Abba, Father in Heaven

• Our Father Which Art in Heaven - When Jesus prayed, He ad-dressed God as His Father. The Lord Jesus himself is spoken of as the “everlasting Father (Isa 9:6)”. Amazingly, God commands us to also address God as “Our Father” in the Lord's prayer. We do not fully under-stand such condescension on God's part but was made possible only through the sacrifice of His Son, Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament also has references to God as our Father. In the Bible, the fatherless is a reference to the spiritually destitute, the unsaved people. We are of God our Father through creation, but our sins have estranged us from God. In Adam we all fell and spiritually, the devil became our father. Only a true believer – that is, one in whom the Holy Spirit “dwells” – has been adopted into God’s eternal family as one of His children and has become a “joint heir” of heavenly glory with Christ. This happens at the moment we become “born again”. We are orphans when we are dead to sin, and God comes to us as a Father to the fatherless. God will be a Father to those who acknowledge their orphaned condition, their spiritual bankruptcy, with a broken and contrite heart. God cares for those who love Him.

John 8:42, 44 “42Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. 44Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do...”

Rom 9:7-8 “Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.”

Eph 1:3-6 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”

Gal 4:4-5 “...God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

Rom 8:15-17 “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. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

1 John 3:1-2 “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”

Eph 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:”

• Jehovahjireh, Lord, Our Heavenly Father Will Provide - Gen 22:1-14 describes the historical parable in which God commands Abraham to sacrifice his “only son” to God on Mount Moriah. When Isaac asked his father “where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”Abraham answered “God will provide himself a lamb”. Literally, verse 8 proclaims, “God will see to the lamb for Himself…”. God does not require Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac – and yet God willingly offered up His beloved Son – the Lord Jesus on the crosson Mount Moriah. Every time I read this passage I am dumbfounded by God’s mercy! God makes this amazing declaration in John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” While this is certainly true when taken at face value, yet when we grasp the spiritual ramifications of this sentence they indeed stagger our puny minds. What God is really enunciating is the fact that the Lord Jesus became sin – that is, the totality of each true Christian’s sins – and then He had to suffer the punishment of eternal damnation for those very sins. This fact is vividly highlighted in 2 Cor 5:21. Is it any wonder that Rom 8:32 asks this vital question, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”, “all things that pertain unto life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3)”. The Bible speaks of the Father as the giver of every good and perfect gift (Jam 1:17). The greatest gift of all is the gift of salvation. He provides both Spiritual needs (Luke 11:13) and Worldly needs (Matt 6:32) of His children.

Gen 22:7-8,13-14 “And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 8And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. 13And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 14And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.”

2 Cor 5:21 “For he [God the Father] hath made him [God the Son] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of  God in him.”

Heb 10:12 “But this man [Lord Jesus Christ], after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;”

2 Pet 1:3-4 “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Luke 11:9-13 “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 11If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”

Matthew 6:25-33 “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

• What Son is He Whom the Father Chasteneth Not? As Many as I Love, I Rebuke - The “reproving” that the Scriptures provide is actually a demonstration of the Lord’s great, eternal love toward His redeemed people. Gods corrections and chastisements demonstrate His perfect, loving care and concern for each of His beloved children as He conforms them to the image of His dear Son. Rev 3:19 admonishes, “As many as I love, I rebuke [reprove] and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent”. John 15:2 also reveals God’s purpose in divine “pruning” in order to foster increased fruitfulness in the lives of His elect children. Job 5:17-18 adds to that idea. Similarly, in Heb 12:8 we learn that God “chastens” His children for their spiritual “profit”, and unlike an earthly father, our Heavenly Father never makes mistakes, and His discipline – though “grievous” – “yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness” as an end result.  Job 23:10 is a remarkable affirmation of God’s power and grace in the lives of His children: “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” This wonderful promise highlights God’s constant faithfulness and love to His elect, and Jam 5:11, in turn, is a commentary on Job himself.

Pro 3:11-12 “My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.”

Heb 12:6-11 “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.9Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 10For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.11Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”

John 15:2 “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”

Job 5:17-18 “Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.”

Jam 5:11 “Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”