The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1907, Page 58

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

58 The Lutheran Pioneer.

but att the way. It is not the work of Christ and
something added that brings us to heaven, but the
work of Christ alone, apart from anything and
everything we can do or feel. He that tries to get
to heaven by partly trusting in Christ’s work and
partly in his own work is like the man who tried
to cross a stream by walking on a sound plank and
on a rotten plank at the same time. He fell into
the water. So they who partly trust in the right-
eousness of Christ and partly in their own right-
eousness will surely fail of eternal life. For Christ
says, “I am the way.” Trust in Him, in Him alone,
for salvation. You will then be on the only way
that leads to heaven, and knowing the blessedness
of such a one you will surely wish to bring others
into the same way, so that they also may enjoy true
happiness and be made heirs of eternal life. There
are so many that know not the only way to heaven,
so many that choose their own ways, by which they
are led into everlasting woe. ‘To these the Gospel
of Christ must be preached, by which they are
brought into the way to everlasting bliss. This is
done by our missionaries in church and school.
Let us help them with our prayers and our gifts!

The Lord’s Prayer.

THE SECOND PETITION.
Thy kingdom come.

What does this mean?
The kingdom of God comes indced without our
prayer, of itself; but we pray in this petition that
tt may come unto us also.

How is this done?

When our heavenly Father gives us His Holy
Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy
Word, and lead a godly life, here in time, and here-
after in eternity.

In the First Petition we asked that, God’s name
be hallowed; here we pray that God’s kingdom
come. ‘These two go hand in hand. Just as a
king’s name is honored in his own kingdom, so
God’s name is hallowed by the people of His king-
dom. Of course, the kingdom of God for whose
coming we here pray cannot be the kingdom of
power, since this kingdom already includes all crea-
tures in heaven, earth, and hell, and hence cannot

increase. Nay, the kingdom here spoken of is that

kingdom to which Luther refers in his explanation
of the Second Article when he says that Christ has

redeemed me from the power of the devil, that
I may be Jesus’ own, “and live under Him in His
kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteous-
ness, innocence, and blessedness.” It is a kingdom
that begins here in time through the Word and
faith and continues forever in glory. By nature we
are the slaves of the devil and lie in the bonds of
sin, awaiting with fear and trembling the hour of
death which will be followed by judgment and hell.
But Christ has founded a kingdom in opposition to
this empire of the devil, a kingdom of grace, in
which He offers and gives His subjects’ forgiveness
of sin, peace with God, life, and salvation. Here
in time the subjects of Christ’s kingdom live in
peace and happiness under the gracious rule of
their King, and when He comes again, He will lead
them into His eternal kingdom of bliss and glory.

The kingdom of grace has indeed now already
come to us without our prayer, of itself. God sent
His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to redeem
us from our enemies and make us His own, and
He has, besides, given us His Holy Ghost to en-
lighten and strengthen us by His holy Word in
the faith. All this He did without our prayer; for
it was not until He had made us subjects of His
kingdom of grace that we knew how to pray. And
yet we pray, “Thy kingdom come” to us! In us
still dwells our wicked flesh, and this flesh is a part
of the devil’s kingdom and is loyal to its king. We
therefore here ask God that He would increase our
faith by the Holy Ghost through the Word, so that,
day after day, we may grow in holiness and die
unto sin. In short, we here ask God to make us
better Christians, more loyal subjects of His king-
dom of grace. ;

But we do not pray for ourselves only: in our
prayer we also include those who are not yet the
subjects of the King of grace. Christ tells us
John 3, 5: “Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God.” Knowing this to be the case that no man
can come into God’s kingdom except he be born
again, and also knowing that this complete change
of mind, this regeneration, can only be brought
about by the working of the Holy Ghost through
the Word and the Sacraments, we pray God that
He would give His Holy Spirit to others as He has
done to us, that they may become our fellow-citizens
in the kingdom of grace and heirs with us of
the kingdom of glory. We pray the Lord of the
harvest that He would send forth laborers into His
harvest, Matt. 9, 38, that is, preachers and mis-

aoa