This exhortation was given at King’s Cross Church (Moscow, ID) on June 19, A.D. 2022.

J. I. Packer once wrote that if you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father.^[1] For Packer, the fatherhood of God and adoption in Christ are the sum of New Testament religion. Christians are people who have God as their Father.

By nature, this is not so. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he explains that we were once dead in our trespasses and sins and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, made us alive by uniting us to Christ in His death and resurrection and adopting us in His Son.

You have been adopted in Christ, and so you too hear “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” in the waters of baptism.

You have been adopted in Christ, and so you too pray to God saying, “Our Father who art in heaven…”

You have been adopted in Christ, and so you too can cry out “Abba! Father!” as a son and heir through God. And the privileges go on and on…

You have been adopted into the family of God, and you have been made one with the Father in His Son, bound together by the Spirit’s love.

God as your Father ought to be at the forefront of all your prayer, worship, and work. It ought to be the predominant image in your mind when you hear the word “God.” To miss this is to miss the heart of the gospel. As the Apostle John exclaimed, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are” (1 Jn. 3:1).

So do you truly know God as your Father? There is only way to Him, and it is through His Son. And this is Good News for you today.

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^[1] J. I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 201.