Altar
Call – Opelika-Auburn News
Walter Albritton
June
21, 2015
The Joy
of Knowing God as your Daddy
One Father’s Day I wrote a piece about the difference it makes
to know God as your Daddy. I believe this is a pivotal conclusion in the
Christian understanding of God. Today I want to share again why I believe this
to be true.
Born in Alabama I grew up in the country. My life was quite
sheltered, exposed to no one outside of Elmore County except for one or two
rare family vacations in Panama City, Florida. There being no television all I
knew about “the world” was what I read in books or learned in school.
College and seminary days enlarged my world considerably. There
I met people from other cultures and ethnic backgrounds. My first trip on an
airplane took me to New York City and the jolting differences between that
world and my own in Wetumpka, Alabama.
When I was 35 I was given the privilege of traveling around the
world, for seven weeks, and meeting Christians in 25 other countries. In these
nations I was constantly embraced by people of a different racial origin. None
of our cultural differences was a stumbling block to fellowship; they saw me as
a brother in Christ.
I experienced firsthand the exhilarating truth that followers of
Christ in every culture have one glorious thing in common: we are all children
of God through faith in Jesus Christ, thus brothers and sisters in God’s
Family. This opened my eyes. Cultural differences tend to divide us but our
love for Christ unites us. The shining truth that pulls us together, helping us
to leap over our differences, is that we all belong to Christ. Differences
become irrelevant when we realize that our salvation is a gift from the God who
loves us all like a Father.
My four siblings and I called our father “Daddy.” Daddy is the
intimate form of the word “father.” Daddy was a good man who was faithfully married
to my mama for almost 68 years. We were a family. We loved Daddy and knew that
he loved us. When he disciplined us, sometimes severely, we never doubted his
love for us.
One day as a grown man my heart leaped with joy to discover that
while Jesus called God “Our Father,” he also called him “Daddy.” That is what
the Aramaic word “Abba” means. My joy was increased by the remarkable concept
that through faith in Christ all believers become “children” of God. As
children then we can speak to God affectionately by using the word “Daddy.”
When it soaks into our brain, and our heart, that the eternal
God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, loves us like an earthly Daddy
loves his children, we can move beyond “formal” praying. Children have no need
to address their Daddy as “the Great Architect of the Universe,” though he is
that and much more. Such formal prayer can rob us of precious intimacy with
God.
There are two great concepts about God in the Bible embodied in
the words “law” and “grace.” The biblical “law” had its purpose. It was part of
God’s plan. The law teaches us that we cannot be made right with God (saved) by
obeying the law. The Bible tells us that the law “guarded” us until Christ came
as grace made flesh. Suddenly, in the fullness of time, God sent his Son to
show us a new way to become right with God – repent of sin and have faith in
Christ.
Some Bible translations are easier to understand than others. I
find the New Living Translation is often quite helpful. These verses
from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians illuminate the idea that believers are
children of God:
The law was our guardian and teacher to lead us until Christ came.
So now, through faith in Christ, we are made right with God. But now that faith
in Christ has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian. So you are all
children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united
with Christ in baptism have been made like him. There is no longer Jew or
Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians – you are
one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true
children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and now all the promises God gave to
him belong to you. (3:24-29)
That is a beautiful explanation of salvation. Paul is saying to
the “foolish Galatians,” God has released you from bondage to the law. Stop
focusing on your differences and realize that God has made you his dear
children and you are now one in Christ Jesus!
In this same letter Paul explains why Gentiles can call God their
Father:
But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman,
subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the
law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because you
Gentiles have become his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father. Now you are no longer a
slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, everything he has
belongs to you. (4:4-7)
What a great truth to embrace on Father’s Day! Through Christ we
are God’s children. We belong to Christ and we belong to one another. Forget
the beer and the cookout on the beach; it really does not get any better than
this!
As believers we can rejoice in the kindness of God, our Daddy, and
allow him to love us while we crawl up into his lap and enjoy his comforting
touch upon the hurt places of our hearts! Such tender love we need in order to
serve Christ well on the battlefield of life!
Life is not a cake walk. Evil clouds our world with demonic tragedy. There is unspeakable suffering and pain that our finite minds cannot yet comprehend. But God is not dead. He is alive. He loves us like a daddy loves his children. And when the bottom falls out, the best place for us to run is into the loving arms of the God we can call Daddy! + + +