Abba, Father

John 14:3-5: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

These questions Thomas verbalizes to Jesus are not unique to him.

How do we get to Heaven? What is the real answer?

Oh the beauty in Jesus’ response:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Jesus came and claimed deity that was connected to the one who sent him. In love for him he went willingly to the cross to pay sin’s debt. And here lies the key, the solution to the dilemma of man listed above..

Jesus.

The way. The truth. The life. Belief in him and what he did provides access, and relationship with the Father. If we know him, we know his father, we have connection to truth, to salvation..

I came across a passage in Mark that impresses further upon me these simple truths..

When Jesus speaks to his Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, just hours before his death, he uses the word “Abba”. “Abba, Father” he says. An expression of such intimacy, such depth in relationship. John’s account of Jesus’ words reveal not only that he is the way unto salvation, but also that through him direct, intimate, meaningful relationship with the Father is possible..it’s all a part of the deal, it was part of the reason Jesus laid his life down and died a death full of more suffering and supernatural shame than man will ever know.

Oh the implications that this has for those who claim to know Christ. God doesn’t want our charity, our 5 minutes with him here and there. Jesus died, that we might live in communion, constant communion with a God we can now refer to as Father.

May we have zeal concerning our hatred for sin that so separates us from this blessed fellowship.

Jesus wants you,

All of you,

All of you.

All of me. Which provides a key to understanding why the “violent” inherit the kingdom..stay tuned.

Lord, remove from the temple of my heart all that competes with my affections, that you might reign unchallenged there.

Blessings.