The Heart of a Father: A Meditation on Galatians 4
Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. - Galatians 4:6-7
To the outside world Christians often come across as weird. Some of this is by design! We come together each week and we sing songs together. We sit in small groups and we attempt to talk about things that would not come up in polite conversation outside the church walls. We often approach a table together and eat Jesus’ body and drink his blood. As Christians, we have to be able to admit that these things, at first blush, come across as weird.
However, maybe the weirdest aspect of being a Christian is the fact that we call God our Father. If you’ve been around church, you probably don’t think of this as weird. You hear someone address God in prayer and the word “Father” just washes over you as a standard name for God. But to someone living apart from any organized religion, the concept of God as Father is very foreign.
In today’s post, I want to briefly meditate on the importance of knowing God as Father. As I do, I hope that it shows you the beauty of who God is and what He has done to adopt us into His family.
Jesus Our Example
Let’s start at the beginning. Where did this concept of calling God our Father come from? For that, we look no further than God’s Son, Jesus. Perhaps the most significant aspect of Jesus’ identity is that he is God’s Son. In fact, in the book of John alone, Jesus refers to God as his Father over 100 times! Nowhere is this more important and foundational than when Jesus is teaching his disciples (students) to pray. The first thing that comes out of Jesus’ mouth, his personal address of God, is to call God “Our Father.” (Matt. 6:9)
Why does this matter? It matters because the relationship of a father and a son was not the norm. While Jesus did not create this concept, he certainly deepened it and desired to show his followers that in God’s heart was the love of a Father. Religion tells us that our relationship with God is much more like a boss with His employees, or, at best, a well-meaning Teacher looking over the shoulder of His students. But Jesus shows us something different, that God’s heart longs not just to keep up with our progress, but He desires to pick us up, embrace us, and remind us that we matter.
Jesus Our Savior
While we may long for this kind of relationship with God, we must acknowledge that this is not natural. This is because of the presence of what the Bible calls sin. Sin is the reason God cannot embrace us; it is the reason we feel much more like God’s slaves than His children.
But this is the beauty of the gospel: God does not stand pat, but He does something about it. This is the beautiful reality Paul writes about in Galatians 4. In verses 4-5 he writes, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.” You see, as much as God wanted this Fatherly relationship with us, He could not just snap His fingers and make it happen, lest He deny Himself of His own holiness.
The good news of the gospel is that this is what Jesus accomplished. At the cross, he paid the penalty of sin, redeeming us from sin, so that Jesus’ Father could look at us and adopt us into His family!
Paul goes on to give us some benefits we now experience: “Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” (Gal. 4:6-7) What Paul is saying here is that this relationship with God is not one in name only, but that we get to experience what it’s like to have God as a Father. When we look at our sin and brokenness and think that God as our Father is too good to be true, the Holy Spirit floods into our hearts, affirming that we, in fact, are children of God (1 John 3:1), with all the rights to Him that Jesus himself has.
Conclusion
To close, what we believe about God is vitally important, especially in times of struggling with sin. When we struggle, we must remember that, because of Jesus’ work on our behalf, God approaches us with the love and kindness of a Father. Though he may use the opportunity to discipline us and lead us to change our ways, His discipline is not harsh or scolding. Rather, we can be confident that His Fatherly care is always for our good.
What about you? How does this challenge the way you interact with God? Do you see Him more as a master who only cares about what you do for Him, or a Father who sees you as His beloved daughter or son? Take some time now to pray to God, call Him Father, and implicitly remind yourself that God has paid a great price to make you His son or daughter.
For further reading on this topic, please see this excellent article: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/we-call-him-father