The God*Father SS class

Dietrich Bonhoeffer – The right way to approach God is to stretch out our hands & ask of the One…who we know…has the heart of a Father (a Father that listens).

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In Scripture there are many different names used to describe God. While all the names of God are important in various ways, the name “Abba Father” is one of the most significant names of God in understanding how He relates to His people.

Some names of God:

El – mighty, Eloah(s)/Elohim(pl) – creator, El Shaddai – power over all, Elyon – most high, Adonai – Lord, YHWH (Yahweh) – I am who I am, YHWH-jireh – provider, YHWH-rapha – healer & about 12 dozen others……

Question: What do you think it means for us that God is our “Abba” Father?

So what benefits come from being able to call God our “father”? Effects our worship, confidence, describes a new relationship, shows how He deals with us differently, gives us trust that He hears us, etc…. 

Answer: The word Abba is an Aramaic word that would most closely be translated as “Father or Daddy”, as some people stress. It was a common term that young children would use to address their father. It signifies that close, intimate relationship of a father to his child, as well as the childlike trust (or faith) that a young child puts in their “dad.”

While many people would claim that all people are the “children of God,” the Bible reveals quite a different truth. Its true we are all His creations and under His authority and will all be judged by Him, but being a child of God and having the right to truly call Him “Abba Father” is something that only born-again Christian is able to do (read: John 1:12-13).

Understanding that not all people are children of God and that becoming a child of God only happens when you are adopted by God through faith in Christ Jesus is important for understanding **how and why God deals with people differently** (Galatians 3:26). If we are born again, we have been adopted into the family of God, redeemed from the curse of sin and are now “joint-heirs with Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:17). Part of this new relationship is that God now deals with us differently, which includes His chastisement of us when we sin (so says Hebrews 12:3-11).

 
This idea of Abba Father ties into two other Theological doctrines: Adoption & Election.

In the OT Adoption is pictured in the life of Moses being adopted into the family of pharaoh’s daughter & Esther who’s adopted by her cousin after her parent’s death; who are both used by God to rescue God’s people during dangerous times & in the NT Jesus himself is adopted by Mary’s husband Joseph, who took Jesus as his own child. Likewise the Christian life is one of being Adopted into God’s family.  

Regarding Election - The misguided but popular concept that all people are children of God and can truthfully call Him “Abba Father” is simply not true. Just as children do not choose to be adopted or choose who will adopt them, neither do Christians choose to become children of God. Instead, God chooses them. Scripture says He predestines them “to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will” & having been chosen by God from “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4-5).

It is life-changing to understand the full force of what it means to be able to call the one true God our “Father” and what it means to be joint-heirs with Christ. Because of our relationship with God, we know He no longer deals with us as enemies; instead, we can approach a holy God as our heavenly Father with “boldness” and “full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:19 &22). We have that confidence because of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit who “bears witness with our spirit that we [truly] are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.”

The benefits of being adopted children of God are many. Becoming a child of God is the highest privilege and honor that can be imagined. Because of it we have a new relationship with God and a new standing before Him. He deals with His children differently than He deals with the rest of the world. Being a child of God, adopted “through faith in Christ Jesus” is the source for our hope, the security of our future and the motivation to “walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.” Being children of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords calls us to a higher standard, a different way of life and a greater hope.

Once we give our hearts to Christ, believing and trusting in Him alone for salvation, God says we become part of His family—not through the natural process of human conception, but through adoption. “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship [adoption]. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’” (Romans 8:15). Similarly, bringing a person into a family by means of adoption is done by choice and out of love. “His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:5). As God adopts those who receive Christ as Savior into His spiritual family.

As we come to understand the true nature of God as revealed in the Bible we should be amazed that He not only allows us, but even encourages us, to call Him “Abba Father.” It is amazing that a holy and righteous God, who created and sustains all things, who is the only all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present God, would allow sinful humans to call Him “Daddy.” As we come to understand who God really is and how sinful we are, the privilege of being able to call Him “Abba Father” will take on a whole new meaning for us and help us understand the extent God’s amazing grace.