¹¹ For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,

Family is what God is all about. Calling Him “Father” is one of the most well-used metaphors for our relationship with God found in Scripture. Whether that is a metaphor based on human relationships or whether our earthly relationships are metaphors of the heavenly one, is a moot point. From our finite perspective we begin from where we are and what we know. We all know the concept of earthly fatherhood. Jesus taught us that we can approach God as “Our Father,” a somewhat uncomfortable designation in the Jewish mind which, although seeing God as “The Father,” would not arrogate to themselves the special relationship of God as their personal father.

Jesus went even further when He modeled for us the expression, “Abba Father,” expressing intimate affection. We too, are invited to likewise address God (see Gal 4:6). Think of that! He is not just some distant deity who wound up the world and set it in space to carry on, on its own. He is not only active in the world, but we can relate to Him as our Father!

He is our Father on two accounts. First, He created us, He begat us. He is the source and reason for our existence. Secondly, we have been redeemed and have been sanctified, or to use another term found elsewhere, we have been adopted into His family: “…you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ ” (Rom 8:15).

Now the writer of Hebrews tells us that both we and Christ have the same Father. Our relationship with God is the same as Jesus’ relationship with the Father. To be sure, we humans are not deity as is Christ. But in terms of familial relationship, we are now no less sons than is Jesus. Of course, He is “The Son of God” in a special sense, reflecting His inherent uniqueness as divine. In the same way that all sons of an earthly father are equally sons, yet only one is the firstborn son, so also even though Jesus is the first born Son and the Beloved Son, we are nonetheless equally sons with Him.

This sonship we have is the direct result of Christ’s sanctifying us. That is, by His suffering and death on the cross, He set us aside as special to God. And nothing can be more special than becoming sons of God. So, He is not ashamed to call us His “brethren.” No reluctance here, but in a typical Hebrew understatement, we discover that Christ is thrilled to associate with us as family members of His Father’s wonderful household.