How can we call God ‘Father?’
Our Lord Jesus Christ called his heavenly Father “Abba” (an intimate word, like ‘Papa’) and instructed his disciples to do likewise. This is a tremendous privilege, for God is the sovereign Lord who appeared to the prophets of old, as to Isaiah: “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up… And one [seraph] called to another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’… And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips… for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!’” (Isa 6:1–5; see Q092, Q345).
Rightly, then, does the Apostle warn: “receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be grateful and so offer divine service to God acceptably, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:28–29; see Q405, Q410).
Yet, the Lord teaches that, by faith in Jesus Christ and by the grace of regeneration, fallen human beings truly become God’s children and may call upon him as “Abba, Father”: “to all who received him, he gave power to become children of God… born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Joh 1:12–13; see Q139, Q283); “and because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Gal 4:6; cf. Rom 8:15; Mrk 14:36; see Q243, Q411).
God is called Father, not Mother, as the origin and principle of all existence, an image intelligible in human experience, and as having supreme authority over all (see On the monarchy of the Father). Yet, the name ‘Father,’ properly applied to God who is spirit (Joh 4:24; see Q087, Q337), must never carry anthropomorphic, much less sexual, connotations: any teaching or suggestion of a physical encounter between God and the Ever-Virgin is offensive and blasphemous (see On the conception by the Holy Spirit).
