Coromandel Baptist Church Sunday 14 February 2010 Bible Readings Galatians 3:23-4:7; 1 John 4:15-21 Living in the Love of Abba
Thus far we have seen that the God the Creator is our Father, forming children in his image, who would know him as their true Father. Because he has always been the eternal Father of the Son, when he creates and plans redemption and the glorification of the new heavens and earth, all of this is ‘Fatherly'. The creation is Father formed, both in terms of its inception and its goal. In our sin and rebellion we have exchanged this glorious true Fatherhood for false images of fatherhood, and in so doing we have become blind and foolish. But the Father's plan from all eternity has been to bring all things to be to the praise of his glorious grace, reconciling his rebellious children to himself in love. The end point of all creation is that he, the Father, would be all in all. All of his love, glory, joy, righteousness, holiness, peace and goodness (for example) will be all in all. These will be fully ours, because we will be fully his. This is all so in Christ, through the Spirit, in whom we have access to God the Father. God has purposed that we will stand before him, utterly one with the Son, completely filled with his Spirit, so that we would be his dwelling place for all eternity, and this would be at the same time the glorification of the whole cosmos.
This week, we ask, What is the nature of the relationship that we have with the Father? The Father's relationship with us in Christ, having been eternally settled, is expressed in the most intimate and exalted of names. Abba is the cry of the Incarnate Son, but, through him, it is the cry of the whole reconciled community of the sons of God. This utterance communicates the fullness of the Father's affection, the tenderness of his care for us, the security of the relationship in which we live with him, and the wonderful blessing that is bestowed on us by his grace that we (even we!) are called his children.
In the relationship that he has granted to us in Christ we can be free of fear (which involves punishment), for his perfect love casts out fear through the once and for all judgement that has taken place on the cross (so 1 John 4:17-19). In the work of the cross the Father has removed all wrath and judgement, and as Jesus is, so are we in this world with regard to it. This means that Abba becomes our settled home, and in his presence we find rest, not fear. In this place we live as little children. He takes us by the hand and teaches us to walk, gathers us in his arms and bestows upon us all the affection of his own love. His own heart is filled with joy towards us, and he delights in us in his presence. His affections are expansive, singing over us and hosting us at his banqueting table with great joy (e.g. Zeph. 3:15-17; Is. 62:4-5; 65:19; Jer. 32:41; Luke 15; etc.). All that he has accomplished through the travail of his soul in the cross has reconciled all things and settled all things so that he is utterly pleased with all that he has done, and fully delights in his righteous, adopted children...as much as he fully delights in his only begotten Son!
The word Abba is essentially untranslatable. It is an Aramaic word which was habitually used of little children of their earthly fathers. It is still used in some places (e.g. the Urdu word for father is abba), and in many other languages there are parallel or similar sounding utterances (e.g. bapa, baba, pappa, appa, oba, etc.). What we notice is that these are child like sounds. They are vocalisations that come from the earliest days of speech development. They are utterances from the very root and core relationship of a child to his or her father. While it may have been (or is) a word used by an adult in relation to his or her father ‘this does not make it a more adult word' (G. Fee, quoted in T. J. Burke, Adopted into God's Family, p. 93). Though used in this familial context (and sometimes as a term of respect and affection between a disciple and his rabbi), the word was never used of God. Israel knew God as the covenant Father-Redeemer (e.g. Is. 63: 16), and while Israel was God's adopted son (e.g. Ex. 4:22 cf. Deut. 14:1; Jer. 31:9; Hos. 11:1; Rom. 9:4) and the King was enthroned as Yahweh's anointed son (e.g. Ps. 2), there could be no full revelation of the Father until the Son came.
When Jesus came, he revealed the full face of the Father. This could not happen before the incarnation. To see Jesus is to see the Father (e.g. John 1:18; 6:45 cf. 12:45; 14:9) for the Son is the express and perfect image of the Father (Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:1-4), and reveals him in every action (e.g. Jn. 5:19, 30; 14:10-12; 15:24). As we saw last time, the supreme revelation of the Father lies in the cross, for there the Father brings forgiveness of sins, and opens the way for us to come into full access. In the cross we see the love and mercy of the Father revealed. We only come to know God as our Abba when the fear of judgement is taken away. Apart from this our natural flesh regards him only as the Almighty Judge, before whom we must do many things in order to please him and to avoid his wrath. But the Spirit of the Father is poured out so that we might know that we are well pleasing to him; that we are adopted in the Son; that the Father has done all that is necessary in the cross; and that our welcome is no less than that of the erstwhile son in the parable of the prodigal.
It is significant that the term Abba (though it no doubt underlies all the uses of the word Father by Jesus) is preserved particularly at a time of great suffering in the garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:36). Paul also speaks of the believer's great security in calling God Abba in a passage also infused with suffering (Romans 8:15), as also in the context of the certain inheritance that is ours in Christ for which we wait (Gal. 4:6). So the heirs of Abba cry out to Abba in their distress. They have no qualms or hesitation about doing so. The intercession of the Spirit within them makes that crying out effective, for it is the utterance of the Spirit himself, who knows the mind of God, so that God, in searching our hearts, hears only the cry of the Spirit (Rom. 8:26-37). This cry drowns all ‘all music but its own', and fills heaven itself (to paraphrase the old hymn on the one side and Luther on the other!), so that all God hears is the Spirit, not the accusations of the devil, sin, the law and conscience which all fill us with terror at the thought of God.
Abba is the most exalted cry that a human being can utter. It is our true destiny and their highest dignity. What does this cry imply about our relationship with God our Father? That God is our Abba implies utter acceptance; total security; full and free affection; the guarantee of our inheritance; the embrace in the very heart of the Triune family; our final glorification in the adoption that will brought to its full and free culmination in the general resurrection; and much more besides. It also means that we are utterly dependent upon the Father. He teaches us how to walk, and leads us in his ways. His peace and joy guide our feet, and our eyes are opened by him to see and understand the world around us. He takes us to ever expanding vistas of his glory and grace, and gives us ever expanding revelations of his love and goodness.
This side of glory, we know these things by faith, in the Word as he is preached to us. However, that they are known by faith and much contested does not make them any less real. We are constantly under attack from the Accuser, to tell us that we cannot be the children of God and that the tender, joy, love and intimacy of Abba's presence cannot be so for us. However the gospel speaks differently.
In all four gospels we read of the exchange of Jesus for Barabbas, the murderous insurrectionist. It is perhaps no coincidence that this name (Bar Abba(s)) means literally ‘son of the father'. In the great sinful rebellion against God that the crucifixion was, with all its deceit and political intrigue, the Lord the Spirit has seen to it that we have a visual representation of what the Cross means. The beloved Son is given for the most dire of rebels, that a sinner may indeed be a son of Abba.
Older
Top
