The Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God was about to step into His Father’s wrath to appease His wrath upon our sin. Yet He addresses Him as "FATHER" saying, "Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee," JOH 17:1.

The hour was come for our Substitute to meet the just demands of the Father upon our debt as Surety, for a debt that we could not pay. Yet He addresses Him as "Father," not as His "JUDGE."

In so doing our Surety teaches us to acknowledge the tender Fatherly love of God in all our adversities by His own humble obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. Our Saviour teaches us how to maintain our claim of adoption in all adversities, and behave ourselves like children under a loving Father’s chastening hand.

We are admonished in HEB 12:5-8, "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."

To be exempted from the cross is to be excluded from the family of God as dear children, and brethren of Christ. The bramble is suffered to grow wild, but see what we read about the Vine Dresser and the vine.

The Lord Jesus said, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit," JOH 15:1-2.

The title of "Father" implies authority, love, and care—all of these call for patience on our part. A father has a rightful God-given authority to rule. Therefore, we must patiently accept what ever we receive at His hand. See how Isaac yielded to his father when he was to be sacrificed on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, GEN 22:8-9.

Fatherly authority is not revealed as a slave driver, correcting with cruelty and malice. It is exercised with tender loving care for the child’s well being. All chastening of our heavenly Father is "…for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness," HEB 12:9-10.

To express the parental loving compassion of our Heavenly Father, Scripture compares it with the bowels of a mother’s love for a sucking child. The Lord asks, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me," ISA 49:15-16.

Scripture likens the tender, fatherly love of our heavenly Father unto that of a natural father to illustrate the intimate nature of His wisdom and loving care. He provides our clothing, food and drink.

Therefore, we are to take no thought for these things, "for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you," MAT 6:31-33.

Our natural fathers may have chastised us with some mixture of passion or fleshly corruption, but our heavenly Father’s corrections are perfected with love and sound judgment. Therefore, we can certainly say with Christ, "…the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" JOH 18:11b.

When we rightly understand that every bitter cup we drink from in this life comes from a tender Father’s hand, then we can taste the sweetness in it knowing it was first touched by our Saviour’s lips! God’s Word says, "The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet," PRO 27:7. Amen.