The Father is called a Person.1 He is called Father, to set forth his relation to Christ, his only-begotten Son, who is in his bosom;2 and the union between the Father and the Son is such that he that denies the Son, denies the Father also. The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father.3 As Persons they are distinct, but Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one essence.4 ‘No man knoweth the Son, but the Father: and no man knoweth the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.’5 To the Father is ascribed, in the plan of salvation, the election of Christ to be the Saviour of sinners,6 the preparation of his human nature,7 his ordination to be a propitiation,8 the laying on him the iniquity of his people, the bruising of him for their sins,9 his resurrection from the dead, to declare that he was satisfied in his death,10 the election of sinners in Christ,11 the drawing of them unto him,12 and the glorification of Christ and, in him, his people in the end.13
1 Heb. 1:3. 2 John 1:18. 3 John 10:30; 17:11, 21-22; 1 John 2:22-23. 4 1 John 5:7. 5 Matt. 11:27. 6 Isa. 42:5. 7 Heb. 10:5. 8 Rom. 3:25. 9 Isa. 53:6, 10; 2 Cor. 5:21. 10 Acts 2:24; Rom. 4:25. 11 Eph. 1:4. 12 John 6:44, 65. 13 Psa. 110:1; Rom. 8:17.
