The Kingdom to Come

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come…”—Matthew 6:9-10

The prayer of the Christian is always for the manifestation of Christ’s kingdom. To be sure, Christ has already come. He has accomplished the purpose for which He was sent, the salvation of many souls (cf. Matthew 20:28, John 6:39 ). And when He was dying on the cross, He uttered some of the sweetest words ever to be heard by human ears, “It is finished” (John 19:30). It was finished. There would be no more striving, no more hopelessness, no more futility, and no more death. Christ Himself conquered death and salvation was made available to all who would come to Him in repentance and faith. He ascended into heaven and then sat down at the right hand of God the Father, waiting for the time when His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet (Hebrews 10:12-13). Therefore, He rules now with all of the angels, authorities and powers subject to Him (1 Peter 3:22), waiting for the full actualization of His rule on earth. So though He rules from heaven now, there is coming a day when He will rule both in heaven and on earth (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10; Revelation 11:5).

When the believer prays for Christ’s kingdom to come, he or she is praying that Christ’s rule might be actualized NOW, in other words, the manifestation of Christ’s kingdom might be seen in the fruit and fabric of our lives. All believers in Christ make up His church and it is the church against which the gates of hell will not prevail (Matthew 16:18). It is also through the mystery of the church that the “manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 3:10). It is through living our lives in subjection to Christ that His kingdom is made manifest and the lost are evangelized. We pray for Christ to come, but as He tarries, our prayers are for His presence to be made manifest in our lives.

May our prayer match His prayer, and may the rule of Christ and His kingdom be made manifest in our lives so that the world may know that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Savior of the world. Amen.