If we are taught to pray to God the Father, then how are we to spend time getting to know Jesus?

Answer 1

Great question.

If we are taught to pray to God the Father, then how are we to spend time getting to know Jesus?

To answer this question, I would like to spend some time looking at how we communicate with the Father. We’ll start here in John 1:1,14. Here we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The Word who was with God and who was God is Jesus Christ. He is the one who became flesh and dwelt among us. When the passage here in John 1:1 says the Word was with God, it is speaking of God the Father. It’s saying that the Son of God was with the Father in eternity and was there “in the beginning” when God the Father chose to make the world. In fact it was through his Son, that the Father would choose to bring all things into existence. We see this explained further in Colossians 1:15-17 where Paul says, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” God created the world, and he created the world through the Word, His Son – the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact that God has chosen to create the world and bring things into existence through his Son is all over the Bible. Take for instance John 1:2-3. The apostle John, speaking of Christ, says, “He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” Jesus Christ is the creator of the world, and as we are reminded of in John 1:1, not only was he with God the Father but he also was deity himself. That’s what it means when it says that the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It means that the Word was with God the Father and was himself deity. I say all of this to bring us back to John 1:14, where we started. It says, “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The glory of God is what is being spoken of here, and that glory has been displayed where? In the Son of the Father – in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. John then goes on to say in verse 16, “And from his fullness (the fullness of Christ) we have all received grace upon grace.” So we all receive grace from Christ, the Son of the Father. For as John will go on to say in verse 17, “the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” So already we see here that Jesus is the one whom not only displays the glory of God the Father, but also is the one who we receive grace and truth from. If we want to see the glory of God, if we want grace and truth, then we go to Jesus. Jesus is our “Go-To” guy. He is the one we go to for these things. John instructs us more on this relationship that we are to have with the Father’s Son in John 1:18. He says, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” The short answer to your question would be this: When we pray to God the Father, we do not pray apart from His Son. It is in His Son – the Lord Jesus Christ that we have access to the Father. Jesus is the one who has made the Father known. So if we want to get to know the Son more, what do we do? We spend time with his Father. That doesn’t make much sense does it? Oh but it does! You see the only way we can spend time with the Father is by spending time with his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. For it is through Jesus and only through Jesus that we can even know the Father. This is why Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, except through me.” If you want to go to the Father, you have to go through Jesus.

Some say that this is purely the result of the Fall of Man. That Christ is the appeaser of an angry God. And while it is true that apart from Christ we would suffer God’s holy wrath against sin, even Adam before he fell still had to depend upon the Son to know God the Father. That’s how God the Father has always decreed it. He’s always said, “If you want to know me, you know me through my Son.” This is why we see in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” God the Father loved us so much that he gave us his Son so that those who believe in his Son will not perish but have life. We see this exemplified in Jesus’ prayer to his Father in John 17:3 where he says, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Knowing the Father and knowing the Son is eternal life. This is key. We know the Father through Christ.

This goes back to something I’ve spoke about a great deal this week, which is the Father’s role in our salvation. God the Father is the one who not only gives us Christ as we see in John 3:16 but he also is the one that gives us to Christ as seen in John 6:37-40. The very fact that he plays so great a role in our salvation demands that we know him, and because we see so much of him in the Scriptures and of what he has done for us – like adopting us in Christ as seen in Ephesians 1:3-6. The very nature of this discussion points us to just how crucial it is for us to know God the Father, and in many respects places him as our aim and our goal. He is the one that we need to know, and Jesus is how we know the Father. Jesus was here on earth, so that we may know the Father.

That’s what Jesus wants us to do. He wants us to know the Father. In Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus teaches his followers how to pray. This is what he says, “Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” There’s more that can be said in this discussion. There’s a lot more that could be said about the subjection of Christ and his subjection to the Father and what 1 Corinthians 15:28 talks about in all of creation submitting to Christ and Christ submitting himself to the Father, but that gets into a far more deeper aspect of this question that I think was originally intended.

I’ll stand with my basic answer that we know God the Father through the Son, and how it is impossible to spend time with one person of the Trinity without spending time with the other two. For we can only know the Father through the Son and by the Holy Spirit, just as we can only know the Son by the Spirit and the Father who sent the Son and gives the Son to us. We can only know the Spirit by the Father and Son who sent him.

That’s my answer for your question.

With that having been said, I noticed that there were some here who spoke of John 10:30 in their responses to you. This text is where Jesus says, “I and my Father are one.” This text is a good text to use in this discussion, as long as we use it correctly with the right understanding as to what it means and what it does not mean. Jesus is saying that he is one in purpose with God the Father. An even deeper meaning lies behind that statement that also speaks of one in nature / essence / substance with the Father as well. In other words, something along the lines of, “I and my Father are deity.” Some kind of statement emphasizing that they both are on the same page in a category sense - that they both are God. This text obviously should not be interpreted to mean that Jesus is God the Father as one person did. Perhaps in the future, if someone wants to ask a specific question on John 10:30, it would provide the proper forum for me to answer exactly why John 10:30 does not teach that Jesus is the Father.

Jesus is distinct from the Father, and it is through him and him alone that we know the Father. If Jesus is one in purpose with the Father then it is clear that all of our time spent knowing the Son is spent knowing the Father as well. Not because they are the same person, but because they are of the same essence but because they are one in purpose always involved in what the other is doing. Thanks for your question.

Great one to start the day off thinking about!

Answer 2

There is no human being that can approach God the Father. We are in a fallen and sinful state. God could not allow you in His presence. Jesus, is the way to the Father, You pray to the Father by approaching Jesus first. Then He accompanies your prayer to God . He is the only one who can stand before God the Father.Getting to know Jesus is easy. Talk to Him. Read His words in the bible, start a journal of your prayers and the answers. Go to Church. Sing praises, lift up your voice in song. All the angels in Heaven will accompany you. God Bless you on your wonderful adventure with Jesus to the God the Father.

Answer 3

I think its the other way round, we are to learn more about Jesus so that we may know more about the father. Jesus is the man who lived on Earth and at the same time being God and having all that the father has. In fact both are one. So learn more about Jesus, we learn more about the father and the holy spirit.

The Holy spirit helps us to learn more about Jesus and to love him and to trust him, I think this is the primary one.. (other than helping us in other ways in our christian life and helping us to do God's work.) And in turn through Jesus we know more about God the father.

Joh 14:9 Jesus said to him, Have I been with you such a long time and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. And how do you say, Show us the Father?

Answer 4

PRAY TO THE FATHER IN JESUS NAME

John 14:13,14,15,26,28;
John 16:23,26,28;

Answer 5

Think this way - Pray to the Father, in the name of Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Get to know Them as One.

Answer 6

Because You Pray Through Jesus...In Jesus's Name!

Answer 7

Jesus IS the Father.

Isaiah 9:6

Answer 8

In order to get to the Father, you must go through Jesus.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

God will not look upon sin or the sinner, and Jesus is who we turn to for forgivenss of or sins, so we can become cleansed by the forgivness and blood of Jesus.

John 8:18 I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.

John 10:30 I and my Father are one.

Answer 9

Jesus is God who came to earth in the form of a man. When you pray to God in the name of Jesus then God knows you love Him and remember how He came here to save us.
Knowing God is knowing Jesus...

Answer 10

When we pray Jesus is the intercesor of our prayers to God

Answer 11

The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, all one in the same.