The 10 Commandments & the Lord's Prayer
Introduction
In his book on the 10 Commandments, Kevin DeYoung invites us to consider the goodness of God’s moral law by imagining a world where everyone obeys the Ten Commandments.
“Have you ever thought about how much better life would be if everyone kept the Ten Commandments? We may grumble about rules and regulations, but think of what an amazing place the world would be if these ten rules were obeyed. If everyone kept the Ten Commandments, we wouldn't need copyright laws, patent laws, or intellectual property rights. We wouldn't need locks on our doors or fraud protection. We wouldn't have to spend money on weapons and defense systems. We wouldn’t need courts, contracts, or prisons. Can you imagine what life would be like if people obeyed the Ten Commandments? The law is not an ugly thing; it is good and righteous and holy (Rom. 7:12).”
What a world that would be! Life would be so good and so beautiful in ways we can hardly imagine now.
And while that may seem like a pipe dream or a utopian vision reserved only for the new heavens and new earth, Jesus means for us not only to imagine such a world, but to pray for it.
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). When we pray those words, what exactly are we asking of the Father?
Thy Will
First, we are praying that the will of God would be done.
Many Christians, when they think of “the will of God,” think of big life decisions—where God wants them to go to college, who God wants them to marry, what job God wants them to take, whether God wants them to do this or that.
But throughout Scripture the will of God refers most commonly, not to God’s will of personal life directions, but to God’s will of decree and God’s will of desire.
God’s will of decree is God’s sovereign plan and purpose that God is absolutely accomplishing. This is what God has ordained, the sovereign will of God that cannot be thwarted. In Acts 4:27–28, the disciples pray, “For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place” (emphasis added).
In Ephesians 1:11, Paul writes, “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (emphasis added). God is sovereignly, wisely, and righteously ruling over all things to accomplish his perfect will. God’s will of decree cannot be stopped or subverted. It can’t be derailed or broken. God confidently declares that he always accomplishes all his sovereign will.
“For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’” (Isaiah 46:9–10, emphasis added).
God’s will of desire, however, is his moral will. In his Word—and specifically in his law—God has revealed which human attitudes and actions please him and which displease him. Unlike God’s inviolable will of decree, God’s will of desire can be disobeyed.
God does not always tell us what he is up to or why he is orchestrating events in a particular way, but God has revealed his moral will through his law. The Ten Commandments summarize the moral will of God.
“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.” (Deuteronomy 29:29).
So when we pray, “Thy will be done,” we are asking God to bring about more obedience to his moral will revealed in the Ten Commandments. We are asking God to convert rebels into obedient sons, to regenerate dead and unresponsive hearts into hearts of flesh that feel affection for God and desire to walk in his ways (Ezekiel 36:26–27).
Be Done
Next, we pray, “Thy will be done.” We do not pray that God’s will would merely be talked about, studied, or posted on the walls in schools. All of that would be a good start, but Jesus taught us to pray for much more. We ask the Father to cause people to do his will.
Jesus warned, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21, emphasis added). Since Jesus distinguishes between those who do the Father’s will and those who don’t, we know he is talking about the moral will of God.
We pray first for ourselves as Christians, that we would grow in our joyful obedience to God from the heart. This is sanctification—becoming more and more like Christ in our actual lives. As the author of Hebrews writes,
“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Hebrews 13:20–21, emphasis added).
We also pray that God will rescue “sons of disobedience,” make them alive with Christ, and cause them to walk in his ways (Ephesians 2:1–10). When God saves sinners, he turns them from darkness to light (Colossians 1:13), from idols to the true God (1 Thessalonians 1:9), and from disobedience to obedience (Romans 6:17). This is the new covenant promise.
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Hebrews 8:10, cited from Jeremiah 31:33).
Through the prophet Ezekiel, God says, “And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:27).
In the new covenant and through the preaching of the gospel, the Spirit of God is changing people from the inside out so that they delight to obey God. Every time a sinner is converted, God is fulfilling his promise and answering the petitions of his people.
On Earth
Finally, we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus taught us to pray that increasing obedience to the Father would happen here and now. We know that God’s will is already done in Heaven and will be done in Heaven forever. What we pray for is that more people on earth would come to know, trust, and obey Jesus.
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul describes the course of history as increasing obedience to Jesus as Lord.
“Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:24–26, emphasis added).
Jesus is ruling and reigning now, and he will continue to reign forever. Obedience to Jesus is not relegated merely to a future age. Jesus is presently putting all his enemies under his feet, and then will come the resurrection, when Jesus destroys death forever.
This does not detract from our hope in the bodily return of Jesus, it increases it. Praying for more obedience to God on earth does not minimize our longing for heaven, it magnifies it. Paul ties these two things together—increasing obedience on earth and eager longing for the return of Christ—when he writes,
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:11–14, emphasis added).
The appearing of Jesus is our blessed hope. And until then, the grace of God that has already appeared in Christ is saving and training people to grow in godliness in the present age.
Conclusion
God’s ways are so much better than our ways, and his commands mark out for us the way of life. Our desire to see Jesus exalted and trusted in all the earth motivates us to pray for more obedience to the Father. As we work through the Ten Commandments in our current series through Exodus, let’s pray earnestly as Jesus taught us: “Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”