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- C. H. Spurgeon - Adoption: The Spirit and the Cry
"Adoption: The Spirit and the Cry" by C. H. Spurgeon
 "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his
Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." - Galatians 4:6
We do not find the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity set forth in
Scripture in formal terms, such as those which are employed in the
Athanasian creed; but the truth is continually taken for granted, as
if it were a fact well known in the church of God. If not laid down
very often, in so many words, it is everywhere held in solution, and
it is mentioned incidentally, in connection with other truths in a
way which renders it quite as distinct as if it were expressed in a
set formula. In many passages it is brought before us so prominently
that we must be wilfully blind if we do not note it. In the present
chapter, for instance, we have distinct mention of each of the three
divine Persons. "God," that is the Father, "sent forth the Spirit,"
that is the Holy Spirit; and he is here called "the Spirit of his
Son." Nor have we the names alone, for each sacred person is
mentioned as acting in the work of our salvation: see the fourth
verse, "God sent forth his Son."; then note the fifth verse, which
speaks of the Son as redeeming them that were under the law; and
then the text itself reveals the Spirit as coming into the hearts of
believers, and crying Abba, Father.
Now, inasmuch, as you have not
only the mention of the separate names, but also certain special
operations ascribed to each, it is plain that you have here the
distinct personality of each. Neither the Father, the Son, nor the
Spirit can be an influence, or a mere form of existence, for each
one acts in a divine manner, but with a special sphere and a
distinct mode of operation. The error of regarding a certain divine
person as a mere influence, or emanation, mainly assails the Holy
Ghost; but its falseness is seen in the words—"crying, Abba,
Father": an influence could not cry; the act requires a person to
perform it. Though we may not understand the wonderful truth of the
undivided Unity, and the distinct personality of the Triune Godhead,
yet, nevertheless, we see the truth revealed in the Holy Scriptures:
and, therefore, we accept it as a matter of faith.
The divinity of each of these sacred persons is also to be gathered
from the text and its connection. We do not doubt tee the loving
union of all in the work of deliverance. We reverence the Father,
without whom we had not been chosen or adopted: the Father who hath
begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. We love and reverence the Son by whose most
precious blood we have been redeemed, and with whom we are one in a
mystic and everlasting union: and we adore and love the divine
Spirit, for it is by him that we have been regenerated, illuminated,
quickened, preserved, and sanctified; and it is through him that we
receive the seal and witness within our hearts by which we are
assured that we are indeed the sons of God. As God said of old, "Let
us make man in our image, after our likeness, even so do the divine
Persons take counsel together, and all unite in the new creation of
the believer. We must not fail to bless, adore, and love each one of
the exalted Persons, but we must diligently bow in lowliest
reverence before the one God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. "Glory be
to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in
the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen."
Having noted this most important fact, let us come to the text
itself, hoping to enjoy the doctrine of the Trinity while we are
discoursing upon our adoption, in which wonder of grace they each
have a share. Under the teaching of the divine Spirit may we be
drawn into sweet communion with the Father through his Son Jesus
Christ, to his glory and to our benefit.
Three things are very clearly set forth in my text: the first is the
dignity of believers—"ye are sons;" the second is the consequent
indwelling of the Holy Ghost—"because ye are sons, God hath sent
forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts;" and the third is the
filial cry—crying, "Abba, Father."
I. First, then, THE DIGNITY OF BELIEVERS. Adoption gives us the
rights of children, regeneration gives us the nature of children: we
are partakers of both of these, for we are sons.
