Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heave

Last night was Dr Gerald Bray's second lecture, focusing on the second part of the Lord's Prayer. Again, it was an engaging, thoughtful and pastorally sensitive call to obedience as we explored the nature of God's kingdom and his will. I was particularly struck when he said 'the spiritual battlefield starts in our own hearts and lives.' As he spoke about Jesus' task on earth, he reminded us that he came not to esablish a new empire that is of this world, but rather to bring in a totally new kingdom - he overthrows Satan's kingdom in one afternoon, where on the cross he becomes sin for us, destroying sin and the power of sin in one move. the stark challenge for us is whether we will seek after the praise and glory of this world, or whether we will listen to God's word and believe that he has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and seek after the heavenly kingdom.

There were a few interesting thoughts to ponder further. Dr Bray put forward the view that when Jesus descended to the dead that he preached to the dead, and seemed to imply that there were people who were converted by his preaching and rose to heaven with him. I have heard this before (ie it is not novel and draws on 1/2 Peter) but I'm not quite sure what I think of it.

The second thing that came out again was the dual natures of Jesus. In reflecting on the need for God's will to be done, Dr Bray indicated that while God does not have 2 wills, that Jesus did - one according to his divine nature and one according to his human nature. He was conscious of not being Nestorian at this point and sought to hold the two together by way of the single person of Christ. While this one person has two natures, the natures do not exist separate of the person. Thus he argued that at Gethsemane Jesus according to his human nature expressed the very natural human will to live, but in submission to his Father's will learnt obedience and chose to die. it was only by surrendering that he learnt obedience. This for me raised another set of questions that we did not get to explore which goes to the nature of the Father/Son relationship in eternity. Is it necessary to have a contrary will and submit to that will to learn obedience? Was not the eternal son always obedient to the Father, but virtue of their relationship? Is there not something about the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son that made it entirely appropriate and for the Son to come and submit in obedience to the Father here on earth? Is this not the way that we can truly have access to the Father, because what the Son reveals to us in the economy is true of his very nature?

Lots to ponder, be encouraged by.