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c. His mediatorial sacrifice
In the symbolism of Old Testament worship, the altar of sacrifice stood at the entrance of the tabernacle court. The presence of the holy God brought the threat of death as the just punishment of sin. The priest could enter into the presence of God only with the blood of an animal victim. The animal, in a figure, bore the guilt of sin; the blood was evidence that the price had been paid and that the demands of justice had been met.
The blood of bulls and goats, however, could not take away sin. The language of pictorial symbolism pointed to the reality of a divine transaction. Not an animal, but a man must bear human sin. No mere man, however, could pay the price of sin. God did not require Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Not the son of Abraham, but the Son of God was given: the Lord did provide (Gen. 22:14; Rom. 8:32). Jesus Christ, our High Priest, entered the Holy of Holies in heaven itself, not by means of the sacrifice of an animal, but through his own blood (Heb. 9:12). He, the Priest, is also the sacrifice. He offered himself without blemish to God through his eternal spirit: that is, not just as man, but as God the Son (9:14).
Through the ritual of Old Testament sacrifices, God revealed the meaning of Christ's atonement. Our approach to God in prayer is not first a question of our preparation to pray; it is a question of Christ's preparation on our behalf. His atonement is an objective transaction. He is the 'propitiation' of our sins; that is, he satisfied the righteous judgment of God against our sin (Heb. 2:17; Rom. 3:25, 26). He bore our sins (Heb. 9:28); that is, he bore the punishment due to them. The debt is marked 'paid'; our sins are no more remembered against us (Heb. 10:17). The alienation of sin is overcome; the way is opened into the presence of God (Heb. 9:24; 10:20). The power of sin and Satan is broken; we are redeemed (Heb. 2:14, 15).
Christ's offering presented, once for all, the all-sufficient sacrifice for sin. Unlike the Old Testament sacrifices that were repeated, day after day, Christ's sacrifice is unrepeatable (Heb. 7:27; 9:12, 27; 10:10-13). Christ has finished his offering of himself: he is no longer the Victim but the Victor, seated in glory at the right hand of God (Heb. 10:12, 13). The doctrine of the repetition of the sacrifice of Christ in the 'bloodless sacrifice' of the mass contradicts the Scripture, and intrudes men into an office that only Christ possesses.
d. His mediatorial ministry
Our prayer may be addressed to God only through Christ's atonement. But the Lord who died now lives, and now mediates our prayers to God. His ministry is royal: he governs all things, both now and in the world to come (Heb. 2:8). His kingdom, his rule cannot be shaken (12:28; 3: 13). We come in confidence to pray, for we know that Christ has the power to accomplish the will of God for our salvation. In prayer we look to Jesus who is not only above us but also before us. We run the race with patience because Jesus has finished his course. He is the Pioneer, the Founder and the Finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:2).
As we pray, we have confidence because of the finished work of Christ and his royal glory. But to this is added the joy of knowing that he ever lives to make intercession for us (Heb. 7:25). In the weakness and confusion that often surrounds our praying we take heart in the knowledge that Jesus represents us before the throne of God (Heb. 7:26; 9:24). Charles Wesley voiced that assurance in his hymn:
Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears
The bleeding Sacrifice in my behalf appears;
Before the throne my Surety stands:
My name is written on his hands.
Because our Representative stands in the sanctuary, we may find our refuge there; our hope is anchored within the veil (Heb. 6:18-20). We pray in awe, knowing that our God is a consuming fire (12:28, 29), but we also pray in bold confidence (4:16), for heaven is our refuge. From all the accusations against us we can appeal to our Advocate at the throne of grace.
In the days of his flesh, Jesus prayed with tears (Heb. 5:7, 8); we may be sure of his compassion as he leads us through suffering to the joy that is set before us (Heb. 2:17, 18; 4:15, 16). He ever lives to intercede; there can be no limit to his power to save. As he prayed for his own before his death, so he intercedes now with his Father (John 17).