And let us here observe that this sonship is a gift of grace
received by faith. We are not the sons of God by nature in the sense
here meant. We are in a sense "the offspring God" by nature, but
this is very different from the sonship here described, which is the
peculiar privilege of those who are born again. The Jews claimed to
be of the family of God, but as their privileges came to them by the
way of their fleshly birth, they are likened to Ishmael, who was
born after the flesh, but who was cast out as the son of the
bondwoman, and compelled to give way to the son of the promise. We
have a sonship which does not come to us by nature, for we are
"born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God." Our sonship comes by promise, by the operation
of God as a special gift to a peculiar seed, set apart unto the Lord
by his own sovereign grace, as Isaac was. This honour and privilege
come to us, according to the connection of our text, by faith. Note
well the twenty-sixth verse of the preceding chapter (Gal. 3:26):
"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." As
unbelievers we know nothing of adoption. While we are under the law
as self-righteous we know something of servitude, but we know
nothing of sonship. It is only after that faith has come that we
cease to be under the schoolmaster, and rise out of our minority to
take the privileges of the sons of God.
Faith worketh in us the spirit of adoption, and our consciousness of
sonship, in this wise: first, it brings us justification. Verse
twenty-four of the previous chapter says, "The law was our
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by
faith." An unjustified man stands in the condition of a criminal,
not of a child: his sin is laid to his charge, he is reckoned as
unjust and unrighteous, as indeed he really is, and he is therefore
a rebel against his king, and not a child enjoying his father's
love. But when faith realizes the cleansing power of the blood of
atonement, and lays hold upon the righteousness of God in Christ
Jesus, then the justified man becomes a son and a child.
Justification and adoption always go together. "Whom he called them
he also justified," and the calling is a call to the Father's house,
and to a recognition of sonship. Believing brings forgiveness and
justification through our Lord Jesus; it also brings adoption, for
it is written, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."
Faith brings us into the realization of our adoption in the next
place by setting us free from the bondage of the law. "After that
faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." When we
groaned under a sense of sin, and were shut up by it as in a prison,
we feared that the law would punish us for our iniquity, and our
life was made bitter with fear. Moreover, we strove in our own blind
self-sufficient manner to keep that law, and this brought us into
yet another bondage, which became harder and harder as failure
succeeded to failure: we sinned and stumbled more and more to our
soul's confusion. But now that faith has come we see the law
fulfilled in Christ, and ourselves justified and accepted in him:
this changes the slave into a child, and duty into choice. Now we
delight in the law, and by the power of the Spirit we walk in
holiness to the glory of God. Thus it is that by believing in Christ
Jesus we escape from Moses, the taskmaster, and come to Jesus, the
Saviour; we cease to regard God as an angry Judge and view him as
our loving Father. The system of merit and command, and punishment
and fear, has given way to the rule of grace, gratitude, and love,
and this new principle of government is one of the grand privileges
of the children of God.
Now, faith is the mark of sonship in all who have it, whoever they
may be, for "ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus
Gal. 3:26). If you are believing in Jesus, whether you are Jew or
Gentile, bond or free, you are a son of God. If you have only
believed in Christ of late, and have but for the past few weeks been
able to rest in his great salvation, yet, beloved, now are you a
child of God. It is not an after privilege, granted to assurance or
growth in grace; it is an early blessing, and belongs to him who has
the smallest degree of faith, and is no more than a babe in grace.
If a man be a believer in Jesus Christ his name is in the
register-book of the great family above, "for ye are all the
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." But if you have no faith,
no matter what zeal, no matter what works, no matter what knowledge,
no matter what pretensions to holiness you may possess, you are
nothing, and your religion is vain. Without faith in Christ you are
as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, for without faith it is
impossible to please God. Faith then, wherever it is found, is the
infallible token of a child of God, and its absence is fatal to the
claim.
