We may know God intellectually, but do we continually experience Him as our Abba Father through adoption as sons and daughters. Within this Father-child relationship we discover the most intimate form of knowing God. Abba is the word Jesus often chose when talking with His Father God. Now through spiritual adoption as His sons and daughters, we share in that experience of knowing Him.
I am not sure how it went in your family, but I coaxed each one of our infant children to say “Mama.” Yet, without fail, their first words were “Dada.” Our relationship with our fathers forms a strategic pattern by which every other relationship rises or falls. How we perceived our fathers colors our lives either with clarity or distortion. Although it’s true, God also gives fathers an added measure of grace and an abundance of new chances to try again.
Only One Father meets all the expectations of His children. That Father, of course, is our heavenly, Abba Father.
I would be amiss to present to you a weak Father image of God, too soft to lovingly discipline His children. His unfailing, uncompromising, unconditional love runs too deep for such complacency. As I meditate on Galatians 4:4-7 and other passages, I see a depth to our adoption as sons and daughters in a fresh and inspiring way.
“…we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. 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.”
Galatians 4:3-5
Knowing
No one needs to waste time trying to convince me what a slave I have been to sin. Sadly, all too often I return to one prison or another for a short, but painful, visit.
But God! But God came by His grace “when the set time had fully come.” He came as an innocent and vulnerable baby, born in human flesh, to live a sinless life. Why? To buy people, like me, out of the slavery to sin. He came to fulfill every requirement of God’s law, paying the penalty for the sins of humanity. He purchased us back to Himself as a people holy and separate unto Himself. And what a price He paid! The shedding of His own blood!
Now, we can all know and understand these truths in our heads. We can even believe them in our hearts. Multitudes of people openly confess their faith with my mouths and are secure with their eternal futures in heaven. By doing so, we also become His true children — brought from darkness to light and from slavery to freedom. But understanding and knowing the truths of Scripture isn’t enough to transform our lives.
A relationship with Abba Father must be experienced to become our life-changing reality. Unless we begin to experience Him in His fullness as our Abba Father, we will remain distant and unchanged in our daily lives.
Jesus did everything He could to pave the way for us to experience this relationship with our Heavenly Father. On the cross, He spoke in triumph,
“It is finished!”
John 19:30
One thing remains. Will we receive our “adoption to sonship” with open arms. Only through receiving and experiencing this good news will we actually be changed into the people He calls us to be. Through Him, we may know Abba Father in a personal way.
Adoption
Adoption today carries less weight than adoption in biblical times. Everyone then would have understood the depth of an adoption transaction as recorded in Scripture. The adoptee was given a new name and would no longer answer to any aspect of their old identity. They would receive a new social security. The legal transaction of adoption wiped their record clean of every former guilt and felony. A full pardon! The adoptee also was given a perfect credit score — debts forgiven, mortgages gone, and bills paid in full. They also received equal rights as any biological heirs and equal access to everything the Father owned.
No wonder we find such granted favor difficult to comprehend.
“… that we might receive adoption to sonship.”
Galatians 4:5
Through Jesus Christ we have become blood-bought children within the family of God. We are now joint heirs with Christ. Through adoption, God demonstrated that He fully embraces and values us as sons and daughters. Adoption can never be earned by self-effort; it is fully bestowed by the Father. Through adoption, He welcomes us to use the most intimate term for father — Abba or Daddy.
We won’t believe it, however, without experiencing it in our hearts. The old bondage mindset of slavery fiercely fights against the Father’s love and our adoption as sons and daughters.
The Father’s Love
Because I experienced my earthly father’s love from early in life, I always knew that he loved me. But it was in a moment of absolute desperation and crisis that his love became even more tangible. As I rocked on my bed in a fetal position, void of hope, and unable to speak, my father came with the most tender embrace and affirmed his unshakeable love for me. In an instant, every wall of oppression collapsed in the face of pure love. Though my earthly father has gone to his eternal home, I long for the day when I will run to him, throw my arms around his neck, and weep with joy, “Daddy!”
That’s what Abba Father desires for each of us to experience with Him right now
“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
The Holy Spirit helps to move us beyond human understanding toward a living heart experience with our Abba Father. These precious words were once foreign to us. Now the Spirit gives us a new voice. Like a little child learning to speak, we utter those beautiful, endearing words, “Dada!”
It is the voice of affection and joy. It shouts down highways and byways, “God is my Father! He paid the full price to make me His child. He loves me, wants me, cares for me, protects and provides for me. It is finished! God is my Father! I am an full heir to all He owns.”
A Voice
Where once voices hung mute, now they sing with joy.
“Calls out” is the same Greek word translated in Matthew 21:9 as “shouted.” People of all ages had lined the streets of Jerusalem, waving palm branches during Christ’s triumphal entry. Some versions use the word “cry,” which we could easily misinterpret as a mournful wailing.
“The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Matthew 21:9
Experiencing God as Abba Father swells within us as a shout of exuberant joy. He is here! Daddy is with us! This type of deep heart-stirring comes not from head knowledge but an unshakeable heart awareness of how deep, wide, and long the love of God has become.
Prayer
Today, my prayer comes directly from Scripture. I offer Paul’s heart-felt prayer with you.
“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God” (Ephesians 3:16-19).
Oh, Lord, may it be so!
Amen.
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