“God the Father” -- Romans 8:12-17

Of all the attributes of God that we can mention, my favorite is God the Father.

I was blessed to have a good father. My dad wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but Dad did have a lot of good attributes. I would take it as a complement for someone to say I remind them of him.

Because of that relationship, I always had an affinity toward the Fatherhood of God. There are mentions of God as Father in the Old Testament, with Malachi making the most direct reference to it. But it’s in the New Testament that we are brought the full impact of God as Father.

When Jesus taught the Model Prayer, He began it with the words, “Our Father.” Jesus constantly refers to God as His Father, and He taught us to come to God as children. John wrote in John 1 that God makes us His children, and the Father-child relationship was central to John’s theology.

Paul brought the familiarity of God as Father to us in his letters with the use of the phrase, “Abba.” Jesus uses it in His prayer at Gethsemane, and Paul mentions it twice, once in Galatians and in this passage we look at today. The term “abba” is the familiar term for father in Aramaic. It is the equivalent of what we call our father. For me, my dad was called “Daddy” when I was young, “Dad” as I got older. Some like to call their father “Papa” or “Pops.” Laura had some friends who called their dad “Papi.” Regardless, the idea of so personal a relationship with the God of all creation to be called “Dad” by us expresses to me a deeper love than I can ever truly understand.

My grasp of God as Father really expanded as I became a father. Watching my children grow, knowing how much I loved them and wanted the best for them, wanting to protect them and guide them gave me an awareness of God’s own feelings towards me and His other children.

God the Father is the closest we can come to Him, and for that reason it is the attribute of His that I admire and appreciate the most.

Central Truth: We praise God because He is Father, and we thank Him because He makes us His children.

Because God is Father:

We are led by the Spirit (12-14)

Every parent wants to give their children their best. God’s greatest gift to us is in making us His children. The way He does it is through the atonement found in Christ and in the presence of the Holy Spirit within us.

As Paul is writing his letter to the Romans, he has been giving them a lesson on his theology, on his understanding of God, Christ and the Holy Spirit. Paul teaches the most about what it means to be spiritual people the most in this letter. He has spent most of chapters 1-8 to teach the wonder of God’s gift of salvation and how it should and does change us and our world. He spends the first part of Chapter 8 writing about the difference between living in the flesh and living in the Spirit. In verses 5-8, Paul speaks about the life lived according to the sinful nature. In verses 9-11, he speaks about the life lived under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

As he comes to verses 12-14, he tells us that God’s gift of His Spirit to us obligates us to live according to that Spirit. Understand that the obligation is out of a sense of, “I don’t really want to, but I have to.” It’s not like going to work each day at a job you hate but have to do to put food on the table and a roof over your head. Instead, it is an obligation in the sense that we have been given a great gift, and the use of that precious gift in an appropriate manner obligates us. We don’t want to misuse the gift; we are obligated—we owe it to ourselves and to God—to use the gift in the way it was intended.

Our obligation is to live according to that Spirit that indwells us. We embrace the Spirit, putting to death the misdeed of the body. We embrace the Spirit, letting its fruit take root in us and find expression through us. We allow the Spirit to bring to our remembrance the words and truths of Jesus, and we allow that Spirit to lead us as we learn to say no to self and yes to Him.

The beauty of God’s gift of the Spirit to us is that He enables us to live according to the Spirit. The Spirit Himself is alive in us, working in us, transforming us, changing us, making us holy and more like the Father each day. Like a child growing from infancy to adulthood, so we too are growing slowly but surely in our spiritual relationship with God.

The glory of God giving us the gift of His Spirit is a cause for us to give Him great thanksgiving.

We are given the Spirit to confirm our new relationship with God (15)

The world in which Paul lived was one of slavery. It was a familiar way of life throughout the Roman Empire. So many slaves lived out their lives never knowing the freedom that you and I take for granted.

There were rare occasions, though, when a Roman citizen might not only give a slave freedom, but adopt that slave to become the legal son and heir. Generally, the practice took place when a Roman was growing older and was childless. He would have a favored slave, a younger man, and, through the adoption, would transform the slave into a child, an heir and a Roman citizen. Such an elevation must have seemed like a miracle to the one who was once a slave.

I wonder if Paul had that in mind as he wrote the words recorded in v. 15. Paul writes, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’” (v. 15).

Before God saved us through His Son Jesus, we were enslaved to sin. The old stories about a person selling their soul to the devil makes for good literature, but bad theology. The Bible very clearly states that the moment we sin, we die to our relationship with God and we become the slaves of our sinful nature. Satan owns the soul of ever sinner.

