Gordon Fee on the Christological Implications of God's Designation as Father in the Pauline Corpus

In his book "Pauline Christology" Gordon Fee seeks to find how the designation "Father"  became Paul's most common way to refer to God whenever Christ and God are mentioned in conjunction with one another. He believes there are four strands of evidence that show Paul views God as "our" Father because he is "The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

1 - Paul uses "Christ" as a title and not a name in places like Romans 9:5 and 1 Cor. 1:23 highlighting Jesus as the Jewish Messiah - The Son of God.

2 - God is referred to as "the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ" beginning in 2 Cor. 1:3 and 11:31 (also in Rom. 15:6; Col.1:3; Eph. 1:3). Obviously God and Jesus are being stated plainly as Father and Son.

3 - In 1 Cor. 15:25-28 and Col. 1:12-15 Jesus identity as "The Son" is directly tied to His kingly reign.

4 - God is our Father through the gift of the Holy Spirit which Paul defines in Gal. 4:6 as "the Spirit of the Son." It is the Spirit of the Son (Jesus) that causes us to cry out "Abba!" to God as Father.