Jesus who prays for us in heaven also leads our worship on earth. In the midst of the congregation he sings his Father's praise (Heb. 2:12; Ps. 22:22). It is by the Spirit that Christ is present, and by the Spirit that he enables us to pray with him. On the one hand, therefore, we come in prayer and worship to where Jesus is in the midst of the heavenly assembly of the saints and the angels (Heb. 12:22-24). On the other hand, Jesus comes to pray with us as we gather to worship the Father in his name (Heb. 10:25).
B. Prayer in the Spirit
1. The presence of the Spirit
The ministry of Christ, then, is not only in heaven, but in the midst of his people. He is present by his Spirit, sent from the throne. He promised not to leave his disciples orphans, but to come to them (John 14:18). In the coming of Christ by the Spirit we are given a deposit on the final inheritance that is ours (Eph. 1:13, 14; 2 Cor. 1:22; Rom. 8:23).
The Holy Spirit makes Christ present to us; he communicates to us the blessings that we receive from Christ. On the one hand, the Spirit is the Giver, the Lord himself who is with us. On the other hand, the Spirit is the Gift: the pledge that we receive of the full blessing that is ours. The power of the Spirit endued the church at Pentecost, ushering in the harvest season of God's redemptive work. Jesus said that it was good that he should go away, in order that the Spirit might come (John 16:7). The work that Christ has done for us is not left as a future inheritance. It is accompanied by the work that Christ does in us as he gives us his Spirit. In this time of the Spirit we are exhorted to pray in the Spirit (Eph. 6:18). Through the Spirit the rich fellowship of the new covenant becomes our possession and experience.
The figure of the temple as God's dwelling was fulfilled, as we saw, in Christ. In the incarnation God made his dwelling with men (John 1:14). Christ came to bring us to God, and to bring God to us. By his coming in the Spirit, Christ dwells in us. We are made temples of God by that fact. The Father, too, has come to us in the Spirit (John 14:23); the church is the house of God, made to be a dwelling of God in the Spirit (Eph. 2:20). The saving work of Christ is applied to our hearts by the Spirit (1 Cor. 6:11). The Spirit works to purify us so that individually and in the body of the church we may be a holy temple to the Lord (1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19).
Prayer therefore requires consecration. We must present our bodies a living sacrifice to God (Rom. 12:1, 2). The church, too, in order to pray to God acceptably, must strive to be holy, and not be defiled by sin (1 Cor. 3:17; 2 Cor. 6:16-7:1).
The immediate presence of the Spirit of the Lord that requires holiness also offers fellowship. The Spirit opens heights and depths of the love of God that the saints can measure only together, clasping, as it were, their outstretched hands (Eph. 3:14-19). Paul prays that the church might be filled with the richness of God himself. That filling comes from knowing the dimensions of the love of Christ. Our knowledge of the indwelling Christ is, in turn, the work of the Spirit. Paul speaks of being filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18), with Christ (1:23), with God (3:19). Together with all the saints we grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. Filled with the Spirit, the Lord's people speak to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Through the indwelling word of Christ, the Spirit grants wisdom for the praises of the new people of God (Col. 3:16).
Worship in the Spirit together implies individual worship in the Spirit. The Spirit, as the Spirit of Christ, is the Spirit of sonship. By the Spirit we cry 'Abba' (Rom. 8:15,16). The Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God.
Paul also speaks of the intercession of the Spirit for us (Rom. 8:26, 27). [36] As Christians endure suffering, waiting for the coming glory, they are reminded that the whole creation is also waiting to be delivered from bondage into the 'liberty of the glory of the children of God' (Rom. 8:21). As the creation waits, it groans. We, too, even though we have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly (8:23). We have the Spirit of adoption, but we have not yet experienced that resurrection glory to which the Spirit leads us. That adoption is still in store. Amazingly, even the Spirit groans (8:26). The groaning of the Spirit takes place as the Spirit makes intercession for us. We are weak, we do not know how to pray as we should. The Spirit comes to our aid, helps our weakness. This weakness does not describe a particular time of depression; rather, it describes our situation in this time while we await the glory to come. Even though we already experience a taste of glory in the fellowship of the Spirit, we still wait with the created order for the day of the Lord. In our weakness, we do not know how to pray according to the will of God. We know that for those who love God all things work together for good. We know that we must pray for God's will to be done and his kingdom to come. But we do not know what God's will is in our immediate situation. In our weakness and suffering we cry out to him for relief, but we do not know how he is leading us, or what will be for our good and his glory.
