QQ102-103. What do we pray for in the second and third petitions?

A (102). In the second petition, which is, Thy kingdom come,” we pray, that Satan’s kingdom may be destroyed; and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it, and kept in it; and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened.

A (103). In the third petition, which is, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,” we pray, that God, by his grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey, and submit to his will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.

There is little coincidence that the petitions of the prayer that are the highest in their aim should involve the most theologizing in their depths.  

Thy Kingdom Come

Brakel reminds us that that there is a threefold meaning to the kingdom: “1) the kingdom of His power, 2) the kingdom of His glory, and 3) the kingdom of His grace.”1 The first encompasses all things, the second the courts of heaven, and the third the church on earth in this age. So this expression may seem simple at first, but we need to make sure we get distinctions straight so we know what we are praying for. That His kingdom would come, here on earth, means that it would be manifest. Not simply an idea, but a reality. Not simply in our hearts, but also out through our mouths and our hands and our children. But this cannot be, purely and simply, that “kingdom of power,” by which “the earth is [already] the LORD’s and the fullness thereof” (Ps. 24:1). Nor are we asked to pray for anything in that special kingdom that is already fixed, such as when Jesus announced that the kingdom had come (Mk. 1:15, Mat. 12:28). It must be something manifest of the kingdom of glory through the kingdom of grace out into the kingdom of power. We can divide this under the three heads of our answer: (i) Destruction to the enemies of God’s kingdom; (ii) Grace through the means of God’s kingdom; and (iii) Growth to the consummation of God’s kingdom.

First, it means destruction to the enemies of God’s kingdom. The answer specifies, THAT SATAN’S KINGDOM MAY BE DESTROYED. God has enemies, and so does his kingdom. These enemies are both personal and impersonal, they are in the heavenlies and playing out on the stage of history. This is for the eternal and temporal protection of the church. “Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem” (Ps. 51:18; cf. 122:6-9). That is military fortress language. These are walls against a spiritual siege. So Paul says elsewhere, 

“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3-5). 

In these few passages, we can see that God acts and we act. So the prayer is that, “God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and those who hate him shall flee before him!” (Ps. 68:1). Another proof text used here was Rev. 12:10-11, where it speaks of Satan being cast down to the earth, where he will wage war against the church.

Secondly, it means grace through the means of God’s kingdom; or as the answer says: OURSELVES AND OTHERS BROUGHT INTO IT, AND KEPT IN IT. Consider that the gospel word is the seed of the kingdom. So, we are praying that this word would take root and bear fruit. Think of those three consecutive parables taught by Jesus, where he compared the kingdom to a Sower’s seed, the growing seed, and the mustard seed, in Matthew 13 (or Mark 4). Each of those parables gives a different angle on the same thing. But whether it’s the scattering of it into the soily hearts of men, or the patient trust in God’s design in growing it, the common theme is this. The gospel word is the cause of the kingdom because “faith comes by hearing” (Rom. 10:17) and the resultant new birth makes a new citizen of the kingdom each time. That’s also the connection of John 3:3—being born again is what causes that “seeing into” the kingdom. So at the beginning of that chapter in Romans 10, Paul says: “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved” (Rom. 10:1). So Brakel asks that, since the kingdom has already come in the New Testament sense, and is only being consummated at the end when Christ returns, “how can we now pray that such would come about …?” 

“Answer. Even though this great change initially took place, its progression occurs daily, and will not cease to occur until the Lord Jesus returns for judgment. When we therefore presently pray, ‘Thy Kingdom come,’ then this pertains to individuals in particular and the condition of the church is general.”2

As to the perseverance part—AND KEPT IN—we might remember that Jesus Himself prayed for His own sheepfold in an exclusive way: “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours” (Jn. 17:9). Nor was this simply for those immediate disciples: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word” (Jn. 17:20). 

Finally, it means growth to the consummation of God’s kingdom. Not only THAT THE KINGDOM OF GRACE MAY BE ADVANCED, but also THAT THE KINGDOM OF GLORY MAY BE HASTENED. This speaks of two phases of development. 

“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you” (2 Thess. 3:1)

At the very end of Revelation, we read: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).

Thy Will Be Done

Before analyzing the words of this answer, that one word—WILL—contains volumes of rigorous thinking to do. For starters, a distinction must be made between the (i) decretive will, (ii) prescriptive will, and (iii) permissive will of God.3 Since we covered this back in our section on the works of God (QQ. 7-9), I will only summarize the three with a few verses for each. The decretive will of God is that decree by which God causes all things. His decree is his choice, his act of omnipotent will and perfect wisdom that enacts whatever could ever come to be. “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (Ps. 33:9). Such a decree is invincible: “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations” (Ps. 33:11), and, 

“he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Dan. 4:35) 

The permissive will of God is an aspect of the decree by which God lets things go by secondary causes. We used the illustration of turning on and off a lightswitch to make this difficult concept simpler. By God’s decree, He can cause by creation (on) or by permission (off), so that both are ordained by the sovereign God, yet in two different ways. So here we might think of Paul’s words about the fall in Romans 8:20, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope”; or else, more generally, “If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust” (Job 34:14-15). Now, finally, the prescriptive will of God is that moral will in the imperative form. So the prescriptive (or preceptive) will of God is what we see in his commands (or precepts), or what he “prescribes” of human behavior in his law. That can be the law of nature, written on the conscience (Rom. 2:14-15), or the law of Moses, written on tablets of stone (2 Cor. 3:3, 7), or in the New Covenant when the Holy Spirit emblazons that same divine moral preference on our living hearts (Jer. 31:33). And we call this his “will” because it is what he demands of us, and so in that sense it is what he desires of his moral creatures.

