Dec 23
3
Baptist Catechism 110
Q. 110. What do we pray for in the third petition?
A. 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. (Matt. 6:10; Ps. 103:20,21; Ps. 25:4,5; Ps. 119:26)
Scripture Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:1–8
“Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8, ESV)
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Please excuse any typos and misspellings within this manuscript. It has been published online for the benefit of the saints of Emmaus Reformed Baptist Church but without the benefit of proofreading.
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In the third petition, we are to pray that God’s will be done. What is God’s will? In fact, the phrase, God’s will, can refer to two differnt things. On the one hand, “God’s will” is that which he has planned or decreed. On the other hand, “God’s will” is that which he has commanded us to do. I wonder, can you see the difference between the two ways of talking about God’s will?
Let me illustrate by asking you a question. What is God’s will for you and me tomorrow? Well, if we take “God’s will” to mean that which God has planned, then we must admit that we do not know what God’s will is for us tomorrow. How could we know? Only God knows! He knows the future (for he has decreed the future). You and I do not. So taken in this way, God’s will concerning the future is largely a mystery to us for, with the exception of what he has revealed about the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the judgment and condemnation, no one knows what his plans for the future are.
But if we take God’s will to mean that which God has commanded, then we can answer the question, what is God’s will for you and me tomorrow? What is God’s will for you and me tomorrow? In general, his will for us is that we trust him, obey him, and live for his glory.
Do you see the difference between the two ways of talking about God’s will? Theologians have terms for these two ways of talking about the will of God. God’s commanded will is sometimes called his prescriptive will, or his revealed will. What is God’s will for my life? Well, it is that I do what he has commanded, prescribed, and revealed in his word. God’s will concerning his specific plans for our lives is sometimes called his decreed or hidden will. We cannot know it ahead of time, but we can entrust ourselves to him as we submit to his specific will for us.
Please allow me to read a few Scripture texts to illustrate the different uses of the term. After reading a verse I will ask you, is this an example of God’s revealed will, or his hidden will?
1 Thessalonians 4:3 says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality…” Is this God’s revealed will, or his hidden will? Revealed! For here God tells us what he wants from us. He commands sanctification. He commands obedience.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Is this God’s revealed will, or his hidden will? Revealed! For here God tells us what he wants from us. He wants us to give thanks in all circumstances in Christ Jesus.
1 Peter 3:17 says, “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.” Is this a reference to God’s revealed will, or his hidden will? Here we have a reference to God’s hidden will. Is it the will of God that you or I suffer persecution in the future? I don’t know! Maybe. We will find out.
Listen now to James 4:13-15. “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’” Is this a reference to God’s revealed will or his hidden will? It is a reference to God’s hidden will – his plans for our future, which we do not know.
One more. 1 Peter 2:15 says, “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.” Revealed or hidden will? Revealed. God is here revealing that his will (command) for us is that we do good. This is how we are to “silence the ignorance of foolish people”, by doing good.
So let me ask you, what is God’s will for your life?
Will you get married, and if so, to whom? Some of you are saying, I know the answer to that! Well, yes. Because it’s happened! But for others, that question remains a mystery. What will you do for a living? Where will you live? What sorrows will you experience? What joys? How long will you live? All of these questions have to do with God’s hidden will for us. We will know only after these things happen.
But in another sense, we all know exactly what God’s will is for us. We are to progress in sanctification, avoid sexual immorality, give thanks in every circumstance, and do good. In general, we are to obey God’s law. We are to love God with all our being, and our neighbor as ourselves. This is God’s will for us.
Now, let me ask you this: What should we concern ourselves with – God’s revealed will, or his hidden will? Answer: we should devote ourselves to obeying God’s revealed will while at the same time submitting ourselves to his hidden will.
This is really what Jesus was teaching when he said, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:25–33, ESV).
If you will allow me to take this teaching from Jesus and relate it to the issue of God’s revealed and hidden will, I would say that Christ here teaches us to concern ourselves with God’s revealed will. “[S]eek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you…”, he says. And he commands us to not concern ourselves with issues pertaining to God’s hidden will. “[W]hich of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”, he asks. That’s a good question! In other words, what is the point of worrying about what the future holds? It accomplishes nothing! It only hurts us and others. What then are we to do with our concerns about God’s hidden will? There is nothing for us to do except live in prayerful and trustful submission to the Lord.
The third petition of the Lord’s prayer is about all of this. Q. 110. What do we pray for in the third petition? A. 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. (Matt. 6:10; Ps. 103:20,21; Ps. 25:4,5; Ps. 119:26)
When we pray “thy will be done” we are saying, Lord, give us more of your grace!
“Make us able…” In other words, give us the strength that we need.
And “make us… willing.” In other words, change our hearts – our appetites and affections.
So that we might “know” your will. What is this a reference to? It must be a reference to God’s revealed will. In other words, we are to pray that God would make us able and willing to know God’s law.
And furthermore, we are to pray that God would “make us able and willing to… obey… his will.” Again, this must be a reference to God’s revealed will, for only his revealed will (his law) can be obeyed.
Notice the distinction between knowing and obeying. It is one thing to know God’s word, it is another thing to obey it. Can you know God’s law and fail to obey it? Yes, people do that all of the time! But can you obey God’s law if you don’t know it? No, to obey God’s law you must know what it says. So we are to pray that God will graciously enable us both to know God’s law and to obey it. Or to put in the terminology of James 1:22, we are to pray that the Lord would empower us to “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving [ourselves]” (James 1:22, ESV).
Lastly, we are to pray that God “would make us able and willing to… submit to His will in all things.” I think the language of submission here pertains to God’s hidden, secret, or mysterious will. What are we to do with God’s revealed will? We are to know it and obey it! What are we to do with God’s hidden will? Well, what else can we do except submit ourselves to it?
Christians are to know and obey God’s revealed will, and they are to humbly and patiently submit themselves to his hidden will. I don’t know what is harder! Sometimes we really struggle to obey what God has commanded, and sometimes we really struggle to surrender ourselves to what God has decreed. We are to pray for his gracious aid in both things.
The catechism answer ends with this little remark, “as the angels do in heaven.” That’s pretty cool to think about. In heaven there are elect angels. These angels did not rebel in the beginning, nor will they ever rebel. They worship and serve God faithfully day and night. They obey him always, and they submit themselves to his decree. Our aim is to be like them in this regard. Lord, help us.
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Conclusion
Q. 110. What do we pray for in the third petition?
A. 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. (Matt. 6:10; Ps. 103:20,21; Ps. 25:4,5; Ps. 119:26)