In our need the Holy Spirit is our Helper. He prays for us, not at the right hand of God, but as the indwelling Spirit of Christ. His prayers are according to the will of God, for he knows that will perfectly. Yet he prays with us as well as for us. He makes our groaning (cf. v.23) his groaning; by his presence in our hearts he brings his will to expression through the groans of our yearning. Although the groans of the Spirit are inexpressible in the depth of their yearning for us, they communicate effectually with God. God, who searches our hearts, knows the mind of the Spirit expressed in the groanings within us. The intercession of the Spirit is answered as God works all things for our good (v.28).
2. The gifts of the Spirit
The Spirit, then, makes Christ present in our hearts, testifies to our adoption, and prays for us with inexpressible groanings. The Spirit also furnishes us with the fruit and gifts of his provision. All the Christian graces bear upon prayer. The love of God poured out in our hearts by the Spirit quickens the response of our love, which is the fruit of the Spirit (Rom. 5:5; Gal. 5:22). Love for God draws us to seek his face; it kindles our love for others, love that will sustain persevering prayer for them (1 Pet. 4:7, 8). The patience of the Spirit sustains prayer without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). The Spirit who intercedes for us grants us gifts to intercede for one another. The strength of prevailing prayer lies in the faith the Spirit gives (Jas. 5:13-18). Like other spiritual gifts, gifts for prayer are blessed in their exercise. We are struck by the number of people mentioned in Paul's letters as the objects of his prayers. He prayed fervently for others, and asked others to pray for him (Eph. 6:18-20; Col. 4:3; 1 Thess. 5:25).
Wisdom as a gift of the Spirit guides us in praying. To recognise the depth of our need and incapacity, and the groaning of the Spirit on our behalf, is not to deny the blessing of the Spirit in giving us a measure of understanding in the word of Christ. In that wisdom we may sing with one another, praise God together, and pray for one another (Col. 1:9; 3:16). The wisdom that we need to pray aright may itself be prayed for (Jas. 1:5).
3. Union with Christ in the Spirit
The work of Christ as the heavenly Mediator guarantees access to the Father's throne for those who are 'in Christ', those whom he represents. But, as we have seen, we are not only in Christ; Christ is in us. That is to say, Christ not only stands in our place, he also dwells in our hearts. Union with Christ is vital as well as representative. It is by the Spirit that Christ comes to us and abides with us (1 John 4:12-16). Jesus gave the Spirit by inbreathing the disciples in the upper room after the resurrection (John 20:22, 23). Even before the Spirit was sent from the throne, the disciples were united to Christ by the Spirit of his resurrection.
The fellowship of the Spirit is a sharing in the Spirit; we live by the Spirit of life given to us. We are made 'partakers of the Spirit' and of Christ (Heb. 6:4; 3:14). Peter teaches that God gives us everything we need for life and godliness in order that, through his precious promises, we might participate in the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). J. B. Mayor well asks, 'For what else is it to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, but to be partakers of the divine nature, a participation promised in answer to prayer?’ [37] Mayor also points out that this fellowship in the Spirit must be distinguished from Greek assertions of man's equality with God, and also from unguarded statements found in Athanasius and other early church fathers. [38] The closeness of fellowship created by the Spirit does not absorb us into deity. We do not lose our identity as God's creatures as we are transformed in likeness to Christ (2 Cor. 3: 18). The Spirit continues to witness to our spirits; the distinction remains in even the deepest experience of loving union (Rom. 8:16).
Knowing God, loving God, worshipping God: in this way our union with Christ in the Spirit finds expression. Paul continually prays for the saints that this may be their experience (Eph. 1:17-23; Col. 1:9-11; Phil. 1:9). The Spirit pours out in our hearts the love that God has for us (Rom. 5:5). He causes us to be aware of the infinite dimensions of that measureless love. That awareness yields overwhelming awe and the supreme delight of human existence. It tastes of heaven and the glory to come. Prayer rightly seeks the joy that the presence of the Spirit brings, the knowledge of the Father and the Son. Yet that joy must not be sought in itself. The supreme desire of one in whom the Spirit dwells is the desire that the Spirit gives: the glory of God. The highest aim of prayer is not to experience transports of delight but to bring joy to the Father's heart.
