Who’s Your Daddy?

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.