1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:1–7, ESV)

After asking, Do I think God is my Father? the second question this text leads us to ask should be, Do I feel God is my Father? These verses tell us that God is discontent with only positioning us as his sons or us merely thinking we are his sons—he also wants us to feel we are his sons. He puts his Spirit in believers, and the Spirit within us cries out to God, “Abba, Father!”

Abba is an interesting word. It means something close to "daddy" or "papa" in our language. It is not part of the Greek Paul used to write this letter. It's Aramaic, the same language Jesus used when he prayed to God. Since we are made into God's sons, it makes sense that the Spirit would drive us to pray just like God the Son did.

Paul is saying that the Spirit residing within us cries out from within us to the Father as Abba or Daddy or Papa. In other words, the Spirit puts a Godward urge within us, which also sees, thinks, and feels that God is our good Father.

I understand this all sounds very mystical, but it is the thrust of the text. God the Spirit is within God's children, helping them cry out to God the Father. Even when our sinful flesh is in rebellion, the Holy Spirit is crying out. We cannot be happy running from God anymore because the Spirit constantly drives us toward him. He calls out to God for us, teaching and training us that we are His children.

A Different Brand of Relationship

God wants you to know that he is your Father, but also to experience him as your Father. I suspect this is part of the reason we are so profoundly impacted (and even hurt) by our fathers. We’re designed to have a good father, but no human dad can ultimately measure up. They are a mere shadow of the true definition we have in God of “Father.”

Jerry Seinfeld has a comedy bit comparing some dads to a day-old helium balloon floating around the house somewhere between the ceiling and the floor. [1] We get it. Some dads do not impress. But it’s not as though God searched the world for a term that could describe him and thought dads were the perfect image of what he would be. It’s that everyone needs God as their Father, and our longing for our earthly dad is meant to point us upward to our true Father in heaven.

In other words, our desire for our earthly fathers should serve as a signpost that we are designed for a relationship with God. Our pain and longing for our fathers might mean many things, but it certainly means God wants to father us.

And this Father-son relationship is, in some ways, scarier and less certain than the guardian-slave relationship we had while under the law. We can admit this: "there is a certain kind of perceived security that comes from being under the supervision of the law." [2] Under a legal code, a works-based way of doing things, we know how to react to our behavior—either in celebratory pride at how well we have done or self-flagellation that we have not measured up. It is all about performance. But God has something far better for us through the cross. He’s made us his children.

As our Father, God is unlike any teacher, leader, employer, or parent we have ever known. He is not grading us. He does not consider replacing us. He does not weigh whether to give us a raise or not. He does not fly off the handle at us. It’s a different type of relationship.

I was recently praying the Shepherd's psalm when the first line gave me pause: “The Lord is my Shepherd" (Ps. 23:1). This means that I am the sheep, and sheep are not usually thought of as the most intelligent, predatorial, or independent creatures. They are seen as fairly foolish, easy prey, and needing a shepherd to sustain them. As I prayed, it struck me that my heavenly Father is not expecting me to graduate from sheepdom on this side of eternity. Yet he loves me—foolish, clumsy me.

Can We Grasp This Truth?

Some have argued that divine fatherhood cannot be grasped by those who have had terrible human fathers—or absentee fathers. But we all know that ideal, good, and positive concepts can be formed by contrasting with imperfect, bad, and negative ones. People often get married while saying they will not repeat such-and-such a mistake their parents made. They have learned by contrast. [3]

We all have an ideal version of a Father in our mind's eye, and the point is that God the Father measures up. He is the perfect Father we have all desired. And the full Trinity is involved in making this real to us—the Father stands ready to parent you. The Son fulfilled the law and died for you. And the Spirit cries out from within you to your Heavenly Father.

The Son came to secure our objective legal status as God's children. The Spirit came to seal us and give us a subjective and experiential sense that we are God's kids (Eph. 1:13-14). [4]

I believe this truth is vital to our spiritual, emotional, and physical health. If the third person of the Triune godhead has been sent on a mission to help all of God's children feel they are God's children, it must be a key to so much of life right now.

Think about it, a strong feeling that God is our Father does nothing to alter our eternal destiny—that was secured by Christ's work. But the Spirit's work has significance in our lives today. When we live in an experience of God as our Father, we have rest. Our Father will provide. Our Father will lead. Our Father will guide. Our Father will satisfy. Our Father will defend. Our Father will back us up. Our Father will navigate every disappointment for his ultimate good in our lives. Our Father is the most important relationship we have.

Recently, my daughter needed my help finding the key ring with the key to the family car. I was the last to drive it, but the keys were not in any of the usual spots. As I scanned all the places it could be, I remembered using the house key late the night before when returning from a road trip with her. So I went to the front door, opened it, and found the keys. There they were, ready for anyone who fancied a visit to our house in the middle of the night. That frantic look around the house for the keys is similar to how humanity often spends itself—we desperately try to find the key to peace, joy, and satisfaction. And it is only found in enjoying God as your Father, which is only found when you go to the door of Christ with the key of the Holy Spirit! We can look everywhere, but what we need is found in the Father.

When you lean into this key truth, you, and the people around you, are protected. You are protected from looking for too much from others, things that only your Father in heaven can provide. And this protects others in your life from being crushed by the weight of expectations they could never bear.

The Spirit is trying to help us think of God this way. He calls out from within us, which is a reference to our prayer lives. A baby bird instinctively screeches for its mother, a young child calls out for his parents, and we call out to God. We call out because we have a sense of God's presence, and that sense is given to us by the Spirit. And we think of him as Abba, meaning we have confidence before him. The holy, righteous, almighty God has become our loving Father, and now we come boldly before him! [5] Do not neglect this cry within you. You cannot have true joy if you do.

[1] Seinfeld, Jerry. 2021. Is This Anything? Simon & Schuster. [2] Harmon, Matthew S. 2021. Galatians: Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary. Lexham Academic. ↩ [3] Stott, John R. W. 2008. Galatians: Experiencing the Grace of Christ. Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press. [4] Harmon, Matthew S. 2021. Galatians: Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary. Lexham Academic. [5] Keller, Timothy. 2013. Galatians For You. New Malden, England: Good Book Company.