C. Prayer to the Father
1. Prayer to the First Person of the Trinity
Jesus taught his disciples to pray, 'Our Father'. Are we to address all prayer to the Father? May we also pray to Jesus Christ, or to the Holy Spirit? Should we pray to the triune God without disctinction of Persons? Christians are sometimes confused. Paul Tillich argued against the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity from the practice of prayer. [39] Tillich contended that if we address prayer to one of the Persons of the Trinity, distinguishing that person from the others, we are denying the unity of the Godhead. In effect we are worshipping one God of three. On the other hand, if we make no distinction, we are simply praying to God, not to a Trinity.
The New Testament teaches prayer to the Son as well as to the Father. [40] The worship of the whole creation is offered to the Lamb as well as to God in the heavenly scene (Rev. 5:13). To Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess (Phil. 2:9, 10; cf. Rom 14:11, where the same worship is ascribed to the Father). 'Lord' (Kyrios) is used for the covenant name of God in the Greek Old Testament; that name is applied to Jesus in the New Testament in the context of worship. Stephen's two prayers at his martyrdom are addressed to the Lord Jesus and to the Lord (Acts 7:59, 60). Peter does not hesitate to apply to Christ a passage from Isaiah describing in the most intense fashion the worship of God. Isaiah says that God's people are to fear the Lord of Hosts and hallow his name (Isa. 8:13). Peter uses the words of the passage, but inserts Christ as Lord (1 Pet. 3:15). The Old Testament phrase 'calling on the name of the Lord' is used where the name of Christ is in view (Acts 9:21). Jesus will do what we ask of him in his name (John 14:14). [41] The disciples are not orphaned; they may still go to the Lord with their requests (John 14:18).
The New Testament does not teach explicitly prayer to the Spirit, but the deity of the Spirit is affirmed, and the Spirit is said to function as our Advocate (parakletos: John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7; 1 John 2:1). That function in itself makes prayer appropriate: we address One who, like the Son of God, represents us and pleads our cause, our 'case'; [42] to pray to the Spirit is to recognise both his deity and his work on our behalf.
Tillich's objection against the doctrine of the Trinity is not sustained by the Christian practice of prayer. Prayer does not remove all the mystery. We cannot explain by analogy to human life how there can be one God while the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are equally God. In prayer, as in theology, we may misconceive the teaching of Scripture and think of the three Persons as three Gods. But prayer, drawing us into communion with God, makes it easier, not harder, to confess the triune God. Calvin writes: 'I am exceedingly pleased with this observation of Gregory of Nazianzen: "I cannot think of the one, but I am immediately surrounded with the splendour of the three; nor can I clearly discover the three, but I am suddenly carried back to the one."’ [43] Those words of the Cappadocian father reflect experience in prayer and meditation. As we have seen, the very term 'Father' reminds us of the Son in whom the Father is revealed; we know that the cry of sonship issues from the Spirit of adoption. The Spirit of adoption is the Spirit of fatherhood as well as sonship. We experience the reality of sonship as the Spirit makes the Father present with us, and as he unites us with the Son.
2. Prayer to the Father in the Son through the Spirit
Paul Tillich's objection must be set aside, but it provides an important warning. Our prayer is always directed to the triune God. We dare not address the Father without awareness of the Son. To do so would be to fail to pray in the name of Jesus. Nor should we pray without recognising that the Lord is present to help us, present in the abiding reality of the Holy Spirit. To be sure, in our weakness and finitude, we may think now of the Father, now of the Son, now of the Spirit. Yet we do sense that our prayer is to the Trinity. The Spirit who makes intercession for us guides our praying, for he witnesses to the Father and to the Son.
