THE FATHER IN US

THE FATHER IN US

We all carry ideas about God.

Some come through religion, tradition and teaching. Others arise from humanity’s own limited or distorted understanding of who God is.

We were made in God’s image.

Yet we often remake God in our image.

Jesus came to reveal the Father and to free us from the limits of our understanding.

In the Old Testament, sacrifice became central to the way people approached God. But did God give the command to sacrifice, or was sacrifice created by humanity and later incorporated into religion?

The biblical story is more complex than a simple answer.

The Law included offerings, rituals and regulations concerning animals, priests and the altar. In that sense, sacrifice became part of the religious system established among Israel.

Yet Scripture also shows that sacrifice was never God’s desire or the fullest expression of His heart.

Through the prophets, God repeatedly challenged the belief that ritual sacrifice couldn’t substitute for mercy:

“For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”Hosea 6:6

“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?”Isaiah 1:11

“I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.”Jeremiah 7:22

These passages reveal that sacrifices was never the foundation of God’s relationship with humanity, nor could it express the fullness of His will.

Sacrifice became part of Israel’s religious life, but it could not remove sin or reveal the Father’s heart.

It pointed beyond itself.

It pointed to Christ.

When Jesus came, He did not simply continue a religious system built around sacrifice. He revealed what those sacrifices had never been able to fully express.

“I desire mercy and not sacrifice.”Matthew 9:13

 God never desired sacrifice.

The problem was that humanity had come to believe that God could be approached through sacrifice, fear and separation.

Religion offered sacrifice.

The Father offered mercy.

The same religious understanding that trusted in the sacrifice of animals eventually rejected Jesus and placed Him on a cross. This was not because the Father needed Christ to be killed.

It was because humanity did not recognise the Father standing before them.

Jesus revealed the Father even in death:

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”Luke 23:34

The cross exposed the difference between the God humanity imagined and the Father Jesus revealed.

Humanity said, “Someone must be punished.”

The Father said, “Forgive them.”

Humanity saw separation.

Jesus revealed union.

Jesus was revealing the Father's heart in the midst of human violence.

The Father was not revealed through the desire to sacrifice.

He was revealed through mercy, forgiveness and love.

“The kingdom of God is within you.”Luke 17:21

The Father, Christ and the life of God are present within us. Closer than our breath.

Eternity is in us.

Resurrection is in us.

Healing is in us.

The life Jesus revealed is not something we must earn or find somewhere outside ourselves. It is the life of the Father already present within us, waiting to be recognised and revealed.

Jesus did not come to bring us closer to a distant God.

He came to reveal that we have never been outside the Father.

He came to show us who the Father has always been—and who we truly are in Him.

Its up to us to reveal the Father in us and raise Christ from our own tomb. Your mind and body are your tomb.

 If we truly want to move beyond the boundaries of our own mind, we must begin where Jesus began—not by asking Him to fit the God we have imagined, but by allowing Him to reveal the Father as He truly is in us.

Must read The God Who Never Wanted to Be God

By: John L. Mastrogiovanni D. Min.