This according to the apostle is further illustrated by our baptism,
for in baptism, if there be faith in the soul, there is an open
putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ. Read the twenty-seventh verse:
"For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on
Christ." In baptism you professed to be dead to the world and you
were therefore buried into the name of Jesus: and the meaning of
that burial, if it had any right meaning to you, was that you
professed yourself henceforth to be dead to everything but Christ,
and henceforth your life was to be in him, and you were to be as one
raised from the dead to newness of life. Of course the outward form
avails nothing to the unbeliever, but to the man who is in Christ it
is a most instructive ordinance. The spirit and essence of the
ordinance lie in the soul's entering into the symbol, in the man's
knowing not alone the baptism into water, but the baptism into the
Holy Ghost and into fire: and as many of you as know that inward
mystic baptism into Christ know also that henceforth you have put on
Christ and are covered by him as a man is by his garment. Henceforth
you are one in Christ, you wear his name, you live in him, you are
saved by him, you are altogether his. Now, if you are one with
Christ, since he is a son, you are sons also. If you have put on
Christ God seeth you not in yourself but in Christ, and that which
belongeth unto Christ belongeth also unto you, for if you be
Christ's then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the
promise. As the Roman youth when he came of age put on the toga, and
was admitted to the rights of citizenship, so the putting on of
Christ is the token of our admission into the position of sons of
God. Thus are we actually admitted to the enjoyment of our glorious
heritage. Every blessing of the covenant of grace belongs to those
who are Christ's, and every believer is in that list. Thus, then,
according to the teaching of the passage, we receive adoption by
faith as the gift of grace.
Again, adoption comes to us by redemption. Read the passage which
precedes the text: "But when the fullness of the time was come, God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of
sons." Beloved, prize redemption, and never listen to teaching which
would destroy its meaning or lower its importance. Remember that ye
were not redeemed with silver and gold, but with the precious blood
of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish. You were under the law, and
subject to its curse, for you had broken it most grievously, and you
were subject to its penalty, for it is written, "the soul that
sinneth, it shall die"; and yet again, "cursed is everyone that
continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law
to do them." You were also under the terror of the law, for you
feared its wrath; and you were under its irritating power, for often
when the commandment came, sin within you revived and you died. But
now you are redeemed from all; as the Holy Ghost saith, "Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us:
for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Now
ye are not under the law, but under grace, and this because Christ
came under the law and kept it both by his active and his passive
obedience, fulfilling all its commands and bearing all its penalty
on your behalf and in your room and stead. Henceforth you are the
redeemed of the Lord, and enjoy a liberty which comes by no other
way but that of the eternal ransom. Remember this; and whenever you
feel most assured that you are a child of God, praise the redeeming
blood; whenever your heart beats highest with love to your great
Father, bless the "firstborn among many brethren," who for your
sakes came under the law, was circumcised, kept the law in his life,
and bowed his head to it in his death, honouring, and magnifying the
law, and making the justice and righteousness of God to be more
conspicuous by his life than it would have been by the holiness of
all mankind, and his justice to be more fully vindicated by his
death that it would have been if all the world of sinners had been
cast into hell. Glory be to our redeeming Lord, by whom we have
received the adoption!
Again, we further learn from the passage that we now enjoy the
privilege of sonship. According to the run of the passage the
apostle means not only that we are children, but that we are
full-grown sons. "Because ye are sons," means,—because the time
appointed of the Father is come, and you are of age, and no longer
under tutors and governors. In our minority we are under the
schoolmaster, under the regimen of ceremonies, under types, figures,
shadows, learning our A B C by being convinced of sin; but when
faith is come we are no longer under the schoolmaster, but come to a
more free condition. Till faith comes we are under tutors and
governors, like mere boys, but after faith we take our rights as
sons of God. The Jewish church of old was under the yoke of the law;
its sacrifices were continual and its ceremonies endless; new moons
and feasts must be kept; jubilees must be observed and pilgrimages
made: in fact, the yoke was too heavy for feeble flesh to bear. The
law followed the Israelite into every corner, and dealt with him
upon every point: it had to do with his garments, his meat, his
drink, his bed, his board, and everything about him: it treated him
like a boy at school who has a rule for everything. Now that faith
has come we are full grown sons, and therefore we are free from the
rules which govern the school of the child. We are under law to
Christ, even as the full-grown son is still under the discipline of
his father's house; but this is a law of love and not of fear, of
grace and not of bondage. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage." Return not to the beggarly elements of a
merely outward religion, but keep close to the worship of God in
spirit and in truth, for this is the liberty of the children of God.
