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THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.
In
the name + of Jesus.
Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us to pray, “Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
We are often left to wonder what God’s will is for us. Many people claim to know what God’s will is
when certain events happen or when they want certain events to happen. They may claim that it was God’s will that some
proposed bill was passed by Congress.
They may claim that it is God’s will that their team will win a
championship. When these claims are
made, people are confusing God’s will with their own will. Just because you want it to happen does not
make it God’s will.
Sometimes, plans or actions are defended as
God’s will. I had heard about a couple
at a Reformed college in western Michigan who were dating. The man told his girlfriend, “It is not God’s
will that we keep dating.” I suppose he
was trying to deflect her anger: “Blame it on God, don’t get mad at me.” Now, he was free to not date her just as he
was free to date her, but to say that the break-up was God’s will meant that it
was a sin to date her. You can consult
the Commandments; that is not in there.
Perhaps the most common time for people to
try to decipher God’s will is when a tragedy or a crime happens. When those children died in the flash flood at
Camp Mystic in Texas, was that God’s will?
Or the stabbings that happened yesterday in Traverse City—was that God’s
will? In one sense: Yes, because it
happened. Some will insist that these
cannot be God’s will because they were bad.
But nothing happens apart from God’s will. For example, day and night will endure until
the end of time because that is God’s will.
He promised so in Genesis 8:22. As
for evils or tragedies, these do not happen apart from God either. He never loses control. And while God can prevent any of them,
we should be careful not to confuse what God can do with what God
does.
God does not sponsor evil. Since he is holy, he cannot be the author of
evil. On the other hand, God uses evils
to fulfill his own purposes. The Bible
reminds us, “In your book all of them were written. Days were determined, before any of them
existed” (Psalm 139:16). So, the
Lord has determined the length of our days.
If he uses a flash flood, a murder, or a car accident to achieve this
end, God’s will is done. God uses the
flawed world and the wicked acts of men to fulfill it. If you are having trouble trying to wrap your
head around this, that’s no surprise.
That’s why the Bible says, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom
and knowledge of God! How unsearchable
are his judgments and how untraceable his ways” (Romans 11:33)! When we try to figure out God’s will in
every tragic event, the best that can happen is that we get a headache. The worst is that we blame God for everything
that has gone wrong and forsake the saving faith. But remember: God did not bring sin into the
world. Mankind did, and we are reaping
the rewards for it.
We pray, “Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven.” The only way to
know God’s will is for God to tell us want he wants. He has revealed that in his word. The Ten Commandments are a summary of what
God wants you to do and to not do. The
Commandments also show us, however, that we have not followed God’s will. The Commandments show us what is good, but
they also show us that we are not. The
Commandments define what is evil, but they also convict us of evil because we
have done it. In his explanation of this
petition, Martin Luther wrote, “God’s good and gracious will certainly is
done without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may be done among
us also” (Luther’s Small Catechism; Lord’s Prayer: 3rd
Petition). If we oppose God’s will,
God will still do what he desires. God’s
will is done with or without us. Our
prayer is that we would not be forsaken by God and his will. Therefore, we repent and seek his mercy.
We pray, “Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven,” and we learn from God that he has not forsaken us because
of our sins. Rather, he has revealed his
will to save sinners. What is God’s
will? We heard it in our epistle reading
earlier: “God our Savior … wants all people to be saved and to come to the
knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3-4).
This has always been God’s will.
As soon as sin entered the world, God promised a Savior to deliver
mankind out of their sins and all its consequences. He did not destroy Adam and Eve and say,
“Well, that was a failure. Let’s try
this again.” The Lord does not write
anyone off as a lost cause. The Lord
makes his will clear: “I take no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,
declares the LORD God. So repent
and live” (Ezekiel 18:32)!
The Lord has not only revealed his will
for the salvation of all mankind, he has also revealed how he secured it. The Father sent his own Son to make himself a
sin offering for you. Jesus knew exactly
what that meant. He would suffer the
hellish torment which has been earned by every sinner in the history of the
world. No sinner was left out. No sin was overlooked. Jesus was in anguish as he was facing this
sacrificial death. In the Garden of Gethsemane,
Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me”
(Matthew 26:39). The cup is what God
gives to people. In Jesus’ case, it was
the cup of God’s wrath, the full judgment of God against all sinners. Jesus prayed that, if there were any way
possible, salvation could be won another way.