Here, too, the Scripture gives sure guidance. Clearly prayer in the New Testament is addressed to the Father. In the teaching of Jesus, in the record of Acts, in the Epistles, Christian believers bow to the Father from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named (Eph. 3:14). Does this uniform practice ignore or replace prayer to the Trinity? Not at all; rather, it is in addressing the Father that we can best respond to the full revelation of the Trinity. It would be foolish (indeed, blasphemous) to imagine a kind of jealousy within the Trinity, as though the Son would feel slighted by our appeal to the Father. Indeed, such a travesty is in no way possible. We cannot turn our backs to the Son in order to address the Father. The Father will not hear such prayer. Only as we come in the name of the Son can we pray to the Father.
Prayer to the Father is not a limitation of our prayer. It does not exclude Christ, but confesses the purpose for which he gave his life. He came, not only to claim those that the Father had given him, but to bring them to the Father, losing none of them (John 17:12). The triumph of the work of the Son is to make us acceptable to the Father through him (John 16:27).
Prayer to the Father exhibits the consciousness of sonship that crowns prayer in Christ. The total submission of prayer, its utter trust, looks to Jesus Christ. He is Lord; we come to him with our burden of sin and receive forgiveness and life. Yet when Jesus receives us to himself and unites us to himself we are more than delivered from sin, more than made heirs of eternal life: we are brought into a relation with God the Father that can exist only because Jesus is the divine Son. We are made sons of God. Yes, children by the new birth, but, in a sense, more than children. In Christ there is no longer male and female: we are sons in the Son.
The lessons of prayer all hinge on this incredible reality; we bring to the Father the dedication of our new obedience (Rom. 12:1, 2); we recognise his discipline (Heb. 12:5-7); we seek his will, his plan, his kingdom. In the urgency of our helpless need, we come to him with importunity, knowing that our Father will not give us a stone for bread (Luke 11:11-13).
The prayer of sonship to the Father breathes assurance as well as dependence. We realise that the love of the heavenly Father is all our hope. Surprisingly, Paul writes, 'But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us' (Rom. 5:8). Since Paul was speaking of the willingness of a man to give his life for a friend, we should have expected him to write, 'But Christ demonstrates his own love . . .' Calvary displays not only the love of the Son who gave himself for us, it demonstrates the love of the Father, who gave his only Son.
All the delight of heaven itself begins in prayer as the Spirit of the Father and of the Son draws us into communion with the triune God. We pray, 'Abba, Father!' and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3).
ENDNOTES:
[1] 'There was no god to speak of, except myself', Agehananda Bharati, The Light at the Center: Context and Pretext of Modem Mysticism (Santa Barbara: Ross-Erikson, 1976), p. 43. Bharati observes that 'orthodox Jews, Christians, and Muslims really cannot seck this union and be pious at the same time, because losing one's identity and becoming the cosmic ground is a deadly heresy in these teachings' (p. 28). See E. P. Clowney, CM: Christian Meditation (Nutley, N.J.: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1979).
[2] Clowney, ibid., pp. 7-18.
[3] The translation 'no word' is more appropriate than 'no thing' in both passages, since it is the word of God's promise that is in view. Both dabar and rhema mean 'word' as their primary significance. 'Too wonderful' is a more literal translation of the Hebrew phrase.
[4] The terms describing the flaming and smoking fire are used again to describe the appearing of God at Sinai (Gen. 15:17; Exod. 19:18; 20:18; cf. Isa. 31:9; Deut. 4:11; 5:22). When the fire of God's presence passed between the pieces, God was taking an oath, swearing by the threat of dismemberment to keep his promise to Abraham (cf. Jer. 34:18-20).
[5] On the manifestations of God in the Old Testament, cf. Edmond Jacob, Theology of the Old Testament (N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1958), pp. 73-85. Jacob seems to misunderstand the flow of the narrative in Exodus 33. God's affirmation 'My face will go with you' (33:14) expresses the granting of Moses' petition, as is seen in Moses' reaffirmation of it (33:15). The 'face' of God is not a substitute for his presence. It is unnecessary, too, to suppose that the Old Testament text was altered to remove references to seeing God. The narratives reflect both the essential incomprehensibility of God and his clear revelation of himself.
