under the category of ‘creature’ that must not be worshipped. Jesus’s response to Satan in the wilderness is therefore consistent with core beliefs about God from the Old Testament. Indeed, in his temptation Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6 twice, which is the context for one of the most important monotheistic texts in the Bible known as the Shema (Deut. 6:4). The warnings against worshipping a created being in the Old Testament are numerous and clarion (e.g Deut. 5:6–10; 9:10–21; Num. 25:1–13; Isa. 50:18–23; 43:10–15; 44:6–20; 45:15–23; 46:1–11). What is remarkable in Matthew is the attribution of worship to Jesus in a way that does not in any way undermine the monotheism of the Bible.
The Father of Israel
God had always been a Father to Israel.
Third, and also deriving from the Old Testament, we find in Matthew that although God is the creator of all things, he is also known specifically as the covenantal God of Israel. This means that to understand the contours of God in Matthew we must consider the history of Israel in the Old Testament. Matthew 1:1 begins by invoking two leading figures from Israel’s history, as Jesus is identified as the Son of David and the Son of Abraham to the glories of David, to the nadir of the exile, and concludes with the glorious hope of the Messiah. God redeemed his people from Egypt and entered into covenant with them at Mount Sinai (Exod. 19). As the covenant God of Israel, God is known as Father to the nation (e.g. Exod. 4:33–23; Deut. 1:31; 8:5; 14:1–2; 32:4–6, 18–20, 43; Isa. 1:2; Jer. 3–4; 31:19, 20; Hos. 11:1). Therefore, it is not a completely new development when we find Jesus referring to God as Father throughout Matthew. We already find that the Davidic king was already known as God’s son in the Old Testament (Ps. 2:7; 2 Sam. 7:14), which grew organically out of the sonship of the nation as a whole (and indeed, out of the sonship of Adam). God had always been a Father to Israel, though, to be sure, we find Jesus speaking of God as Father with unparalleled intimacy.
In sum, to understand God in Matthew we must look first of all to the Old Testament, where we find that God is the one true God who had entered into covenant with Israel. At the same time, we learn more about God in Matthew than was revealed in the Old Testament. In particular, we learn that God is pre-eminently the Father of Jesus, who is the Son of God in a unique sense.
What is the flesh and where did it come from?
God created man with a spirit, a soul, and a body so man could contain God and express Him. Every part of man was pure, including his body. But when Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, something terrible happened. They took in the sinful nature of the devil. This deadened their spirit, damaged their soul, and corrupted their pure body, changing it into the sinful flesh.
We can see the apostle Paul’s awareness concerning the flesh in Romans 7: “For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, nothing good dwells.” (v. 18) Paul’s words are emphatic. Nothing good dwells in our flesh. Why is that? Note 2 on this verse in the Recovery Version gives a clear explanation of what the flesh is: “The flesh here is the fallen and corrupted human body with all its lusts. This flesh was not created by God but is a mixture of God’s creature and sin, which is the life of Satan, the evil one. God created man’s body a pure vessel, but this vessel was corrupted and transmuted into the flesh by Satan’s injecting himself into it at the time of the fall.
Now Satan as sin personified is in man’s flesh, making his home there and ruling as an illegal master, overruling man and forcing him to do things that he dislikes. It is this indwelling sin, which is the unchangeable evil nature, that constitutes all men sinners (5:19).” Satan is sin personified, and as Paul says in verse 20, sin now dwells in us. Do you need help understanding the Bible?
God created man with a spirit, a soul, and a body so man could contain God and express Him. Every part of man was pure, including his body. But when Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, something terrible happened. They took in the sinful nature of the devil. This deadened their spirit, damaged their soul, and corrupted their pure body, changing it into the sinful flesh.
We can see the apostle Paul’s awareness concerning the flesh in Romans 7:
“For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, nothing good dwells.” (v. 18)
Paul’s words are emphatic. Nothing good dwells in our flesh. Why is that?
Note 2 on this verse in the Recovery Version gives a clear explanation of what the flesh is:
“The flesh here is the fallen and corrupted human body with all its lusts. This flesh was not created by God but is a mixture of God’s creature and sin, which is the life of Satan, the evil one. God created man’s body a pure vessel, but this vessel was corrupted and transmuted into the flesh by Satan’s injecting himself into it at the time of the fall. Now Satan as sin personified is in man’s flesh, making his home there and ruling as an illegal master, overruling man and forcing him to do things that he dislikes. It is this indwelling sin, which is the unchangeable evil nature, that constitutes all men sinners (5:19).”
Satan is sin personified, and as Paul says in verse 20, sin now dwells in us.
Paul’s words, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood,” are well known among Christians, but do we truly live mindfully of spiritual warfare? It is far too easy to allow our sight and physical realities to command our attention. The call of Scripture, however, is to be battle ready for spiritual warfare. Through this multi-week series, we will consider what Scripture teaches about this spiritual struggle. This is part one.
Before he died of cancer, David Powlison finished his last book, Safe and Sound: Standing Firm in Spiritual Battles. He opens the book by writing, “You are in a battle. I am in a battle. And every person we counsel is – like us – living in a fog of war, stalked by a deadly predator, and facing a master of deception. When our hearts deceive us and our culture misleads us, Satan’s desires and purposes are at work.”
You and I are in a battle that we often do not even acknowledge. Our enemy likes it this way. Let’s equip ourselves to be battle ready.
The Art of War, written by ancient military strategist Sun Tzu in the 5th century BC, is famed for the phrase “know thy enemy.” The full passage: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
This is an appropriate place to begin. Know your enemy. If we do not know our enemy, we will face defeat.
We might be familiar with one-liners from Scripture about Satan. He’s “like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). “He is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14). But who is Satan? From where did he come? What is his mission?
The early church fathers believed that the prophecies of Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 were metaphors or allegories for the origins of Lucifer. Isaiah 14 confronts the arrogance of the king of Babylon. We read that this boastful king says, “I will ascend to heaven…I will set my throne on high…I will make myself like the Most High” (v. 13-14). This king ends up being cast “down to Sheol” (v. 15). In a similar manner, Ezekiel 28 confronts the prideful king of Tyre. “You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God…Your heart was proud because of your beauty…I cast you to the ground” (v. 12-13, 17). While the earthly kings certainly were arrogant before God (i.e. Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3), the grand language of these prophecies seem to address a superior, spiritual being.
Modern commentators contest the early church fathers’ interpretation of these prophecies. They would say that Isaiah and Ezekiel were confronting human kings with poetic language. But the Old Testament prophecies often had more than one referent, like the promise of the virgin bearing a child in Isaiah 7. These earthly kings could have mirrored characteristics of the Evil One, so the prophecies confront both with the same words.
Some of the language of Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 is echoed in Revelation 12, explicitly about Satan. A war arises in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against Satan and his angels. Verse 9 says, “The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world – he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” Satan is numbered with the angels in this passage. The heavenly war was among angels, Michael and Satan leading the opposing sides. Satan is “thrown down” just like the prideful kings of Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel are cast down.
These three passages, Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, and Revelation 12, historically have provided Christians a story of the origin of Satan. While not all agree on their interpretation, we understand that Satan was an angel that came to oppose God and his ways. Perhaps his opposition was rooted in his pride and desire to usurp God; regardless, Satan has been cast out of God’s presence.
Next Page !7) Revelation of Jesus Christ