Personal Matters

In a prayer meeting this week the issue of divine Fatherhood unexpectedly came to a head. Someone quoted from Psalm 2, “Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”” This prophesies that Gentile nations, like Australia, will be traumatised by the exaltation of the messianic Son of God.  The New Testament teaches that Christ is the fulfilment of this psalm; “Then the kings of the earth and the great ones … and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves…calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”” (Revelation 6:15-17 ESV).  These scriptures are strong and clear, but I believe as a Church we have lost our edge through disempowering the image of the Father. Coming from a long line of fathers deprived of the glory of God we all struggle to know God as “‘Our’ Father” in the way he has been revealed in the Lamb (Isa 43:27; Rom 3:23; Matt 6:9). The restoration of the true honouring of God as Father is the motivation of this teaching.

An Unspeakable Error

I was so grieved and horrified by what I sensed as I interceded in the above prayer meeting that I was literally rendered speechless. This is the depth of our spiritual confusion in calling God “Daddy”. The roots of calling God “Daddy” derive from an interpretation of “Abba”, an Aramaic prayer word first used by Jesus in Gethsemane and then by the early Christians (Mark 14:36; Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6). It has become popular in some Christian circles to translate “Abba” as “Daddy”. In linguistic circles however it is uncontroversially accepted that this word was only ever used by adult offspring as a respectful, as well as intimate, form of address to their fathers[1]. The issue is not technical correctness about the appropriate use of “Abba” or “Daddy” in prayer, but in understanding such heart expressions block us from knowing the fullness of “‘Our’ Father”. We need to go back to Jesus’ prayer against its Old Testament background to grasp what is at stake here.

On the way up the mountain to be sacrificed the young man Isaac[2] said to Abraham, “My father! (Abi)” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”(Genesis 22:7) The central motif of this scene is the sacrifice of a submitted and obedient son. Similarly, when the Lord prays in Gethsemane, ““Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”” we are not dealing with a case of divine child abuse but with a Father-Son relationship that is entering into its perfection through indescribable suffering (Heb 2:10). It is as the budding bearer of the wrath of God, and not before, that Jesus says““Abba, Father””. This is a hard cup for us sentimental and spoilt Western Christians to bear. Let me illustrate what I mean.

I was in a Sunday School room recently and noticed a poster of Noah’s ark on the wall. Cute animals were queuing up to enter the boat filing past a wise looking old man as water gently lapped their feet. This of course is nothing like the thrust of the biblical story of the Flood which God sent to cleanse the earth of evil by drowning all but 8 of its inhabitants! A Sunday School approach to the wrath of God will produce spiritual infants in the Church who cannot and do not want to bear the revelation of being his adult children. There is something at stake here about the Fatherhood of God that penetrates very deeply into our hearts.

When God as Judge and Father approached the guilty Adam in Eden he hid in terror (Gen 3:10; 1 Pet 1:17). Jesus taught that “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). Calling God “Daddy” is a way of speaking about him which renders him harmless. This is a cry which issues not from the Spirit but from a heart that still carries the Adamic fear of the divine presence (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6). The sentimentally in the Church about divine Fatherhood is a cloak obscuring our dread of having to deal with the Holy Father and his terrifying judgement (John 17: cf. Ps 2; Rev 6:16). The current crisis in Australian Christian spirituality derives from our failure to deeply believe that every element of the wrath of God has been taken away in the cross of Christ (Rom 3:21-26). The consequences of such fundamental confusion about the facts of fatherhood are enormous.

One Father

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray “‘Our’ Father” he introduced a revelation that is the key to all corporate spiritual growth. God is not a Jewish, African, Australian, distant, impatient….Father, he is not a racial, national or psychological Father, but the one heavenly Father of us all (Eph 4:6). A revelation of the singularity of Fatherhood is the glory which the one and only Son proclaimed would bring unity and immeasurable blessing to the world (John 17:22-23).

“Abba” is an inside word, and as we know the strengthening presence of God our Father we are empowered to see the inner image of the Son of God in others who, by virtue of gender, race, age or wealth are so outwardly different from us. It is as we harmonise with Jesus in calling God ““Abba, Father”” we share as one in his limitless inheritance (Rom 8:17; Gal 4:7). The territoriality, disunity, insecurity and divisions that function across the Body of Christ all begin to dissolve through the revelation that in Christ we share equally in the eternal riches of the “Father of glory” (Eph 1:17).

Conclusion

An elderly Christian recently said to me; “I don’t know what young men and women from dysfunctional families think when they hear God described as “‘Our’ Father””.  Such folk will remain confused about God’s identity and plan for their lives as long as the Church remains sentimentalised and divided. The way forward is to receive that “Abba” on the lips of Jesus leads us not to “Daddy” but to a Father strong enough to command Abraham to kill his son of promise and finally to send Jesus to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29).  Inside the revelation of “Abba” as ‘Our’ Father is to be found nothing less than the gospel.  These wonderful words of intimacy and familial love proclaim that the wrath of God has been taken away forever.  Freed from the terror of judgment we can fearlessly share with others the good news of eternal life (Acts 14:15).

In the midst of sensing the depth of our confusion about divine Fatherhood I was literally rendered speechless, but as I write this article and glimpse the truth of what Jesus has given to us I never want to cease proclaiming that through the Son, God is truly “‘Our’ Father” (Acts 4:20).