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Your Heavenly Father
Does God really love you like a father?
Yes. In Galatians 3:26 through 4:7, the Apostle Paul describes one of the most comforting truths in the Bible: through faith in Jesus, God adopts believers as His own children. In this study, Dr. Toby Holt explains what it means to call God your Father.
Many people who believe in God still struggle to believe He loves them. Paul’s answer is the truth of adoption. Everyone has a spiritual father, Holt explains, but only those who trust in Christ are brought into God’s family as sons and daughters. And it is permanent — God will not return His children or cast them away. The proof is His Spirit living in us, leading us to cry out, “Abba, Father,” the way a hurting child cries out for a dad who comes running.
Questions this study answers:
1. Are all people automatically God’s children? Not in the saving sense. Everyone is God’s creation, but the Bible says we become God’s children in a saving way only through faith in Jesus Christ.
2. Can God ever stop loving His children? No. Being adopted into God’s family is permanent. He will never cast out or give up on those He has made His own.
3. How can I know I am truly God’s child? God gives His Spirit to His children, leading them to trust Him and call Him Father. That changed heart is the evidence that you belong to Him.
“And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’” — Galatians 4:6 (NKJV)
Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.
Listen and go deeper: This is Part 7 of the ten-part Galatians study. Find the whole series, along with verse-by-verse studies of other books of the Bible, at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.
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By Dr. Toby Holt | New Geneva Theological SeminaryDoes God really love you like a father?
Yes. In Galatians 3:26 through 4:7, the Apostle Paul describes one of the most comforting truths in the Bible: through faith in Jesus, God adopts believers as His own children. In this study, Dr. Toby Holt explains what it means to call God your Father.
Many people who believe in God still struggle to believe He loves them. Paul’s answer is the truth of adoption. Everyone has a spiritual father, Holt explains, but only those who trust in Christ are brought into God’s family as sons and daughters. And it is permanent — God will not return His children or cast them away. The proof is His Spirit living in us, leading us to cry out, “Abba, Father,” the way a hurting child cries out for a dad who comes running.
Questions this study answers:
1. Are all people automatically God’s children? Not in the saving sense. Everyone is God’s creation, but the Bible says we become God’s children in a saving way only through faith in Jesus Christ.
2. Can God ever stop loving His children? No. Being adopted into God’s family is permanent. He will never cast out or give up on those He has made His own.
3. How can I know I am truly God’s child? God gives His Spirit to His children, leading them to trust Him and call Him Father. That changed heart is the evidence that you belong to Him.
“And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’” — Galatians 4:6 (NKJV)
Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.
Listen and go deeper: This is Part 7 of the ten-part Galatians study. Find the whole series, along with verse-by-verse studies of other books of the Bible, at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.