But in the end, Jesus prayed, “Yet not as I will, but as you will”
(Matthew 26:39). Jesus conformed his
will to the will of his Father. He
consumed the cup of God’s wrath in order to take away your sin and its
judgment. This is God’s will, and it has
been fulfilled by Jesus Christ.
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.” Our prayer is that God’s
will is done among us. That means not
only that our status is exalted from sinner to saint, but also that our lives
are changed from sin to righteousness.
We want to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus. We want all our thoughts to be captive to
Jesus Christ. We want all our motives to
be pure, our words to be gracious, and our deeds to be helpful. We want God’s will to be done among us and by
us. And God is the one who produces all
of that in us. St. Paul wrote to the
Philippians, “It is God who is working in you, both to will and to work, for
the sake of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). By his word, he directs you. By his sacrament, he strengthens you. By giving you a cross to bear, he puts to
death your desires for anything but God’s gracious promises. So, even if you lose your health, your money,
your freedom, or your loved ones, you still have the only thing that saves you. And finally, this is the goal of the
Christian life—to live as a child of God now and forever. This is God’s will, and he works in your life
to crave nothing else.
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.” God has revealed his will
to you in his word. That is how you know
what God wants. But God does not reveal
everything. God does not tell you where
to live, what job to take, what car to buy, or what color to paint your
bedroom. Where God is silent on these
things, you are free to do whatever you want.
Some of these issues will involve wisdom—recognizing any decisions which
could threaten your faith and avoiding them.
The devil usually offers a fun alternative to faithfully attending
church, or a lucrative to attending a faithful church. Lot chose to live next to Sodom because of
its lush meadows for his flocks. It was
a good business decision, but a destructive move for his faith. Other choices are totally a matter of
opinion. If you paint your bedroom
black, some might question your sanity but they cannot say that you are sinning,
because God does not care what color you paint your bedroom.
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.” God has revealed his will
to us in his word. There God reveals why
he does much of what he does. But again,
God does not reveal everything. So, when
he has you bear a cross or allows a tragedy to come into your life, you want to
know why. “Why has God afflicted me this
way? Why has God withheld this blessing
from me?” But God does not give you a
specific answer.
Think of the patriarch Job. God had blessed Job with great wealth, a
large family, many servants, and a position of prominence and respect in his
community. The devil challenged Job’s
faithfulness, claiming that Job only served the Lord because the Lord had so
richly blessed him. God allowed the
devil to strike Job. And in short order,
Job lost all ten of his children, all his wealth, his servants, his reputation,
and his health. Job was at a loss to
know why he was suffering as he was. His
friends came to comfort him, but they only made Job’s sufferings worse. One claimed to know the will of God in Job’s
sufferings. He declared, “Who has
ever perished if he was innocent? Where
were the upright ever erased? This is
what I have observed: Those who plow evil and sow trouble will reap the same”
(Job 4:7-8). In other words, “Job,
you are only getting what you deserve.
God is punishing you for something you did.” He claimed to know God’s will, but he only
inflicted more misery by making faulty judgments.
God ended up relieving Job of his misery
and blessing the end of Job’s life more than the beginning, but God never told
Job why he had to endure what he did.
This happens to us, too. When it
does, our comfort will not come from trying to figure out what God has not
revealed. Our comfort comes from
trusting what God has revealed. And this
is what the Bible teaches us: “We know that all things work together for the
good of those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose”
(Romans 8:28). You may never know
how or why, but you do know that the Lord is still your good and merciful
Father in heaven. You may not feel like
it, but you have his word on it. His
will for you remains—that you would be forgiven of all your sins, that you
would be a child of God, and that you will partake in the glories of the
eternal kingdom.
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” “God’s will is done when he breaks and defeats every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh, which try to prevent us from keeping God’s name holy and letting his kingdom come. And God’s will is done when he strengthens and keeps us firm in his Word and in the faith as long as we live. This is his good and gracious will” (Luther’s Small Catechism; Lord’s Prayer: 3rd Petition). Our prayer is that God’s will includes us. The Father desires your salvation. He sent his Son to secure it. The Son sends his Holy Spirit to strengthen and keep us in it. That is God’s will, and he will fulfill it.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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