If you have been around evangelical believers for any length
of time, you probably have heard someone say that Christianity is not a religion;
it’s a relationship. To clarify what that means, I would say religion is about
rites and rules; relationship is something else altogether. I have been
thinking about that quite a bit lately as it has been the focus of much of our
teaching at church (Kingdom Life, Muskegon).
To see what it means to have a relationship with God through
Jesus Christ, you can start by comparing how the concept of God as Father changed
from the Old Testament to the New Testament. God did call the nation of Israel
His children, implying He was their Father, but the Jews’ relationship seems to
have been focused on the God who shook Mt. Sanai or dwelt in a pillar of fire.
That doesn’t sound too cozy. Even after taking the promised land and building a
temple, their relationship was characterized by bloody sacrificial rites and
mediated by strictly regulated priests. Outside of the love poems in some
Psalms, there is little to suggest that the Jews saw their God as a warm,
welcoming Father.
Enter Jesus Christ, God’s one-and-only Son. The language
changes immediately. Where God may have been the Father in the past, now
He is my Father, or even more radical, our Father. Jesus demonstrated
what it means to have an intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father. Jesus
allied Himself with His Father so intimately that He could say things like, “I
and the Father are one.” That was astounding; so much so that the religious
leaders considered it grounds for stoning. Jesus asked the religious leaders at
one point at which of His good works they took such offense. They responded, “We
are not going to stone you concerning a good deed, but concerning blasphemy,
and because you, although you are a
man, make yourself to be God!” They
understood very well that He was talking about a relationship – a relationship
they did not share. (John 10:33-34)
Some might be tempted to argue that Jesus was the Son of
God, so clearly, He could relate to a Heavenly Father. You might be able to
sustain that line of reasoning if the entire New Testament was not filled with
references to believers’ status as children of a Heavenly Father. Jesus often
applied the plural personal pronoun to Father when He was teaching. “Therefore,
if you, although you are evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your
Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?” (Matthew 7:11).
The apostle Paul makes it undeniably clear in Romans, “For
you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption,
by whom we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 16 The
Spirit himself confirms to our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children,
also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer
together with him so that we
may also be glorified together with
him.” (Romans 8:15-17). Again, in Galatians 4:6-7 Paul writes, “And
because you are sons, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,
crying out, “Abba! (Father!),” 7 so
that you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, also an heir through
God.”
I highlight these two passages because of the use of the
Hebrew word, “Abba.” It was the most personal word a child could use. If it
were translated instead of transliterated from the Hebrew it would most likely
read, “Daddy.” It spoke of a loving, familial relationship. In what must have
been Jesus most tortured prayer, He used the intimate word for Father, “And he
said, “Abba, Father, all things are
possible for you! Take away this cup from me! Yet not what I will, but what you
will.” (Mark 14:36). What this
tells me is that when things are at their worst, we go to God for comfort and
counsel based on the intimacy of our relationship.
For an Old Testament Jew to get close to God, he had to
travel to Jerusalem, bring or buy an animal, and wait in line to have a priest
shed the animal’s blood. I doubt many were feeling an intimate connection at
that point. Maybe a few like Simeon
or Anna
who saw the coming Messiah from their place in the temple felt close to God,
but that was the exception. On this side of Calvary, believers have the privilege,
bought by the suffering Savior, to enter the very throne room of the King of
the Universe and expect an audience. And we know He will hear us. (1 John 5:14)
This is what it means to have a relationship as opposed to a
religion. Admittedly, there are “religious” rites: baptism and the Lord’s
Supper. These are meant to be a testimony to a relationship, not “religious”
means to an end. In a proper New Testament relationship, we feel the true
import of the love of our Heavenly Father as portrayed in the marital analogy
that runs throughout the words of the Old Testament prophets. We understand the
level of commitment by God when Moses says, “He will never leave you nor
forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6).
We should cherish the privilege of calling God, “Abba.”
Answer the question posed by the title of this article. If you can’t say “Abba,”
He’s not your Daddy.
