“Calling God `Our Father'” -- Wisdom from Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 120

Joy Is Not Common in a Courtroom —Except In the Case of Adoption

“Calling God `Our Father’”

It is not uncommon to hear critics of the Protestant Reformation complain that Martin Luther and John Calvin, along with those who followed them throughout subsequent generations, were so preoccupied with a Christian’s legal standing before God (justification), that both the Lutheran and Reformed traditions downplayed the loving relationship that sinners enjoy with their creator as his adopted children. This charge usually arises from the nature of the biblical doctrine of justification as understood by those whose theological origins are found in the Reformation. Protestantism, in most of its forms, understood that the righteousness earned by Jesus through his personal obedience to God’s commandments is reckoned (or imputed) to a sinner through the means of faith, so that the sinner is given a right-standing before God and is therefore delivered from God’s wrath.

In emphasizing a Christian’s right-standing with God via imputation, critics contend that broadly conceived the Reformation’s approach to the Christian life falls squarely upon a person’s legal standing before God, and as a consequence, necessarily depreciates the personal relationship that a sinner enjoys with God downplaying Jesus’ role as a loving Savior. I once heard a Roman Catholic apologist put it like this: “Protestants use a courtroom model, while we [Roman Catholics] use a family model.” In other words, the Reformation emphasis on justification supposedly shifts the focus of the Christian life to being saved “from” God, instead of emphasizing being saved “for” God. If the doctrine of justification is the true watershed doctrine by which the church stands or falls, then God is primarily understood as a stern judge, not as a loving father. The Christian’s standing before God is essentially legal, not familial.

This would be a powerful argument, if it were true. On the Reformed side, both John Calvin and the Westminster Confession of Faith speak of the importance of the biblical doctrine of adoption (wherein we who were estranged from God because of our sin in Adam become full-fledged members of God’s family) because God does not justify individuals and leave them on their own without uniting them to himself through Christ in a bond effected by the Holy Spirit. God incorporates all justified sinners into the body of Christ as a covenant community (the church) and then grants them access to the very throne of God (1 John 2:1-2; Romans 8:26-27). All justified sinners are the adopted children of God with all the rights and privileges thereof (legal), and who can now address the Holy God as their loving “father.”

Calvin frequently speaks of our adoption throughout the Institutes (i.e., 3.2.11), while the Westminster Confession of Faith devotes an entire chapter (XII) to this topic between discussions of justification and sanctification. The critical point that Calvin and the Westminster Confession are making is that once the sinner is justified, that same sinner now enjoys a wonderful new status as a child of God. The sinner, who was formerly estranged from God, is now a full member of God’s household, which is his church (cf. Ephesians 2:11-17). This new right-standing (justification) grants all the children of God access to his throne, and this unfettered access to the presence of God is secured by the Holy Spirit, who ensures that we as God’s children are protected, preserved, given gifts of the Spirit, and even chastened as needed.

The Heidelberg Catechism does not speak of the doctrine of adoption per se, but as something implied by the very first petition of the Lord’s Prayer. In Question 120, the Catechism poses this question, “Why has Christ commanded us to address God as `our Father’? A. To awaken in us at the very beginning of our prayer what should be basic to our prayer—a childlike reverence and trust that through Christ God has become our Father, and will much less refuse to give us what we ask in faith than will our parents refuse us the things of this life.”

Apart from union with Jesus Christ, we cannot speak of God as our Father, but only as our creator and judge. As our creator and judge, God remains distant, even threatening to us because of our sins. There is no intimacy with God, and we dare not even approach him. But once we are justified and given a right-standing based upon Jesus Christ’s perfect and faultless righteousness which has been reckoned to us through faith, God is no longer our judge. He is now “our Father.” His is our Father, because God has already placed Christ under his judgment (the cross) so that we need never fear facing his wrath. Jesus Christ has borne that wrath we deserve in his own flesh. He was judged for us and in our place. Apart from the cross, God remains our judge. Under the cross, he becomes “our Father.”

With our legal-standing firmly established, and assured that God is no longer angry with us because of our sins, we can now approach him without fear. This is why when Jesus instructs his people regarding how to pray, the very first thing he tells us is that God is to be addressed as “our Father.” This injunction implies that all those justified are now adopted into God’s family (only Jesus Christ is the natural and eternal son of God). I would remind the Catholic apologist that, “yes, we do indeed enjoy a familial relationship with God,” before asking him, “where and how did the adoption into God’s family take place?” The proper answer: “I became God’s adopted son in the heavenly court when Christ’s righteousness was imputed to me through faith.” Our legal standing is the only proper basis for our familial relationship. Adoption is granted by a court of law, not a familial desire or through a mere contract.

The Heidelberg Catechism depicts this relationship in the most intimate of terms. If God is our Father, then by implication we are his children. We revere our God. We can trust him in all things. Because we do, we can approach him confidently in prayer, knowing that our heavenly Father hears us, and that he delights in our feeble efforts to communicate with him.

But the only way we, as sinners, can become the adopted sons and daughters of God, is through the merits of Jesus Christ received through faith. His death for our sins and his perfect righteousness grants us a right-standing before God. Once this right-standing has been granted, the door to heaven is wide open. As God’s adopted sons and daughters, all we need to do is enter his presence and ask him for whatever we need, knowing that he hears us because of Jesus and answers us according to his will. After all, we are his adopted children and he is our heavenly Father.