Our Father Who Art in Heaven
Why we must always remember to think of God as our father
If you were to poll your Christian friends, what do you think would be the most popular moniker for God? I was curious myself, so I asked ten of my friends the very question. Here were the results:
6 — Lord
3 — Savior
1 — Creator
Just to be clear, there is no wrong answer here. We all think about God in different ways. But I also wonder if the pendulum has swung too far in the way of reverence for God at the expense of intimacy in our relationship with him. I know for a fact that there are certain groups that are more reluctant to use more intimate titles like “friend” when contemplating about God because of its casualness. Alas, on this Father’s Day, I want to recover the importance that God, among all things, is also our loving Father.
1. Fatherhood emphasizes adoption
The point of Christianity was never about simply escaping the jaws of hell; we are saved from the penalty of sin, but we are engrafted into the family of God. Christianity is not about relief, as if we dodged a cosmic bullet, but it’s about relishing in the reconciled relationship. My small group leader once asked me a poignant question as an angsty, emo teenager: Would you still want heaven if God wasn’t there?
Consider the tension: God is both infinite and intimate. He is set apart but also relational. Yes, God is in the business of glory and is deserving of it. But the whole point of Creation wasn’t just glory but community. When we think about our adoption by a holy God, we are floored by such grace.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15, ESV)
2. Fatherhood implies freedom
Tim Keller remarks on the beauty of being a child of God: “The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.”
Here’s a common misconception about salvation and eternal life: many people think that salvation is something we receive once we have fought the good fight. It is our prize at the end of the proverbial race we call life. That’s a gross underselling of salvation because there are very real benefits of salvation in our present-day lives. And one of the clearest benefits of salvation is this access to be in a relationship with the God of the cosmos. The God we know that has done unparalleled miracles is the very same God we can approach with our mental health issues. God didn’t adopt us so that we continue to live in fear but to have freedom to be ourselves with him. After all, what would be the point of being in a relationship when we’re just walking on eggshells all the time? If we say that we were fearfully and wonderfully made, then we have the freedom to be ourselves without condemnation because of Christ.
3. Fatherhood elicits humility
We live in a world where everyone, even the most zealous Christians, are obsessed with the building of their own Tower of Babel. Although you might hate to admit it, you, too, want a piece of the pie. Though the desire to be known is innate when punctured by the fangs of sin, that once innocuous desire becomes an obsession to be worshipped.
But when confronted by the reality of the Cross of Christ, who can boast?
[23] Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, [24] but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 9:23–24, ESV)
Until you fully grasp the two-pronged truth of the Gospel, that we were once dead in our trespasses yet saved by that same God of wrath who has now adopted us into his own family, there will always be some part of you that wants a piece of that glory. But when that lightbulb clicks on, and we understand all that comes with God being our Father, we worship him and him alone. We are filled with gratitude because he saved us. We are filled with wonder, thinking, “how could a holy God love a sinner like me?” We are filled with hope because we know what is to come. And then I ask again, how can anyone boast for themselves in light of the Gospel?
I know that my dad wasn’t perfect, but I do know that he loves me. But for many, the connection between our own earthly dads and God as our Father can be problematic, if not traumatic. Though we try to avoid imputing our own memories and emotions into our own thoughts on God, we are haunted by the past. But on this Father’s day, I hope that we can redeem and reclaim the title in our thoughts on God. It really is a beautiful quandary that sinners can have communion with God. I don’t think it’s an accident that the opening line in the Lord’s Prayer is “our Father”. If our discipler set forth the paradigm and practices for future believers to follow, I think it’s more than apt to consider God as our Father equally as our Lord and Savior.
