Last week we considered what it means that God is our Father and how important it is to treat His name with the honour and respect it deserves. This week, we continue our study of the Lord’s Prayer by considering the 2nd and 3rd petitions. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. These two petitions make a pleasant pair, accenting each other on meaning and impact. We begin our study this evening with the Second Petition:
Thy kingdom come. What does this mean? The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it would come to us also. How does God’s kingdom come? God’s kingdom comes when our Heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.
The kingdom of God. Our first two readings–from Colossians and from Matthew 7–both deal to some extent about this kingdom. In the Lord’s Prayer we pray for this kingdom to come to us also. God’s kingdom has three dimensions to it, which ultimately, at the end of time, will come together into one single kingdom. But for now, God rules in three ways.
God has a kingdom of power. By this we mean that God rules the universe by virtue of His Creation. He sets the frameworks and the rules for how everything works, and nothing can happen outside of His watch. This is partly what Paul is referring to in Colossians 1 when he says, “In Christ all things hold together.” Apart from the watchful eye of God, nothing can happen, in heaven or earth. Psalm 103:19 also says, “The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.”
Yet the kingdom of power is not the kingdom of God to which Jesus most commonly refers in the Gospels. No, this kingdom is the kingdom of grace. As the Large Catechism teaches us,
“But what is God’s kingdom?” Answer, “Nothing other than what we learned in the Creed: God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, into the world to redeem and deliver us from the devil’s power (1 John 3:8). He sent Him to bring us to Himself and to govern us as a King of righteousness, life, and salvation against sin, death, and an evil conscience. For this reason He has also given us His Holy Spirit, who is to bring these things home to us by His holy Word and to illumine and strengthen us in the faith by His power.” (LC, III, 51)
The kingdom of grace is the most important kingdom for us who live in this flesh-and-blood, sin-ridden world. To know that God has power and rule over all is great. This is the whole dimension of God revealed in nature. It is wonderful to think “How Great Thou Art” when contemplating the world which God has made. But that old classic hymn would be worthless without the reference in the third verse to God sending His Son to make the way for us to be saved. God made a glorious world–but without knowing of the good news of salvation from sin, how could we ever know whether God was for us or against us?
Imagine living your life in the uncertainty of whether or not God was for you. False teachings on God and His grace can do this. The teachings of Islam, for instance, talk about a gracious God but have no way for the believer to access God’s grace. The best anyone can do is hope for the end of time, that Allah will be merciful to them then in the final judgment. Similarly, one of the false teachings about the Christian faith is one called double predestination–the teaching that it is already predetermined from eternity who goes to hell. One 18th century man, William Cowper, wrote some beautiful hymns about salvation and the sufficiency of Christ’s death for salvation, such as There Stands A Fountain Where For Sin, but, as a believer in double predestination, spent much of his adult life in utter terror that he was among those predestined to eternal death. Martin Luther himself spent much of his youth and early adulthood afraid of God rather than trusting God because he knew God’s power and might, but did not know God’s grace and mercy.
The uncertainty of salvation is precisely what this petition of the Lord’s Prayer teaches against, when we hear it rightly. We pray for God’s kingdom to come, trusting that it will–trusting that we are included in it, not for our own sake, but for the sake of the one who taught us so to pray. Jesus has already made the guarantee that His kingdom comes to those who have faith in Him–the kingdom comes through His Word.
The Large Catechism notes, “We pray here in the first place that this may happen with us. We pray that His name may be so praised through God’s holy Word and a Christian life that we who have accepted it may abide and grow daily in it, and that it may gain approval and acceptance among other people. We pray that it may go forth with power throughout the world (2 Thessalonians 3:1). We pray that many find entrance into the kingdom of grace (John 3:5), be made partakers of redemption (Colossians 1:12-14) and be led to it by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14), so that we may all together remain forever in the one kingdom now begun.” (LC, III, 52)
Yet we also pray for God’s kingdom of glory to come. This is where the souls of the deceased now rest and wait for the end of time in God’s presence–what we call heaven. And at the end, the kingdom of glory will be all that remains, as 1 Corinthians 15 notes–all things will be under God’s feet and all will see God as He truly is. “We pray for both these things. We pray that the kingdom may come to those who are not yet in it, and, by daily growth, that it may come to us who have received it, both now and hereafter in eternal life.” (LC III, 53)
In summarizing this petition, Luther notes in the Large Catechism, “We pray for an eternal, inestimable treasure and everything that God Himself possesses. This is far too great for any human heart to think about desiring, if God had not Himself commanded us to pray for the same. But because He is God, He also claims the honour of giving much more and more abundantly than anyone can understand (Ephesians 3:20). He is like an eternal, unfailing fountain. The more it pours forth and overflows, the more it continues to give. God desires nothing more seriously from us than we ask Him for much and great things.” (LC III, 55-6) There is no greater thing we can ask for than salvation and eternal life–and in His Word, through His Spirit, He bids us to seek first His kingdom and righteousness, and promises to supply us with all we need as we seek His kingdom.
