"In my Father's house are many mansions" (John 14:2).

In the Gospel of John, chapters 14-17, the intimate relationship between the Father and the Son is especially clearly revealed. The word "Father" is referred to fifty times in this section almost always by our Lord. A sampling of how the Lord used the word is as follows:

My Father: "My Father's house" (14:2); "ye should have known my Father also" (v.7), "I go unto my Father" (v.12); "I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you" (v.20); "He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father" (v.21); "and my Father will love him" (v.23); "My Father is the husbandman" (15:1); "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit" (v.8); "I have kept my Father's commandments" (v.10); "all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you" (v.15).

The Father: "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (14:6). "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?" (vv.10-11); "That the Father may be glorified in the Son" (v.13); "whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you" (15:16); "All things that the Father hath are mine" (16:15). "I came forth from the Father . . . and go to the Father" (v.28).

Father: "Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee" (17:1,5); "Father, I will that they also . . . be with me where I am" (v.24).

Holy father: "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are" (v.11).

O righteous Father: "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me" (v.25).

Only through Christ can believers come to God and say with assurance, "Our Father" (Matthew 6:9). NPS