Now, by faith we are no more like to bond-servants. The apostle says
that "the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a
servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutor and governors
till the time appointed of the father." But beloved, now are ye the
sons of God, and ye have come to your majority: now are ye free to
enjoy the honours and blessings of the Father's house. Rejoice that
the free spirit dwells within you, and prompts you to holiness; this
is a far superior power to the merely external command and the whip
of threatening. Now no more are you in bondage to outward forms, and
rites, and ceremonies; but the Spirit of God teacheth you all
things, and leads you into the inner meaning and substance of the
truth.
Now, also, saith the apostle, we are heirs—"Wherefore thou art no
more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through
Christ." No man living has ever realised to the full what this
means. Believers are at this moment heirs, but what is the estate?
It is God himself! We are heirs of God! Not only of the promises, of
the covenant engagements, and of all the blessings which belong to
the chosen seed, but heirs of God himself. "The Lord is my portion,
saith my soul." "This God is our God for ever and ever." We are not
only, heirs to God, to all that he gives to his firstborn, but heirs
of God himself. David said, "The Lord is the portion of mine
inheritance and of my cup." As he said to Abraham, "Fear not
Abraham, I am thy shield and thine exceeding great reward," so saith
he to every man that is born of the Spirit. These are his own
words—"I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people."
Why, then, 0 believer, are you poor? All riches are yours. Why then
are you sorrowful? The ever-blessed God is yours. Why do you
tremble? Omnipotence waits to help you. Why do you distrust? His
immutability will abide with you even to the end, and make his
promise steadfast. All things are yours, for Christ is yours, and
Christ is God's; and though there be some things which at present
you cannot actually grasp in your hand, nor even see with your eye,
to wit, the things which are laid up for you in heaven, yet still by
faith you can enjoy even these, for "he hath raised us up together,
and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ," "in whom also
we have obtained an inheritance," so that "our citizenship is in
heaven." We enjoy even now the pledge and earnest of heaven in the
indwelling of the Holy Ghost. Oh what privileges belong to those who
are the sons of God!
Once more upon this point of the believer's dignity, we are already
tasting one of the inevitable consequences of being the sons of God.
What are they? One of them is the opposition of the children of the
bondwoman. No sooner had the apostle Paul preached the liberty of
the saints, than straightway there arose certain teachers who said,
"This will never do; you must be circumcised, you must come under
the law." Their opposition was to Paul a token that he was of the
free woman, for behold the children of the bondwoman singled him out
for their virulent opposition. You shall find, dear brother, that if
you enjoy fellowship with God, if you live in the spirit of
adoption, if you are brought near to the Most High, so as to be a
member of the divine family, straightway all those who are under
bondage to the law will quarrel with you. Thus saith the apostle,
"As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was
born after the Spirit, even so it is now." The child of Hagar was
found by Sarah mocking Isaac, the child of promise. Ishmael would
have been glad to have shown his enmity to the hated heir by blows
and personal assault, but there was a superior power to check him,
so that he could get no further than "mocking." So it is just now.
There have been periods in which the enemies of the gospel have gone
a great deal further than mocking, for they have been able to
imprison and burn alive the lovers of the gospel; but now, thank
God, we are under his special protection as to life and limb and
liberty, and are as safe as Isaac was in Abraham's house. They can
mock us, but they cannot go any further, or else some of us would be
publicly gibbeted. But trials of cruel mockings are still to be
endured, our words are twisted, our sentiments are misrepresented,
and all sorts of horrible things are imputed to us, things which we
know not, to all which we would reply with Paul, "Am I therefore
become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" This is the old way
of the Hagarenes, the child after the flesh is still doing his best
to mock him that is born after the Spirit. Do not be astonished,
neither be grieved in the least degree when this happens to any of
you, but let this also turn to the establishment of your confidence
and to the confirmation of your faith in Christ Jesus, for he told
you of old, "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own:
but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of
the world, therefore the world hateth you."
