Abba, Father
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Romans 8:14-15
Fathers are a gift from God. Godly fathers are a blessing that we should never take for granted. But, our relationship with our Heavenly Father is described in three passages where we see Him referred to as ABBA. An aramic word used by children for their faither, its connotations are both somewhat familiar and showing obeidience. Each passage where we find it in the New Testament reflects what God expects of His children, both natural and adopted.
The first time we find the term Abba in scripture, we see our Lord, kneeling in submission, agonizing over what He knew He would be experiencing in the coming hours. As the time drew near, His human heart was full of sorrow and agony as He took the sins of the entire world onto Himself. He prepared to be offered up as the final and most perfect lamb of sacrifice for atonement of all, once and for all. He knelt in submission, showing his obedience to His Father, but was still willing to approach God honestly and ask if His will could be fulfilled in any other way. In reality, there’s no way that our feeble human minds can comprehend the depth of the emotional, physical and spiritual agony He was experiencing as He neared the completion of His purpose on this earth.
In those moments, He came to His Father in the way any child would approach a father in a time of need. But, in His perfection, He showed us that regardless of what the Father calls us to do or suffer, we are to remain obedient to His perfect will:
And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt. Mark 14:36
In the second passage in Romans 8, we see a beautiful picture of our relationship with God as grafted in children. In verse 13, we see that dying to self is required to follow the Spirit and live. In verse 14, we see that following the Spirit is proof that we are children of God. In 15, we that we are free, because of this relationship, to cry out to Him as our Abba. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Romans 8:15 In verse 16, we are told that we will know inside our spirit that we are adopted, that the Spirit Himself will bear witness with our spirit. We could stop there, and be thrilled with what we have in Christ, but we must continue and see that our adoption into the family of God doesn’t come without cost. Verse 17 speaks of suffering with Christ. But, gloriously, we continue in vs 18 and find that any earthly suffering will pale in comparison to the rewards of a life in Heaven with our Lord.
In the letter to the Galatians, Paul reminds them that Christ’s birth and death was all for the explicit purpose of bringing them into a right relationship with God. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Galatians 4:6 He continues in the letter to remind us that we must not forget what we have received. That our lives must be set apart, lived wholly in concert with God’s will for us, that it doesn’t behoove children of the living God to return to their sinful lives before knowing our Lord. How could we, having understood what true freedom in Christ is, allow ourselves to be chained down with sins and weaknesses that Christ has rescued us out of? But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Galatian 4:9
As adopted children of the living God, we are afforded a priviledge of knowing and being known intimately by the creator of the universe. Our privilege does not in any way lessen His Glory or His Holiness. We must also remember that although this adoption is free, we owe a great debt to our Lord for creating a way out of this sinful life. Jesus reminded his disciples to count the cost of discipleship. We don’t have to do anything to receive forgiveness, but walking with our Lord, if done correctly, will cost our very lives. Perhaps not our physical lives, although there are some who do make that sacrifice, but our carnal lives have to be placed on the altar of repentance and walked away from. Any less and we are not serving the Lord with our whole heart. While we are given the right to come to him freely and with any trouble or thought and we are a told to approach the throne boldly, we should not in any way we should see this as an opportunity to come to Him with anything less than utter awe and respect for the perfection that He embodies. We are free to cry out Abba Father, but we must understand that children are to obey their parents, and that standard applies equally to our adoptive Father.
