Grace to you and peace in Jesus’ name. Amen.

In Luther’s Small Catechism the Second Petition of the Lord’s Prayer and the explanation are as follows:

Thy kingdom come.

What does this mean?
The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also.

How does God’s kingdom come?
God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.

After the fall into sin Adam and Eve hid from God’s arrival in the garden of Eden. In the perfection of the garden Adam and Eve sinned. Knowing God would be angry they camouflaged themselves with leaves and tried to get away from God. That day Adam and Eve were kicked out, not only of the Garden of Eden, but also out of God’s kingdom permanently and forever. They were dead to Him.¹

What has happened between then and now? Well this might be important because we are the children of Adam and Eve. We have inherited their sin. We, like them, have been kicked out of God’s kingdom. We are dead to God.² We are born into the same predicament Adam and Eve found themselves. We are soiled. We keep sinning. We’re going to die physically and there is nothing any of us can do about it. We have failed. God has judged. We are all going to Hell. That’s what “dead to God” means.

Yet in spite of all of that we dare to pray, “Thy³ kingdom come.” What are we doing when we turn to God and pray like this? What right do we have to address God like this, telling Him what He should do with His kingdom?

Adam and Eve, our first parents, were hoping in fear God would just go away, and here we are begging God to come back and deal with us. Our words say to God, ‘We want to see You again. We want to hear Your voice. We want to walk with You again. We want back into the garden with You.’ “Thy kingdom come” is a brazen thing for a condemned sinner to pray.

God demands perfection. If you are not perfect when God’s kingdom comes the penalty is death, eternal death, Hell. The Bible says, “We are dead in sin.⁴” “Thy kingdom come” is a dangerous thing for a sinner to pray. Yet it is because we are condemned sinners that we must in faith pray, “Thy kingdom come.”

What changed between then and now is this: Through Adam we are dead in sin, but we are alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.⁵ The first Adam (the son of God⁶) gave us fear of God. The Second Adam, Jesus (the Son of God⁷), gave us peace with God. Jesus took all our sin, our fear and our shame, and exchanged them with His resurrection life. In faith we are now eager to have God find us, eager to have God come to talk to us. That is what we are praying when we say, “Thy kingdom come.” We are saying God come and deal with us, please!

You see this really is a brave thing to pray, but in faith such requests can be made to our Sovereign Lord of Armies. Martin Luther said, “Faith is what makes us bold to approach God’s throne.” Faith holds God to His promises, because in faith we know God cannot lie,⁸ and God never changes.⁹ So in that context we ask God to come down, to deal with us personally. Just like Job did.¹⁰ Remember this is the very same God who walked and talked with Adam and Eve, who found them when they were hiding, who judged them and condemned them, but who also provided a way of salvation.¹¹

That is what happened between then and now. Understand there is no room for doubt here. This is what Jesus taught us to pray, and to pray in faith. He has promised God’s kingdom will come and we should expect it to. So what will happen between now and then?

Our life now is a paradox. It is an existence in which two things are always true, but both cannot be true at the same time. That’s called a paradox. In the Church we have a Latin phrase to explain this. It is “Simul Iustus et Peccator.” In English: “Simultaneously just and corrupt” or, “Simultaneously good in God’s eyes and evil in God’s eyes.”

So we live between Christ’s empty tomb, and eternity in Heaven. We are sinners but we are justified, made right, declared innocent. We live a life in which God’s kingdom has come, it will come, and it is coming, all at the same time. We are dead in sin, we are alive in Christ. Christ has come, and He has not yet come. We live in His grace waiting, watching and praying, while we live in trial and tribulation. We have joy in the Gospel, and sorrow under the Law. In a life described as a dark veil of tears, we can still sing our Easter Hallelujahs.¹² While our own dusty grave can bring us no peace, Jesus’ empty tomb gives us peace eternal. We are given the gift of Jesus’ resurrection, while we live now as children of God, but we are not yet fully resurrected.

The paradox are almost uncountable. This is what we pray, when we pray, “Thy kingdom come.” It is a bold, a brazen thing to pray. We are praying for God to reign over us as King, and to pour out His Holy Spirit on us so our faith, the faith He gives us, may never weaken or weary.¹³ We pray “God, call us by Your living Gospel¹⁴ voice that we would not hear from You the question, ‘Where are you?¹⁵’but rather the promise ‘Here I AM.¹⁶’ Place Your name on us O Lord. Deliver us from Death and the devil. Save us Lord from eternal starvation by feeding us with Jesus’ Sacred Body and Blood.¹⁷ Give to us new life and salvation.”

“Thy kingdom come” means, “God we have sinned, forgive us.” “The devil is seeking to devour us.¹⁸ God rescues us.” “We are dying God, deliver us from death.” “We are dead to You Lord, raise us up.¹⁹” “Judge us Lord, give us Your gift of eternal life.”

“Thy kingdom come” makes a lot of demands on God. The demands however are those things which God has told us to ask from Him because these are the things we need from Him to be saved.

In fact Jesus Himself has taught us to pray this very thing, to pray “Thy kingdom come.” He has promised it would, and we long for it to come soon.²⁰ Since we are praying for the things God tells us to ask of Him, will He not provide all that we ask?²¹ When we pray, “Thy kingdom come” all Christians pray with one singular voice together across all countries and continents that God in His grace would grant these things to us. To come and save us from sin, sin’s affect and ourselves.

In Jesus’ name.

Amen.

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