II. Our second head is THE CONSEQUENT INDWELLING OF THE HOLY GHOST
IN BELIEVERS;—"God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts." Here is a divine act of the Father. The Holy Ghost
proceedeth from the Father and the Son: and God hath sent him forth
into your hearts. If he had only come knocking at your hearts and
asked your leave to enter, he had never entered, but when Jehovah
sent him he made his way, without violating your will, but yet with
irresistible power. Where Jehovah sent him there he will abide, and
go no more out for ever. Beloved, I have no time to dwell upon the
words, but I want you to turn them over in your thoughts, for they
contain a great depth. As surely as God sent his Son into the world
to dwell among men, so that his saints beheld his glory, the "glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," so
surely hath God sent forth the Spirit to enter into men's hearts,
there to take up his residence that in him also the glory of God may
be revealed. Bless and adore the Lord who hath sent you such a
visitor as this.
Now, note the style and title under which the Holy Spirit comes to
us: he comes as the Spirit of Jesus. The words are "the Spirit of
his Son," by which is not meant the character and disposition of
Christ, though that were quite true, for God sends this unto his
people, but it means the Holy Ghost. Why, then, is he called the
Spirit of his Son, or the Spirit of Jesus? May we not give these
reasons? It was by the Holy Ghost that the human nature of Christ
was born of the Virgin. By the Spirit our Lord was attested at his
baptism, when the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove, and
abode upon him. In him the Holy Spirit dwelt without measure,
anointing him for his great work, and by the Spirit he was anointed
with the oil of gladness above his fellows. The Spirit was also with
him, attesting his ministry by signs and wonders. The Holy Ghost is
our Lord's great gift to the church; it was after his ascension that
he bestowed the gifts of Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit descended
upon the church to abide with the people of God for ever. The Holy
Ghost is the Spirit of Christ, because, also, he is Christ's witness
here below; for "there are three that bear witness on earth, the
Spirit, and the water, and the blood." For these and many other
reasons he is called "the Spirit of his Son," and it is he who comes
to dwell in believers. I would urge you very solemnly and gratefully
to consider the wondrous condescension which is here displayed. God
himself the Holy Ghost, takes up his residence in believers. I never
know which is the more wonderful, the incarnation of Christ or the
indwelling of the Holy Ghost. Jesus dwelt here for awhile in human
flesh untainted by sin, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from
sinners; but the Holy Ghost dwells continually in the hearts of all
believers, though as yet they are imperfect and prone to evil. Year
after year, century after century, he still abideth in the saints,
and will do so till the elect are all in glory. While we adore the
incarnate Son, let us adore also the indwelling Spirit whom the
Father hath sent.
Now notice the place wherein he takes up his residence.—"God hath
sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts." Note, that it
does not say into your heads or your brains. The Spirit of God
doubtless illuminates the intellect and guides the judgement, but
this is not the commencement nor the main part of his work. He comes
chiefly to the affections, he dwells with the heart, for with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness, and "God hath sent forth the
Spirit of his Son into your hearts." Now, the heart is the centre of
our being, and therefore doth the Holy Ghost occupy this place of
vantage. He comes into the central fortress and universal citadel of
our nature, and thus takes possession of the whole. The heart is the
vital part; we speak of it as the chief residence of life, and
therefore the Holy Ghost enters it, and as the living God dwells in
the living heart, taking possession of the very core and marrow of
our being. It is from the heart and through the heart that life is
diffused. The blood is sent even to the extremities of the body by
the pulsings of the heart, and when the Spirit of God takes
possession of the affections, he operates upon every power, and
faculty, and member of our entire manhood. Out of the heart are the
issues of life, and from the affections sanctified by the Holy Ghost
all other faculties and powers receive renewal, illumination,
sanctification, strengthening, and ultimate perfection.
