Sons of God
Packer states that in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament God as the Father, not of all , but of those who, knowing themselves to be sinners, put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as their divine sin-bearer as master, and so become Abraham’s spiritual seed. Gift of son ship to God becomes ours not through being born, but through being born again. Son ship of God is a gift of grace. God has so loved those whom he redeemed on the cross that he has adopted them all as his heirs, to see and share the glory unto which his only begotten son has already come. This love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are.
Packer phrases the New Testament teaching is sum up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God. Packer stated in a letter he wrote years ago; “This still seems to me wholly true, and very important period out understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.”
Packer says, the Gods revelation of himself in the Old Testament times as we have seen, God gave his people a covenant name by which to speak of him and call upon him; the name Yahweh by this name, God announce himself as the “Great I AM” – the one who is completely and consistently himself. Compare with New Testament believers deal with God as their Father. Father is the name by which they call him. Father has now become his covenant name –for the covenant which binds him to his people now stands revealed as a family covenant.
Packer argues the statement that the father hood of God “can be nothing to those whose human father was ...