The words are, “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Mat. 6:10b). The first emphasis is on God’s own power to change our will. So the answer says THAT GOD, BY HIS GRACE, WOULD MAKE US so: “Incline my heart to your testimonies” (Ps. 119:36).

It says both ABLE AND WILLING. One way to be disingenuous about this prayer is to expect God’s will to be done in or around my life, but then pretend that this will is a mystery. But the part that concerns me most directly is that prescriptive will. So “On earth as it is in heaven” argues that the Form of God’s will is known. Do we know what God wants to have happen in this world? Do we know what God wants from our lives? Without any hesitation, we say Yes! The Scriptures are the way that his will is known.

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29; cf. Rom. 12:2; Heb. 5:12).

Such a willing is a matter of the heart. We must pray for the desire. The blueprint is not enough, but it must be emblazoned on the heart, and the building must get going. Watson says here, 

“[1] The bare knowledge of God’s will is inefficacious, it does not better the heart. Knowledge alone is like a winter-sun, which has no heat or influence; it does not warm the affections, or purify the conscience. Judas was a great luminary, he knew God’s will, but he was a traitor. [2] Knowing without doing God’s will, will make the case worse. It will heat hell the hotter.”4 

Real life replication of God’s will means a prayer that God would give us the taste for the doing, even through not seeing the fruit of it, trust in his promises that he that is faithful in little will be given charge of much.

And this will is specific to KNOW, OBEY, AND SUBMIT TO HIS WILL. To submit is to be more like Christ in that which was most propitious for us, where He “prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matt. 26:39).

There is the same universal scope we saw in the first two petititions—to his will IN ALL THINGS. This is a willing of the whole soul and in all of life: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4:3); “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people” (1 Pet. 2:15). But to submit to God’s will is not only to obey all of His commandments, but also to find rest in His works, even those which bring the most amount of pain. So Job confessed,

“And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I hreturn. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21).

Finally it adds, AS THE ANGELS DO IN HEAVEN, which is verbatim the same as in the Heidelberg, Question 124, namely, “as willingly and truly as the angels do in heaven.”

“Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you fmighty ones who gdo his word, obeying the voice of his word! Bless the LORD, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will!” (Ps. 103:20-21)

The glory of God is aimed through the kingdom zeal of Christian action. Here the two petitions of verse 6 come together: kingdom and will. But here also we can see the relationship between the divine will in itself and the divine will toward and through human beings.

Bavinck explains, 

“For [this] reason his creatures cannot be the objects of his will in the same sense and way he himself is. God’s will in relation to himself is his ‘propensity toward himself as goal’; his will with respect to his creatures is his ‘propensity toward his creatures as means.’”5

So whatever God would have us do individually, the common goal is always the same. That God’s will be done will always mean: “What does this action or result or whole event say about God?” If we cannot say how a thing will at least tend toward God’s glory, or how it will aid us in a life that honors Christ, then we must reconsider and at least leave it to more prayer.

PRACTICAL USE OF THIS DOCTRINE

Use 1. We ought to pray for the destruction of the greatest and the smallest of those enemies of this kingdom. The Answer to Heidelberg Q.123 on the second petition includes the expression, “all wicked devices formed against Thy holy word” or as the other translation says, “conspiracies against your Word.” As the Parable of the Sower symbolizes, by the birds that pick away the seed, so the devil has a conspiracy against the Word reaching the depths of the heart. So it principally means an every-week diligent storming the heavenlies on behalf of the hearing of the saints, that the preaching would blast away demonic distraction. But also, moving from those things that seem the smallest to those that seem the largest, read those Imprecatory Psalms, that God would in fact take out those despots in time, and anyone or anything else that would get through those walls of Zion. And we can be encouraged that our King came “to destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn. 3:8).

Use 2. A reproof to the notion that one’s prayers “aren’t working.” We must always ask two questions about what we are asking for in our prayers: (1) Is the thing taught as a norm throughout the Scriptures? (2) Is the thing promised in the gospel to God’s new covenant people in this age? If the answer to those two questions is no, then such things cannot function as the standard for right prayer. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (Jas. 4:3). We ought to always be praying for God’s will, rather than our own expectations. You will wreck your faith not caring about God’s will. The reason is you will be praying for things that are cursed and worldly things, and John tells us, “the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 Jn. 2:17). You pray for things from God that are not from God, then your faith will be in those things, and not in God. And you will wake up one day with no faith, as if God let you down. In reality, those things that God never held out to you are what let you down.

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1. Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, III:508.

2. Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, III:512.

3. Beeke and Smalley follow the standard, more simplified, twofold sense of the divine will: “The Scriptures speak of God’s will toward his creatures in two distinct senses: what they should do and what they will do … [or] a distinction between man’s moral duty to please God and God’s sovereign decree.” Reformed Systematic Theology, Vol. I (Wheaton: Crossway, 2019), 764.

4.  Watson, The Lord’s Prayer, 152.

5.  Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, II:233