Part of seeking God’s kingdom, living as a Christian, is striving to know God’s perfect will for our lives. Not only that, to understand that to live according to God’s will means to do things in a way which is often totally opposite to the world. Let us consider the Third Petition: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What does this mean? The good and gracious will of God is done even without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also. How is God’s will done? God’s will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let His kingdom come; and when He strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die. This is His good and gracious will.
So often we would like to know God’s will. It might be over an agonizing decision to make with regards to a loved one on their deathbed, or whether or not to move somewhere, or even over smaller and simpler things.
This petition reminds us that to seek and to know God’s will is not primarily concerned with our worries but rather concerned with keeping our eyes focussed on what is truly important–His Word. When our focus is there, it doesn’t mean that we will necessarily always know what we should do at any given time. God hasn’t promised that life is or will be simpler if we have faith in Him! If anything, the opposite is true. “There will be strange events if we are to abide in God’s will. We shall have to suffer many thrusts and blows on that account from everything that seeks to oppose and prevent the fulfilment of the first two petitions,” the Large Catechism points out (LC, III, 61). But it does mean that we do not have to worry about the decisions we make, but can trust that whatever we should do, it is going to work out according to God’s will.
The primary focus of this petition is to keep us in the faith. Anytime we pray to God for matters of faith, we know that this is pleasing to Him. He wants us to talk to Him about our faith, about our troubles and questions and problems and sorrows. More than anything else, He wants us to remain His people throughout this life so that we are His forever. That is His will. As 1 Timothy 2 states, “God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4) This is God’s unalterable desire for all creation. Further, 1 Thessalonians 4 reminds us that it is also God’s will that we be sanctified–made holy.
God doesn’t like the fact that the perfect world He made is broken and messy and falling apart. Through our sin, we make it bad. We have an urge to try to put things together, but regardless how hard we try, without God to undo the power of chaos, chaos ultimately wins every time. Stuff breaks down and falls apart much more easily than it comes together. And if the chaos of the world isn’t enough to deal with, we also have the devil and our own sinful natures to deal with too. Peter tells us in his first letter that the “devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) And Paul reminds us in Romans 7 that our wills are not as strong as we might think they are: “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.” (Romans 7:15-21)
Yet the good news is that our badness, our sin, is not the end of the matter. Not at all. That’s why He sent His Son to die on the cross and redeem it. God made the world to be very good. God will remake the world at the end to be very good–when His kingdom of glory arrives for the final time, and He will be all in all. God’s will will be done, whether we want it to or not–He calls us to be strong in His Word and in faith in Him now, that when Jesus comes again in glory, we may boldly rejoice in His name, His kingdom, and His will. “We pray that what must be done without us anyway may also be done in us. As His name must be hallowed and His kingdom come, whether we pray or not, so also His will must be done and succeed. This is true even though the devil with all his followers raise a great riot, are angry and rage against it, and try to exterminate the Gospel completely. But for our own sakes we must pray that, even against their fury, His will be done without hindrance among us also. We pray so that they may not be able to accomplish anything and that we may remain firm against all violence and persecution and submit to God’s will.” (LC III, 68)
It can be hard in this world of sin to hear and submit to God’s will. But He calls us to faithfully hear His Word and receive His grace through absolution and the Lord’s Supper. In these ways He moulds our wills to be in line with His own. In these ways He makes us partakers in His name, His kingdom, and His will.
God grant that all of us remain strong in Him all the days of our lives! In Jesus. Amen.
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