What is the one thing every father passes on to his children?
As I’ve gotten older, I catch myself acting, thinking, even sounding more and more like my father. Kelly has even begun to accuse me of grunting like my dad during conversation—I guess he had a way of passively participating discussions by mumbling, “uh-huh,” at appropriate moments, something Kelly suggests I am adopting. Visiting my brother is a constant reminder of my dad: Ted (my brother) talks like him, acts like him, and thinks like him. Like me, I suspect that both terrifies Ted and makes him proud!
We are both obviously children of our father, in traits, attitudes, and actions. But, are those things something that EVERY father passes on to their children? Of course not. As much as I might be similar to my dad, I am not the same person as my dad.
What does every, EVERY, father pass on to his kids? A last name? Surely not. In many cultures that’s not the case, and many children do not take their father’s last name. Hair color? Eye color? Some other physical trait? Nah. Love, perhaps? Unfortunately, we are well aware of loveless parenthood. DNA, I guess, if we’re getting scientific about it. But that seems like an unsatisfying answer. Nurture? Peace? Sense of humor? Unfortunately, no.
What without fail does a father pass on to his children? Answer: His nature. A human father passes on his humanity to his children—if he is involved in their nurture or not. A baboon father passes on his baboon-ness to his children; a dog-dad, his dog-ness; a cat, his cat-ness. Every father’s nature is passed on to his children. As similar or dissimilar as children are from their father, the one thing they absolutely are given is their nature.
What did you get inevitably from your parents? Your human nature. This of course raises the question of what a “nature” is? While the philosophers argue, I think we can simply say, a nature is “the thing-ness that makes a thing a thing.” What is human nature? It is whatever makes a human a human. Psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers may all kick around what that might be, but biblically, we know: to be human is to be made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). To be human is to be made to reflect God Himself. That’s what you inherited from your father.
Sort of.
While God made us in His image, something happened along the way—Adam and Eve fell from their innocence (Genesis chapter 3), and their image was scarred and damaged. Now, instead of having a pure human nature that could be passed on, instead what gets passed from one generation to another is a fallen, broken human nature—not the original, holy version, which Adam and Eve were created with, but a marred, fallen human nature. One thing we cannot escape from is the fallenness of our human nature—all humans sin, and we do so because what we have inherited from our parents is a sinful, fallen human nature.
How then might we be saved? How can we be rid of that fallen, sinful human nature, that leads us to sin, disobedience, and unrighteousness? Well, we got the first nature from being born of Adam/Eve. To get a different nature, a holy nature, a nature that does NOT sin, we must be born again—born, not of a human parent which would simply give us that fallen nature again, but born from above, born of God, so we once again can have that sinless human nature that images God so faithfully.
And so, we must be born again!
For Sunday morning, read John 3:1-8.
- We are told that Nicodemus approached Jesus “at night” (verse 2). What significance might we draw from his decision to approach Jesus at that time of day?
- Why does Nicodemus approach Jesus as he does? What does he mean by calling Jesus, “Rabbi”, or by saying, “We know…” and “you are a teacher from God…?”
- Verse 3 begins with “Jesus answered…” What is He answering? How does His “answer” fit with what Nicodemus says?
- In verse 3 Jesus speaks of “seeing” the Kingdom. In verse 5 He speaks of “entering” the Kingdom. Is there a difference here, or is Jesus talking about the same thing?
- What is “born of flesh” and how does that contrast with what is “born of Spirit?” How can you tell what is born of flesh verses what is born of Spirit? How does your life reflect this?
By Henry Knapp