Is the Father an Impersonal God?

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15)

Today’s big question: is the Father an impersonal God?

The answer to that question is a resounding NO.

When writing to the believers in Rome, Paul gave a very clear presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, including the very essence of the message and how it impacts one’s life as a Christian. Romans 6–8 reveals that even though we are struggling with a sin nature in a sin-cursed world, Christ has taken the penalty for our sin, so we should be dead to that sin. Not only that, but while we struggle with sin—as Paul did (Romans 7:15–20)—we who are in Christ Jesus are not condemned (Romans 8:1) because He has conquered sin.

In Roman 8, Paul goes much, much deeper. Not only are we saved from God’s wrath through Christ Jesus, but we no longer have the bondage of fear since we have been adopted into God’s family. The contrast in our position from sinner to saved through Christ Jesus is immense. Prior to Christ being our Savior, we were at war with our Creator (Romans 5:10). We had willingly and arrogantly rejected His authority for our own kingship. We were under His wrath and running from His authority. Christ has brought us peace with God.

God’s forgiveness does not mean that we have simply escaped His wrath. We have gone from enemies of God to being adopted into His family. God is not only the Father to us in a Trinitarian sense. Because we have been adopted into God’s family, we can call Him Father in the sense that He truly is our real and everlasting Father. How much more personal can you get? When we see this personal intimacy that the Father has with us, we get a sense of His intimacy with every aspect of His work.

God not only created, but revealed Himself to us in a personal way so that we could recognize Him as Creator. God not only judged us because of sin, but He first warned us what sin would do to our human condition and our relationship with Him. He not only judged our sin because of His holy nature, but redeemed us with a plan set in place from the foundation of the world. He not only cursed the creation due to sin, but is coming again to put all things right.

God the Father is truly our Father who loves us, and desires His glory to be reflected through us. The fact that we may be used as instruments of His glory as His adopted children is as intimate as it gets.

Today’s big idea: the Father is truly our Father.

What to pray: tell Him you love Him.