[6] Sullam, the word for 'stairway', implies a stone stairway, similar, presumably, to the ziggurat stairways described by André Parrot, The Tower of Babel (N.Y., 1955). The NIV marginal reading of Genesis 28:13 is to be preferred. It is supported by the same prepositional phrase in Genesis 35: 13, 'and God went up from beside him'. Cf. Genesis 45:1.
[7] The name yisra’el would normally be understood as meaning 'God contends', with ’el as the subject. The explanation in Genesis 32:28 seems to imply a play on words. Not only does God contend with Jacob, but Jacob contends with God, and prevails.
[8] 'Jacob's thigh is Jacob's progeny': P. A. H. de Boer, 'Genesis XXXII:23-33: Some Remarks on the Composition and Character of the Story', NTT 1 (1946-1947), pp. 149-163. See also J. Pedersen, Der Eid bei den Semiten (Strassburg, 1910), p. 151; F. van Tright, 'La signification de la lutte de Jacob pres du Yabboq, Gen. 32:23-33,' OudStud 12 (Leiden: Brill, 1958), pp. 280--309.
[9] E. A. Speiser, trans., 'The Creation Epic', VI:31,32, in James B. Pritchard, ed., The Ancient Near East, vol. 1 (Princeton University Press, 1958), p. 37.
[10] Henri Blocher points out the significance of this passage in his insightful discussion of the image of God in man: 'The spirit conferred on man does not emanate as a portion of the Spirit of God. . .' Révélation des origines (Lausanne: Presses Bibliques Universitaires, 1979), p. 75 (ET In the Beginning [Leicester: IVP, 1984], p. 82, reads a little differently).
[11] Roberto M. Unger gives a devastating critique of the concept of personality that contemporary culture takes for granted: Knowledge and Politics (New York: Free Press/Macmillan, 1975), pp. 29-62.
[12] Theodore Parker Ferris, Rector, Trinity Church, Boston, in a sermon on 'The Empty Tomb', Easter, 1967, published by the church, n.d., p. H-l.
[13] The concept of a chance universe where there are no laws, only statistical averages of events, swings the pendulum away from a clockwork universe, but is no more congenial to Christian theology. Even the approach that sees the universe as an information processing system tells us more about our own culture than the cosmos. See Jeremy Rifkin, Algeny (New York: Penguin Books, 1984); Paul Davies, God and the New Physics (New York: Penguin Books, 1984).
[14] As Rifkin points out, ibid., pp. 34-43.
[15] On hesed, see Gerald A. Larue, 'Recent Studies in Hesed’ in the Alfred Gottschalk translation of Nelson Glueck, Hesed in the Bible (New York: Ktav, 1975). Glueck's emphasis on the obligation of hesed has been disputed by later scholars. See Francis Andersen, 'Yahweh, the Kind and Sensitive God', in P. T. O'Brien and D. G. Peterson, eds., God Who is Rich in Mercy (Festschrift for Broughton Knox; Homebush West, NSW: Anzca/Grand Rapids: Baker, 1986), pp. 411-488. When used of God, the term expresses his love and mercy, his devotion to those he has bound to himself by his antecedent grace.
[16] See Numbers 14:13-19, where Moses again prays on the basis of God's revealed name.
[17] The verb is šahah in the hithpael. See Johannes Herrmann, 'Prayer in the O.T.', TDNT 2.785-800. 'It seems there can be no prayer without prostration' (p. 789).
[18] See Georges Pidoux, 'Quelques allusions au droit d'asile dans les Psaumes', in Maqqél Shâqédh, La Branche d'Amandier: Hommage à Wilhelm Vischer (Montpellier: Causse Graille Castelnau, 1960), pp. 191-197.
[19] It is possible that ton arton ton epiousion should be understood as 'tomorrow's bread', referring to the bread of the coming age: so Joachim Jeremias, The Prayers of Jesus (London: SCM Press, 1974), pp. 100, 101. The reference would then not be to the daily supply of manna.
[20] John's Gospel connects the symbolism of the water flowing from the side of the crucified Christ with the invitation of Jesus in 7:37. That passage is best punctuated to read: 'If anyone thirst, let him come to me, and let him drink who believes in me. As the Scripture says, "From within him shall flow rivers of living water.'" Cf. Raymond E. Brown, The Anchor Bible: The Gospel According to John I-XII (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1966), pp. 319-323. John presents Jesus as the source of the Spirit in his death as well as in his resurrection (20:22).
