Systematic Theology, by John Frame
As Lord, God is the normative and authoritative head of His covenant with us.
As king, God pursues His purposes in history.
As Father, God relates to His people intimately.
God is Father and we are brothers and sisters as believers in Christ. We are part of a royal family. The promised Deliverer comes through birth. We are adopted into God's family, made joint heirs with Jesus. God extends His covenant blessings to the children of believers.
Some modern theologians argue for gender neutral language referring to God, or even feminine pronouns. The Bible does occasionally use feminine metaphors to describe God's relationship to us, but the overwhelming and significant descriptions are masculine (Lord, husband, Jesus is male, priests were, church as bride, etc.).
This was he most disappointing chapter so far. Frame spent too much time rejecting a fringe "God is female" view, instead of enveloping the idea of family as he did kingdom and covenant. Some of this, like adoption, he will cover later, though.
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