Our Daily Prayer: Thy Will Be Done

It disturbs me to realize that my will is often opposed to God's will. Even the great Apostle Paul wrote in deepest humility about this fact as he said,

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. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? - Rom 7:15-24 ESV

Find it to be a law? Always? Captive to the law of sin in my members? How can this be?

There are those among us Christians who claim to have conquered sin. They claim to be holy. Among Protestants this movement and set of convictions can be traced back over a hundred years to John Wesley, founder of Methodism, who called for Christian perfection. When you examine the teachings of holiness churches today it is not unusual to see statements such as these:

We believe In the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a holy life.

Likewise among Roman Catholics there is still the cult of saints, the belief that some Christians have attained to such Christian perfection in their walk with Christ that they may be called holy and without sin. They are the heroes of faith, if you will. Thus it is appropriate to ask these heroes to help us, assuming that they have special influence with the heavenly Father. And for their sakes, the Father intervenes, sometimes in a miraculous manner, bypassing the usual laws of nature.

Both ways of thinking are quite dangerous ways of approaching the Christian life. More needs to be said about these dangers another time.

For today we return to the LORD's prayer,

Our Father in heaven . . . Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven? 

Are we also not praying that He fill us with His Spirit and grant us the power and strength to submit our wills to His in all things? Are we not praying that He empower us to be holy, even as He is holy? And does He not hear our prayers? Indeed we are and indeed He does answer prayer. Do the so-called Catholic saints know what we do not? Do the holiness Christians have insights that we have overlooked?

Return to what Paul says to us: "I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand." This is what Paul means by the flesh that still dwelled within him and dwells within each of us even after the Holy Spirit has come to make His home within and give us a new birth in Christ Jesus (John 3:3-6). The Spirit empowers us to say yes! to Christ and to His sacrifice for us, but . . . the flesh remains. And within that sinful flesh there is ever the desire to reject the will of God and seek my own instead. Paul warns about this as he writes,

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. - Gal 6:7-9 ESV

We hear that Word. We ponder it in our prayers. And we strive to do good, believing that sowing to the Spirit will ultimately reap eternal life. But, but, but we fail again and again.

At that point it is ever and always important to remember that our good is good only because God is gracious and merciful in Christ, for none of our good is, in the strict sense of the term ever good! Even our so-called good deeds are infected by the imperfection of our sinful flesh. So Paul reminds us when he says,

"For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what  I keep on doing." 

This is why the entire life of us Christians is hidden in Christ, as Paul says,

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. - Col 3:3 ESV

And this is why we flee again and again to the truth given to us in Christ as taught by John,

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. - 1Jo 2:1-2 ESV

John knew himself. He knew us. Through his writing the Spirit warns that the flesh remains and that we will not be perfected until Christ returns to grant us a new body like His (Phil. 3:20-21). Hidden fleshly desires, ambitions and unbelief remain within even the most dedicated. Aware of the power of this law of sin that ever wages war with our reborn life in Christ, we return each and every day to our Baptism and to the wonder of what that means. Each day we remember that Christ and Christ alone is the complete and full atonement for all of our sins (1 John 2:1-2). When He died and was buried, we were buried with Him. And so we are certain that we who died with Him will be united with Him in the resurrection from the dead. In that faith we rise again each day to give battle to the sin that remains within us and in the world around us. And in that faith we find confidence, victory and hope in this day, as Paul also teaches,

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. - Rom 8:1-2 ESV

Begin each day then in peace and hope. Put your life into the hands of Jesus and live that day in the joy of your Baptism and under the guiding of His Spirit within. Tomorrow is in His hands.

The Greater Works Of Proclaiming The Gospel

We continue to ponder Jesus' strange saying about doing greater works:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. - Jhn 14:12-14 ESV

There are those who believe that the works of Jesus were his miracles. And since there are many, many disciples of Jesus around the world, a greater number of miracles can potentially be done through the power of the Holy Spirit, thus confirming the Gospel of Christ. So they write,

In John 14:12, Jesus makes an amazing claim “I tell you the truth, anyone, who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” How? Jesus says it will be done through the power of the Holy Spirit. In John 14–15, Jesus speaks often of “another Counselor,” the “Spirit of truth” (John 14:16-17), which we know the disciples received at Pentecost (Acts 2:4). The Holy Spirit is the mechanism through which Jesus said His believers “will do even greater works. . . Now, billions of disciples exist worldwide, and through belief in Him and the agency of the Holy Spirit, many more miracles occur today than did in Jesus’ time.

But is this emphasis upon miracles what Jesus meant?

In John 5 we read about Jesus miraculously healing a cripple beside the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. The Jews wanted to kill him for doing this work on the Sabbath. Jesus responded that he was but doing the Father's work. And, says Jesus, greater works than these will the Father show his Son, so that you may marvel.

For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. - John 5:20-24 ESV

The greater works that Jesus did were to free us from judgment and grant us eternal life by his cross. These were far, far greater than healing a cripple. Jesus' greater works were accomplished on the cross when he cried, "It is finished!" Now the Spirit works through the Gospel to create faith in Jesus and his cross, as he said, "This is the work of God that you believe in whom he has sent" (John 6:29). This work of God is indeed a wonder and a marvel. Faith in Jesus means new birth, forgiveness of all sins, past, present and future. Forgiveness means that we are alive in Christ and that we who are in Christ will never die! Though our sinful bodies die, we confidently trust that Christ will raise us up and give us new bodies, filled forever with the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 15:20-57).

In the light of this, what greater works can we possibly do? Greater (Greek meizon) means greater in degree: more in number, not in quality. Nothing can possibly be qualitatively greater than Jesus' works by which he rescued all mankind from judgment and eternal death. Jesus has accomplished these greater works. They are finished, complete! "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). But now we who have been made alive in Christ carry this Good News around the world. And as we proclaim this Gospel the Holy Spirit is working to create faith and new life.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. - Rom 1:16 ESV

To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. - 2Th 2:14 ESV

Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. - Jam 1:18 ESV

Pray for an opportunity to share this Good News. Pray that the Holy Spirit will use you to proclaim the greater works Jesus completed on the cross. More on this next time.