Abba Father!

God as our spiritual daddy!

This is the Tenth Post in a series from Chapter 3 of Friends With God: “The Joy That Was Set Before Him”.

From the Fourth Post onwards we have been explaining that the idea of “a penalty for sin that Christ paid for us” is not at all Biblical.

The Ninth post showed that God blinds some people and opens the eyes of others, and therefore those who are blinded by God don’t have any supposed “Death Penalty” applied to them, for it is not their fault for not understanding God!

It is only when we have our eyes open that we are responsible for our sin, for God does not condemn those who are ignorant and don’t have his Holy Spirit.

This post explains that once we are given God’s Spirit then we must work with it, so that it is guiding us in producing life-giving fruit. (Gal 6:7-9) In doing so we will actually be abiding in the life which Christ exemplified in his flesh. (John 15:12-17)

Becoming Sons Of God

God expects us to put in a lot of effort, and to produce much fruit. We can’t take what he is offering half-heartedly, he expects us to love him with our whole heart, and mind and soul. (Matt 22:7, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27) For what God is offering us is to become his very sons, as explained in this previous post.

Paul again tells us that we must be led by God’s Spirit in order to become God’s Sons:

For if you live according to the flesh (if you live the way of the natural mind), you shall die. (because you are mortal) But if you through (being led by) the Spirit (do actions which) mortify (stop) the deeds of the body (the natural mind), you shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption
by which we cry, Abba, Father! (Rom 8:13-15)

It’s only by being led by the Spirit of God, with the eternal life it imparts, that we actually become the Sons of God.

The term ‘Abba’ is very personal, like ‘Daddy’ in English. It’s what Christ called God when in the Garden of Gethsemane:

And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible to you; take away this cup from me: nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will. (Mark 14:36)

Christ did the will of God, as he was one with the Father. We too, as his sons through the Spirit of God, are even now one with God the Father:

And I do not pray for these alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. (John 17:20-21)

God As Our Abba Father

Because we are now one with the Father and Christ, then we too can use this intimate term “Abba” to address God:

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (Gal 4:6)

The Spirit of God enables us to abide in Christ- doing the things Christ would do, and relating to God the Father in the ‘Abba’ way as did Christ.

The Holy Spirit is what flows from God to us- like the water and nutrients of a vine flow into a grafted-in branch. Yet it’s much more than that, for Paul in Romans tells us that it’s the Spirit of God, which combines with our spirit, that links us to God:

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. (Rom 8:16)

God has created in us a Spirit. God then provides his Spirit to combine with our Spirit. We then become the children of God, able to inherit eternal life, and to relate to God as our Abba Father! 

God gives us his Spirit in order for us to have this very deep Abba relationship of love and respect with him. He then expects us to respect this great privilege, by producing the fruits of his Spirit.

Once we are called by God, and given his Spirit, we then have the choice to be able to walk by the Spirit of God, or to ignore God and keep walking in the ways of the flesh. We are given the Spirit of God in order to bring to mind the words of Jesus, and to give us the power of God to live the life of Christ in us. (Rom 8:7, John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13-15)  

God has high expectations for those with his Spirit. We are to grow and overcome and produce bountiful fruits- and when we do, he prunes us so that we produce even more fruit! (John 15:2-5) What is this fruit?

But the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control; ….(Gal 5:22-23)

God wants you to produce an abundance of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness etc. He wants you to grow and produce these fruits for your own benefit as well as for the benefit of others, unto eternal life:

Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. (John 4:36)

God has chosen you to endure the trials of this life so that the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience etc. may grow and remain with you, for now and all eternity:

You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; … (John 15:16)

However, if that kindness or patience or mercy etc. cannot remain when we are under pressure, then we cannot say that that particular characteristic has become part of us. God is always kind, patient, merciful, longsuffering and just. We are expected to become like Him.

For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, (Heb 3:14)

That is God’s great desire- for His goodness to be in all men, and that men may know what He is truly like, and give all praise and glory to Him. 

Pruning is not pleasant. And it’s only through enduring many difficulties that we, using God’s Spirit, will gain eternal life. (Acts 14:22) We need to change from our old habits, and it’s often not easy. Jesus called it a narrow and hard road. (Matt 7:14)

The Life Without God Is Very Hard

As discussed in the previous post, if we don’t have the Spirit of God we can’t understand God’s way of life, and we are not able to become his children. We are in fact the children of the one who opposes God, known as the Devil, Satan, and the Adversary. (John 8:44, 1John 3:10)

Those people who don’t have God’s Spirit guiding them, are led by a mind of flesh, the same mind that is in Satan:

Now the actions of the flesh (natural mind) are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, rivalry, jealously, outbursts of anger, quarrels, conflicts, factions, envy, murder, drunkenness, wild partying (orgies), and things like that.
I am telling you now, as I have told you in the past, that people who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal 5:19-21)

These sins naturally produce terrible suffering in people’s lives, which is why the law of God is against doing these things. Proverbs tells us that such people eat the fruit of their own way, and are filled with their own desires. (Prov 1:31)

Not all people who don’t know God are going to be doing all these sins. Indeed, there are many brave and noble and honest people who love other people and do much good, yet don’t know God:

For when the Gentiles, who do not have the Law, do by nature the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law unto themselves; who show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and the thoughts between one another accusing or even excusing one another, (Rom 2:14-15)

Yet without the Spirit of God they can’t fully understand God’s way of life, and will therefore fall short of the perfection that God expects of us all. (Matt 5:48) While “perfection” may seem like an unachievable goal, it needs to be understood in the context of scripture, which has been explained in detail in the Eighth Post in this series.

God doesn’t need to add some kind of death penalty on top of the natural consequences of sin, in order to somehow motivate people to come to him. Once their eyes are opened by His Spirit, then they will understand their errors, and have the power to change.

However, if once their eyes are opened, and they then continue to choose to be people who practice such things then they will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Why would God want people who will only hurt themselves and others in his Kingdom? He wants to share eternity with those who love his ways, and appreciate their benefits- not fools who scorn God’s truth, and his righteousness.

All people will, at some stage, be given the chance to have the Spirit of God, so that it can guide them to enable them to see their sin, be it in this life or the next. (John 11:24-25, Acts 24:15, Rom 6:5, Rev 20:5-6, Matt 12:41-42) Those in the Second Resurrection will not have the Adversary around to tempt them to sin and follow his rebellious way.

Those who are called by God in this age will be able to overcome their sin, by the power of God’s Spirit, if they choose to do so.

But  until people are called by God, they don’t know God, nor do they understand sin, or how to overcome it. So, there is little point in God’s applying an unbiblical “death penalty” on top of the already significant physical, personal, and emotional consequences of sin, which they suffer from throughout their entire lives.

The next post will review the process of repentance in some detail, and how a correct understanding of it is totally opposite to the unbiblical concept of “Christ needing to pay a penalty for sin on our behalf”.