Who May Call God Father?

 

When I pray “Our Father” at the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer, I think of All the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have done for me and everyone else that we may call God “Father.” I recall the agony Jesus went through in the Garden of Getsemani after eating the Passover meal with His twelve apostles before He was arrested, “He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me” (Matthew 26:38 NKJV). “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44 NIV).

After His guilty verdict before Caiaphas the high priest, “The men who held Jesus mocked Him and beat Him. And having blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, “Prophesy! Who is the one who struck You?” And many other things they blasphemously spoke against Him” (Matthew 22:64-65 NKJV).

On Friday, “very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So, they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate” (Mark 15:1 NIV). “So, Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them; and he delivered Jesus, after he had scourged Him, to be crucified” (Mark 15:15 NKJV).

Scourging by the Romans is one of the cruelest punishments ever invented. The victim is stripped of clothing and tied to a pole. A Roman soldier stands on the victim’s right and left with a whip made of leather for the handle and multiply long thongs with metal balls tied to the ends of some and sheep bone to the others.

The metal bruises the skin, and the sheep bone cuts the skin. The solders alternate striking the victim with all their strength lacerating his skin with each blow. Not only striking the back, arms, and legs, but the thongs reach around and tears the chest and abdomen flesh sometimes allowing the bowl to come out. There is no limit to the times they may strike the victim, and they strike them until they think they are near death. When they are finished the bone in the back can be seen.

After scourging Jesus, the soldiers plated a crown of thorns and put it on His head and put a purple robe on Him and a rod in His hand, greeted Him, and spit on Him. Then they took the rod and struck the crown of thorns driving the thorns through His scalp to the skull piercing the many blood vessels in the scalp allowing blood to flow down upon His bruised and bloody face from the beating following the trial before Caiaphas the high priest on Thursday. Then the soldiers ripped the purple robe on which the blood from the lacerations had clotted from him opening them to start bleeding again. Blood was flowing from the top of His head to the sole of His feet. He was beaten beyond recognition.

In addition to all the punishment, they continued by placing the cross beam for the upright on His shoulder which weighed about seventy pounds and compelled Him to walk to Golgotha carrying His cross beam. When they got to Golgotha, they forced Him to lie down on His lacerated back in the dirt and stretched out His arms and nailed His hands to the cross beam.

Then the four soldiers lifted Jesus up and fastened the cross beam to the upright, pulled up His knees and nailed them to the upright. For Him to breath, Jesus had to pull himself up with His hands nailed to the cross and lift His body by pushing down on His feet nailed to the cross.

Jesus was crucified at nine o’clock in the morning and hung on the cross until three o’clock in the afternoon. He took our sins in His body to suffer and die for the punishment of our sins. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two” (Luke 23:44-45 NIV).

For the first time the Holy of Holies where the high priest only entered once a year on the Day of Atonement to offer the blood of a sacrificial animal for his sins and the sins of the people was revealed to the public. What the public saw in the Holy of Holies was only a type of what they were looking at on the cross, Jesus’ suffering and dying. He was offering one sacrifice for sins forever and sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified (Hebrews 10:12-14).

“And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mark15:34 NKJV). The words “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” are the same words David prayed in Psalm 22:1. Although it is David who writes about his own struggles, he describes the suffering caused by crucifixion centuries before it was invented by the Romans. Not only does Psalm 22 describe crucifixion but also describes the people mocking Jesus and casting lots for His garment.

Psalm 22 is a lament which is one of several types of psalms. A lament is easily recognized by the cry for help by the psalmist who is defeated and humiliated. He complains about what he is suffering. Gradually through prayer, he builds up his faith until he prays with absolute certainty that God has answered his prayer and he experiences victory and exhalation!   

Jesus’ humiliation and what looked to be His defeat began with His prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane followed by His trial before Caiaphas and the beatings, then the scourging, and His crucifixion on the cross. After Jesus said, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” He said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30).

No one killed Jesus neither Jew nor Gentile. Jesus said, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father” (John 10:17-18 NIV).

The Greek word translated “It is finished is “tetelestai” which is a verb in the perfect tense that started in the past and continued until Jesus spoke it from the cross. “. . . knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Peter 1:17-20 NKJV).

Jesus was buried on Friday before sundown. Passover began on the sabbath which started at sundown and ended at sundown the next day when the first day began which is our Sunday or Lord’s Day. Jesus was in the tomb three days, Friday, Saturday, and before sunrise on Sunday. It was then that His exultation and victory began. He arose early on the first day of the week proving that He was who He said He was, the Son of God.

Paul writes about both Jesus’ humiliation and exultation in Philippians 2:4-11 NKJV: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

When we hear the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection for the forgiveness of our sins, and we desire to turn from living a life of sin and death and to live a life of righteousness and life, we need more than the forgiveness of our sins. We need righteousness. The Good News is not only about forgiveness of our sins but also receiving Jesus’ righteousness. “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. 

There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:21-26 NIV).

After we are righteous by faith in Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit that brings about our adoption and by Him we cry for the first time, “Abba, Father (Romans 8:15 NIV). Before we were justified by faith in Jesus, we confessed with our mouth that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9), and to say that Jesus is our Lord is to say not my will, but your will be done. We are saying the same words Jesus said before He was arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will” (Mark 14:36 NKJV).

That confession is the beginning of God’s purpose for our life, being conformed into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29), Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” (Romans 5:10 NKJV).