This wonderful blessing is ours "because we are sons;" and it is
fraught with marvellous results. Sonship sealed by the indwelling
Spirit brings us peace and joy; it leads to nearness to God and
fellowship with him; it excites trust, love, and vehement desire,
and creates in us reverence, obedience, and actual likeness to God.
All this, and much more, because the Holy Ghost has come to dwell in
us. Oh, matchless mystery! Had it not been revealed it had never
been imagined, and now that it is revealed it would never have been
believed if it had not become matter of actual experience to those
who are in Christ Jesus. There are many professors who know nothing
of this; they listen to us with bewilderment as if we told them an
idle tale, for the carnal mind knoweth not the things that be of
God; they are spiritual, and can only be spiritually discerned.
Those who are not sons, or who only come in as sons under the law of
nature, like Ishmael, know nothing of this indwelling Spirit, and
are up in arms at us for daring to claim so great a blessing: yet it
is ours, and none can deprive us of it.
III. Now I come to the third portion of our text—THE FILIAL CRY.
This is deeply interesting. I think it will be profitable if your
minds enter into it. Where the Holy Ghost enters there is a cry.
"God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son, crying, 'Abba, Father.'"
Now, notice, it is the Spirit of God that cries—a most remarkable
fact. Some are inclined to view the expression as a Hebraism, and
read it, he "makes us to cry;" but, beloved, the text saith not so,
and we are not at liberty to alter it upon such a pretence. We are
always right in keeping to what God says, and here we plainly read
of the Spirit in our hearts that he is crying "Abba, Father." The
apostle in Romans 8:15 says, "Ye have received the Spirit of
adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father," but here he describes the
Spirit himself as crying "Abba, Father." We are certain that when he
ascribed the cry of "Abba, Father" to us, he did not wish to exclude
the Spirit's cry, because in the twenty-sixth verse of the famous
eighth of Romans he says, "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our
infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought:
but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered." Thus he represents the Spirit himself as
groaning with unutterable groanings within the child of God, so that
when he wrote to the Romans he had on his mind the same thought
which he here expressed to the Galatians,—that it is the Spirit
itself which cries and groans in us "Abba, Father." How is this? Is
it not ourselves that cry? Yes, assuredly; and yet the Spirit cries
also. The expressions are both correct. The Holy Spirit prompts and
inspires the cry. He puts the cry into the heart and mouth of the
believer. It is his cry because he suggests it, approves of it, and
educates us to it. We should never have cried thus if he had not
first taught us the way. As a mother teaches her child to speak, so
he puts this cry of "Abba, Father" into our mouths; yea, it is he
who forms in our hearts the desire after our Father, God, and keeps
it there. He is the Spirit of adoption, and the author of adoption's
special and significant cry.
Not only does he prompt us to cry but he works in us a sense of need
which compels us to cry, and also that spirit of confidence which
emboldens us to claim such relationship to the great God. Nor is
this all, for he assists us in some mysterious manner so that we are
able to pray aright; he puts his divine energy into us so that we
cry "Abba, Father" in an acceptable manner. There are times when we
cannot cry at all, and then he cries in us. There are seasons when
doubts and fears abound, and so suffocate us with their fumes that
we cannot even raise a cry, and then the indwelling Spirit
represents us, and speaks for us, and makes intercession for us,
crying in our name, and making intercession for us according to the
will of God. Thus does the cry "Abba, Father" rise up in our hearts
even when we feel as if we could not pray and dare not think
ourselves children. Then we may each say, "I live, yet not I, but
the Spirit that dwelleth in me." On the other hand, at times our
soul gives such a sweet assent to the Spirit's cry that it becometh
ours also, but then we more than ever own the work of the Spirit,
and still ascribe to him the blessed cry, "Abba, Father."
