A Gospel-Centered Look at The Lord’s Prayer: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10)

If someone said to you, “Your main problem in life is that you want your will over God’s will,” how would you respond? If that were said to me, I would probably say something like this, “Tell me something I don’t already know. I’m very aware of what my main problem is. I know that God’s will is not done in my life like it is done in heaven. So rather than just telling me what my main problem is, why don’t you also tell me what the solution is.”

“Well,” he says, “the solution is to ask the Father that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven, that His will be done in your life as it is done in the lives of those in heaven.”

I respond, “So you are telling me that the solution to my main problem in life is simply to habitually ask God to do this?”

“Yes, ask, wait, and strive to obey. Well, you’ll need to read your Bible, identify biblical principles, and daily apply them to your life too.”

“Oh, okay, I now understand. What you are essentially telling me is that in order for God’s will to be done in my life as it’s done in heaven, I need to tell God daily that I want His will to be done in my life as it is in heaven and then just do it? That does make sense. After all, Jesus did instruct us to petition the Father that His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. But I do have one last question. Where’s the gospel in all of this? Where is the good news in all you’ve told me? If the bad news is that I don’t do God’s will as I ought, what’s the good news?”

That’s the question that I wish to address in this post. Where is the gospel in this petition of Matthew 6:10? How did Matthew envision this petition being answered? How should we envision this petition being answered when we consider it in the light of the entirety of Matthew’s Gospel?

It seems to me that the overarching desire of the Lord’s Prayer is for the realization of God’s ultimate purpose for Israel and the entire world. The programmatic statement for Matthew’s Gospel is found in the angel’s announcement of the Son of God’s birth to Joseph. “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Everything in the Gospel of Matthew fits within that programmatic statement. The genealogy that opens Matthew’s Gospel is clear. God’s people are suffering under the exile of sin and death because of their sins. So God himself, Emmanuel, has come to save them. Matthew will not permit us to think that God’s ultimate purpose for Israel and the world can be achieved in any other way. If it is to be achieved, it will be achieved in Jesus the Messiah, God’s Messiah. I believe that the Lord’s Prayer in general, and verse 10 in particular, has Matthew 1:21 in view. The only way the Father’s will can be done on earth as it is in heaven is if His Messiah—the one anointed by the Spirit—fulfills his redemptive mission. The redemptive mission of the Messiah is the foundation upon which the Lord’s Prayer rests.

What I find significant in understanding the foundation upon which this request rests is what happens when Jesus is on the brink of bringing his redemptive mission to its completion.

Matthew 26:42 Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done."

Can you hear the echo of Matthew 6:10 when you read these words? “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done [on earth as it is in heaven].” In his hour of deepest grief and agony—when our resolve would have long melted away, when the last thing we would have desired at such a time was for the Father’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven—Jesus essentially took the petition of Matthew 6:10, which he gave to his disciples, to us, upon his own lips. When he stood on the very brink of bringing his redemptive mission to its climax, its completion, Jesus prayed, “Your will be done on earth, right now in these cosmically important moments, as it is in heaven.” And that is exactly what happens. The Father’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Shortly thereafter, Jesus drank the full cup of the Father’s wrath, and after he cried out “It is finished!” he yielded up his spirit. The Father’s will was done and redemption was accomplished. Jesus did indeed save his people from their sins.

But Matthew's Gospel does not end there. There's also the resurrection. So how does the resurrection relate to everything we've just discussed? Well, it’s not only the definitive proof that the will of the Father was done on earth as it is in heaven, but also what powerfully moves the petition of Matthew 6:10 forward for us who take it up onto our lips. Notice how Matthew’s Gospel closes. The resurrected Messiah stands before his disciples on a mountain in Galilee and says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to observe [to do the will of God as seen in] all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18-20). Do you not hear the echo of Matthew 6:10 again? Jesus basically says to his disciples in Matthew 6, “Pray to the Father that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. For I have come to save you from your sins. And when I have finished my mission, all authority in heaven and on earth will be given to me. Therefore, you can pray in great confidence because it is through my life, death, and resurrection that your petition will be granted.”

So where is the gospel in Matthew 6:10? The good news is that it is through the one who has been given all authority for having obeyed the Father’s will in accomplishing redemption that the petition of Matthew 6:10 is answered. God will not grant our request because we have asked, waited, and strived to obey, or because we have read our Bibles, identified biblical principles, and daily applied them to our lives. Fervency in prayer and determination in obedience are not the basis for answered prayer. The ultimate ground and basis for answered prayer is the work of the Messiah who took our prayer upon his own lips and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross—even as he submitted himself to the death of sinners. It is this one who has been raised and given all authority in heaven and on earth. It is in his name that we can confidently and joyfully pray, “Father, your will be done in our lives as it is in heaven.”

This is what people like me need to hear. When Jesus took up Matthew 6:10 upon his lips in the garden three times, the disciples were taking up something too, namely, sleep. Prior to his thrice-repeated prayer, Jesus told Peter, James, and John that his soul was very sorrowful, even to death, the he wanted them to watch, to keep awake with him (Matthew 26:38). Jesus then went a little farther on and took up the petition of Matthew 6:10 three times upon his own lips as he faced the prospect of being forsaken by the Father, of drinking the full cup of the Father's wrath against sin. After Jesus prayed the first time, he came to Peter, James, and John and found them sleeping. So he said to Peter, "So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit inded is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:40-42). It is after this that Jesus goes and prays the same petition two more times.

Here is what strikes me about this episode. The disciples are willing that the Father's will be done on earth as it is in heaven, but their flesh is weak. In the hour of their Messiah's greatest need they were willing but weak. So what does Jesus do? He takes up Matthew 6:10 upon his lips two more times. "Father, your will be done on earth in this hour as it is in heaven." And again, "Father, your will be done on earth in this hour as it is in heaven." And then he goes to the cross and dies the sinner's death. But that's not the end. A New Day dawns on the morning of his resurrection—the day when our weakness is overcome with the strength of Resurrection Life! It is this one who stands before Peter, James, and John on a mountain in Galilee and says, "All authority to do the will of the Father in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore..." (Matthew 28:18-19).

So when we take the Lord's Prayer up onto our lips, we must not lose sight of the life, death, and resurrection of our Messiah. We can confidently take that prayer up onto our lips because we have been taken up into the Messiah as the one who lived, and died, and was raised in our place. Our obedience is not the strength of our prayer. Jesus, the Lord of the whole earth, is the strength of our prayer. So pray today with great confidence in the name of the Messiah.