That’s what the idea of redemption is. Remember green stamps? I was young when we got them, but I remember that Mom would go to the grocery store, and she would receive stamps from the grocery store in relation to how much she spent that day at the store. I remember the night before going to the redemption center that we’d get sponges and glue the stamps into the books. Then we’d take those stamps and redeem them for items at the redemption center.

The idea of redemption is that we substituted something of value for something else of value, and, using that substitute, we could purchase items at the redemption center and take them home. That which was purchased became ours.

The same idea is present in the atoning work of Christ. Our souls belonged to Satan because of the sins we had committed. But Jesus went to Calvary, where He shed His blood for our sins, and, when God reached out to us, He saved us, redeeming us from Satan by the atoning work of His Son. Jesus paid the price, and we were transformed from slaves to sin into children of God.

Kim tells me that her mother was raised by a father who was more formal than most other parents. When Kim would go to her grandfather’s house for a visit, it was very much a case of children are to be seen, not heard. I’ve seen movies about such parents, read books about such. The distant, formal father who dealt with his children at arm’s length. Such men would never allow themselves to be called “Dad.” To him, he would insist on being called “Father.”

That is not the case with God. Paul writes that we are given a Spirit of sonship, and that this Spirit allows us to cry out to God not as “Father,” in a formal, distant sense. No, we are allowed to call Him “Dad.” The significance of this statement is that it indicates how intimately God is involved in our lives, shows how much He cares for us and wants what is best for us.

There are so many stories about dads and their children, some personal and some learned from books. The tales of Theodore Roosevelt and his children are fascinating, and stories about Abraham Lincoln and his sons are legend. I remember times with each of my children, and they are cherished memories for me. I remember times with my dad, times that are shared by a child and his loving dad, and I am so grateful.

But all that pales in comparison to the knowledge that we have that same type of relationship with the God of the universe. We are given the privilege of entering into His presence, talking with Him as a child and a loving parent. I realize that not everyone had the luxury of a dad who was caring and loving. But I also know that we all have an idea of what it’s like. And the Bible lets us know that God is that kind of father. He’s our dad.

And because God is Dad, we give Him praise.

We have the testimony of the Spirit (16-17)

Paul is quick to let us know that the idea of God the Father is not something of his own making. No, Paul tells us that the Spirit that God has given us tells us Himself that we are God’s children.

Think of it this way. Let’s suppose we read something in the newspaper or magazine about something interesting about someone we admire. Let’s say we are reading a review of a book written by a favorite author. The review is telling us that a book has a hidden message, that the author is subtly telling us a message that is deeper than the surface of the story. The review speaks about symbolism and themes to the point that we begin to question what it is exactly that we read from our favorite author.

Now, let’s suppose that we are in a personal relationship with the author. Let’s suppose that we have his or her telephone number, and that we are free to call the author at any time and speak about any subject. So, we call the author. We tell the author what we just read about the book. As we speak to the author, the author either confirms or denies what the reviewer had written.

The significance of this cannot be lost on us. We can let someone who has third hand knowledge about something try to tell us the truth, or we can go directly to the source and ask them. What Paul is telling us is that we have first-hand information on what is and isn’t true, and the Spirit of God is telling us that we are God’s children, and as His children, we are joint heirs with Christ.

I’ve never really focused on the idea of being an heir with Christ. I know it’s a significant thing, but I’ve always focused more on what it means to live for Christ each day. Nevertheless, we are missing out if we do not understand that we are joint heirs with Christ. What is our inheritance? There is the assurance of life eternal, of a life spent forever in the presence of Jesus. There is the assurance of being transformed into a glorified person, free of sin and all its consequences. As heirs, we will be rid of all aches and pains, all sorrows and doubts.

I think one of the reasons why I’ve never really stressed this issue of being an heir is because my understanding is so small compared to all that that inheritance entails. There is so much more than I can imagine that God has in store for us when we meet Him face-to-face. Gone will be the glass darkly Paul references in 1 Corinthians 13; when that great day occurs, we will no longer know in part, but we shall know in full.

Because God has given us the Spirit that testifies to us about the truth of our relationship with God, we can give God praise and thanksgiving.

Conclusion

I’ve been told that there is a special relationship between children and their dads. There’s something special with moms, too. But there is something unique about the relationship with our dads.

As we enter this Thanksgiving season, let us remember to give praise and thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father. Let us tell Him how much He means to us. And let us rededicate ourselves to being the children He wants us to become.