I want you now to notice a very sweet fact about this cry; namely,
that it is literally the cry of the Son. God hath sent the Spirit of
his Son into our hearts, and that Spirit cries in us exactly
according to the cry of the Son. If you turn to the gospel of Mark,
at the fourteenth chapter, thirty-sixth verse, you will find there
what you will not discover in any other evangelist (for Mark is
always the man for the striking points, and the memorable words), he
records that our Lord prayed in the garden, "Abba, Father, all
things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me:
nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt." So that this cry
in us copies the cry of our Lord to the letter—"Abba, Father." Now,
I dare say you have heard these words "Abba, Father" explained at
considerable lengths at other times, and if so, you know that the
first word is Syrian or Aramaic; or, roughly speaking, Abba is the
Hebrew word for "father." The second word is in Greek, and is the
Gentile word, "pates," or pater, which also signifies father. It is
said that these two words are used to remind us that Jews and
Gentiles are one before God. They do remind us of this, but this
cannot have been the principal reason for their use. Do you think
that when our Lord was in his agony in the garden that he said,
"Abba, Father" because Jews and Gentiles are one? Why should he have
thought of that doctrine, and why need he mention it in prayer to
his Father? Some other reason must have suggested it to him. It
seems to me that our Lord said "Abba" because it was his native
tongue. When a Frenchman prays, if he has learned English he may
ordinarily pray in English, but if ever he falls into an agony he
will pray in French, as surely as he prays at all. Our Welsh
brethren tell us that there is no language like Welsh—I suppose it
is so to them: now they will talk English when about their ordinary
business, and they can pray in English when everything goes
comfortably with them, but I am sure that if a Welshman is in a
great fervency of prayer, he flies to his Welsh tongue to find full
expression. Our Lord in his agony used his native language, and as
born of the seed of Abraham he cries in his own tongue, Abba. Even
thus, my brethren, we are prompted by the spirit of adoption to use
our own language, the language of the heart, and to speak to the
Lord freely in our own tongue. Besides, to my mind, the word "Abba"
is of all words in all languages the most natural word for father. I
must try and pronounce it so that you see the natural childishness
of it, "Ab—ba," "Ab—ba." Is it not just what your children say, ab,
ab, ba, ba, as soon as they try to talk? It is the sort of word
which any child would say, whether Hebrew, or Greek, or French, or
English. Therefore, Abba is a word worthy of introduction into all
languages. It is truly a child's word, and our Master felt, I have
no doubt, in his agony, a love for child's words. Dr. Guthrie, when
he was dying, said, "Sing a hymn," but he added, "Sing me one of the
bairns' hymns." When a man comes to die he wants to be a child
again, and longs for bairns' hymns and bairns' words. Our blessed
Master in his agony used the bairns' word, "Abba," and it is equally
becoming in the mouth of each one of us. I think this sweet word
"Abba" was chosen to show us that we are to be very natural with
God, and not stilted and formal. We are to be very affectionate, and
come close to him, and not merely say "Pater," which is a cold Greek
word, but say "Abba," which is a warm, natural, loving word, fit for
one who is a little child with God, and makes bold to lie in his
bosom, and look up into his face and talk with holy boldness. "Abba"
is not a word, somehow, but a babe's lisping. Oh, how near we are to
God when we can use such a speech! How dear he is to us and dear we
are to him when we may thus address him, saying, like the great Son
himself, "Abba, Father."
This leads me to observe that this cry in our hearts is exceedingly
near and familiar. In the sound of it I have shown you that it is
childlike, but the tone and manner of the utterance are equally so.
Note that it is a cry. If we obtain audience with a king we do not
cry, we speak then in measured tones and set phrases; but the Spirit
of God breaks down our measured tones, and takes away the formality
which some hold in great admiration, and he leads us to cry, which
is the very reverse of formality and stiffness. When we cry, we cry,
"Abba": even our very cries are full of the spirit of adoption. A
cry is a sound which we are not anxious that every passer-by should
hear; yet what child minds his father hearing him cry? So when our
heart is broken and subdued we do not feel as if we could talk fine
language at all, but the Spirit in us sends forth cries and groans,
and of these we are not ashamed, nor are we afraid to cry before
God. I know some of you think that God will not hear your prayers,
because you cannot pray grandly like such-and-such a minister. Oh,
but the Spirit of his Son cries, and you cannot do better than cry
too. Be satisfied to offer to God broken language, words salted with
your griefs, wetted with your tears. Go to him with holy
familiarity, and be not afraid to cry in his presence, "Abba,
Father."