[21] Cf. the ARV translation and its defence in Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72 (London: Tyndale Press/IVP, 1973), p. 108. On the structure of the psalm of individual lament, cf. Claus Westermann, The Praise of God in the Psalms (Richmond: John Knox, 1965), pp. 64-81.
[22] Westermann, ibid., p. 80.
[23] The word for 'difficult' in Jeremiah 33:3 can mean 'fortified'.
[24] See Werner Foerster, From the Exile to Christ (trans. G. E. Harris; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1964), p. 13.
[25] Ibid., pp. 156,228.
[26] R. H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (London: Oxford University Press, 1913),2.649. Cf. Foerster, ibid., p. 159.
[27] On the Old Testament background of these passages, cf. Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1977); Stephen Farris, The Hymns of Luke's Infancy Narratives (Sheffield: JSOT, 1985).
[28] Jeremias, ibid., pp. 73-75.
[29] Contra Jeremias, ibid., p. 78. Cf. discussion by M. M. B. Turner in this volume, p.65.
[30] Cf. note 19 for the possibility that 'daily bread' is 'bread of tomorrow', a reference to the feast of the future kingdom, of which we receive a foretaste each day. Cf. also Ernst Lohmeyer, 'Our Father', an Introduction to the Lord's Prayer (trans. John Bowden; New York: Harper & Row, 1965). Cf. Luke 6:21; 22:30; Rev. 7:16f.
[31] See above, note 30.
[32] When Jesus says 'I am' in the Gospels, the divine name is brought into view (e.g. John 18:5).
[33] J. P. Versteeg, Het Gebed volgens het Nieuwe Testament (Amsterdam: Briejten & Schepperheijn, 1976).
[34] As the author of Hebrews points out, Genesis does not record any end to the life of Melchizedek. This is remarkable in a book where the death-knell so regularly tolls: 'and he died' (cf. Heb. 7:3,8). Cf. Philip E. Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), p. 253.
[35] Cf. Hughes, ibid., p. 68.
[36] On the much debated passage, Romans 8:26, 27, cf. the commentaries and Michel de Goedt, 'The Intercession of the Spirit in Christian Prayer', in Christian Duquoc and Claude Geffré, eds., The Prayer Life (New York: Herder & Herder, 1972), pp. 26-38; Charles Hodge, 'The Spirit's Intercession', in Conference Papers (New York: Scribner's Sons, 1879); B. B. Warfield, 'The Spirit's Help in Our Praying', in his Faith and Life (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, repr. 1979); Ernst Kasemann, 'The Cry for Liberty in the Worship of the Church', ch. 6 in his Perspectives on Paul (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969). The passage has been carefully studied in an unpublished paper by Sylvain Romerowski, ‘L’Esprit de Christ intercède' .
[37] Joseph B. Mayor, The Epistles of Jude and II Peter (Grand Rapids: Baker, repr. 1979), p. 190.
[38] Ibid., p. 190.
[39] Cited in Wayne R. Spear, The Theology of Prayer (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979), pp. 24-27. The citation is from Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963) 3.289.
[40] See Spear, ibid., pp. 25,26.
[41] The reading 'ask me in my name' is well supported: cf. Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (New York: United Bible Societies, 1971), p. 244.
[42] While 'paraclete' in John's Gospel means more than an advocate in a legal setting (it includes intercessor, mediator, spokesman), the legal meaning is clear. The Spirit comes to represent us, to take our case as Jesus has done. Cf. George Johnston, The Spirit-Paraclete in the Gospel of John (Cambridge: University Press, 1970), pp. 119,120.
[43] Calvin, Institutes I:xiii:17, cited in Spear, p. 27.
This essay first appeared in Teach us to Pray: Prayer in the Bible and the World, D. A. Carson (ed.), (Baker/Paternoster, 1990), 136-76, 336-38 and is used here with permission. No part of this essay may be copied or transmitted in any form without the permission of the publishers.