Abun Dbashmaya

Say that again? Pronounced: Aboon, Deh-bash-ma-yah. This is the Aramaic for “Our Father, in heaven.” These are the first words of the prayer that Jesus, shown to be the eternal Son of the Father in the Spirit by the resurrection of the dead and our brother sharing in our humanity (Rom. 1:3-4), invites all of us to pray with Him to our Father in heaven (Math. 6:9). That little word “our” includes all mankind and excludes no one. Our triune God loves all mankind and has accomplished saving, not condemning, all of us in Jesus Christ (John 3:16-17). By pure grace, we, the human race, are present in our divine Lord and glorified Brother, as He has known, is known, and forever will be known by the Father in the Spirit (Luke 10:22). Jesus Christ has freely and graciously included us in the relationship that He has eternally enjoyed with the Father and Holy Spirit. By mankind being in union with the resurrected Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit are in us as well (John 17:20-21 and John 16:7). It is in our union in Jesus that we can know and have fellowship with our triune God and we also are known by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

There are no more barriers for us to freely talk to our Father in heaven. The separating barriers of sin and death have been broken down in Jesus Christ, who is at once Son of God and Son of Man. He came willingly from the Father, conceived by the Holy Spirit, in person, in our humanity, to fix and make right once and for all what we (mankind) rejected and ran away from since Adam. Jesus endured the sufferings of all of mankind’s anger and hatred on the cross because He looked forward to restoring us all into His loving relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit (Heb. 12:1). It is through Jesus Christ and His life, ministry, death, resurrection and ascension that all mankind has been graciously restored to a right relationship with our triune God.

It is amazing and breath-taking that our triune God has planned for us and all mankind to be adopted as children of God in Jesus Christ even before the cosmos was created out of nothing previously existent (Eph. 1:3-6). This was the gracious and loving initiative the Father, Son and Holy Spirit had in mind before all creation.

Not only do we all have free access to the relationship the Father and Holy Spirit enjoy through Jesus, we are adopted children of God in Christ. As adopted children we may approach our loving Father without any fear and are actually asked to confidently approach Him by the grace and faith of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit (Heb. 4:16).

Equally wonderful is that the point of contact for all of mankind with the transcendent triune God in the Most High Realm, who eternally lives in uncreated light and with abundant uncreated time and space (heaven) is established in Jesus Christ. He is our man or glorified brother on our side and the beloved Son of the Father in the Spirit on the triune God side. In Him we all have our life and being (Acts 17:28) and graciously share in His relationship He has enjoyed before all time with the Father and Spirit.

This all is so good, we may respond to the Spirit of Christ by calling out, “Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6). This is actually echoing and praying with the intercessions Jesus Christ makes for us (Heb. 7:25). Yes, Jesus Christ in the Spirit prays for all of us continually to the Father without ceasing (Rom. 8:34). Even when words fail us, which they often do, we have a Helper (John 14:16), the Holy Spirit, who is present in Jesus and brings the sounds we make before our Father (Rom. 8:26).

So, let’s respond to the beckoning of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in us by saying: “Our Father in heaven . . .”

(Part 2 of 7 will follow)