But then how earnest it is: for a cry is an intense thing. The word
implies fervency. A cry is not a flippant utterance, nor a mere
thing of the lips, it comes up from the soul. Hath not the Lord
taught us to cry to him in prayer with fervent importunity that will
not take a denial? Hath he not brought us so near to him that
sometimes we say, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me"?
Hath he not taught us so to pray that his disciples might almost say
of us as they did of one of old, "Send her away, for she crieth
after us." We do cry after him, our heart and our flesh crieth out
for God, for the living God, and this is the cry, "Abba, Father, I
must know thee, I must taste thy love, I must dwell under thy wing,
I must behold thy face, I must feel thy great fatherly heart
overflowing and filling my heart with peace." We cry, "Abba,
Father."
I shall close when I notice this, that the most of this crying is
kept within the heart, and does not come out at the lips. Like
Moses, we cry when we say not a word. God hath sent forth the Spirit
of his Son into our hearts, whereby we cry, "Abba, Father." You know
what I mean: it is not alone in your little room, by the old
arm-chair, that you cry to God, but you call him "Abba, Father," as
you go about the streets or work in the shop. The Spirit of his Son
is crying "Abba, Father," when you are in the crowd or at your table
among the family. I see it is alleged as a very grave charge against
me that I speak as if I were familiar with God. If it be so, I make
bold to say that I speak only as I feel. Blessed be my heavenly
Father's name, I know I am his child, and with whom should a child
be familiar but with his father? 0 ye strangers to the living God,
be it known unto you that if this be vile, I purpose to be viler
still, as he shall help me to walk more closely with him. We feel a
deep reverence for our Father in heaven, which bows us to the very
dust, but for all that we can say, "truly our fellowship is with the
Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ." No stranger can understand
the nearness of the believer's soul to God in Christ Jesus, and
because the world cannot understand it, it finds it convenient to
sneer, but what of that? Abraham's tenderness to Isaac made Ishmael
jealous, and caused him to laugh, but Isaac had no cause to be
ashamed of being ridiculed, since the mocker could not rob him of
the covenant blessing. Yes, beloved, the Spirit of God makes you cry
"Abba, Father," but the cry is mainly within your heart, and there
it is so commonly uttered that it becomes the habit of your soul to
be crying to your Heavenly Father. The text does not say that he had
cried, but the expression is "crying"—it is a present participle,
indicating that he cries every day "Abba, Father." Go home, my
brethren, and live in the spirit of sonship. Wake up in the morning,
and let your first thought be "My Father, my Father, be with me this
day. Go out into business, and when things perplex you let that be
your resort—"My Father, help me in this hour of need." When you go
to your home, and there meet with domestic anxieties, let your cry
sill be, "Help me, my Father." When alone you are not alone, because
the Father is with you: and in the midst of the crowd you are not in
danger, because the Father himself loveth you. What a blessed word
is that,—"The Father himself loveth you"! Go, and live as his
children. Take heed that ye reverence him, for if he be a father
where is his fear? Go and obey him, for this is right. Be ye
imitators of God as dear children. Honour him wherever you are, by
adorning his doctrine in all things. Go and live upon him, for you
shall soon live with him. Go and rejoice in him. Go and cast all
your cares upon him. Go henceforth, and whatever men may see in you
may they be compelled to own that you are the children of the
Highest. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the
children of God." May you be such henceforth and evermore. Amen and
amen.C. H. Spurgeon
April 14th, 1878
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