Sanctification Lesson 4 Part II Lords Prayer Study Notes

The remaining petitions of the Lord’s Prayer teach trust in God for obedience, bodily provision, forgiveness, and rescue from temptation. Believers approach with confidence precisely as people in need, because Jesus is their heavenly high priest. Prayer reaches every part of life while keeping every request dependent on the Father. (Matthew 6:10–13; Hebrews 4:14–16; Westminster Larger Catechism [WLC] Q. 192–196.)

The lesson in one minute

“Your will be done” asks the Spirit to make us willing and able to obey. “Daily bread” asks for ordinary needs in continuing dependence. “Forgive us” makes repentance a regular part of the Christian pilgrimage and joins received mercy to mercy toward others. “Deliver us” asks for protection and recovery amid temptations and evil. The traditional conclusion turns petition back into praise and trust. (Matthew 6:10–13; WLC Q. 192–196.)

Third petition Your will be done on earth as in heaven

The request asks that God’s will be known, welcomed, and practiced with the obedience that marks heaven. WLC Q. 192 acknowledges the human tendency to resist God and asks the Spirit to remove blindness and perversity, making believers willing to submit with humility, cheerfulness, and perseverance. Whether “on earth as in heaven” modifies only this petition or gathers the first three petitions, the desired direction is clear: God’s heavenly reign is to become more visible here. (Matthew 6:9–10; WLC Q. 192.)

Hebrews grounds bold prayer in Jesus’ priesthood. He has passed through the heavens, knows human weakness without sin, and invites his people to approach the throne of grace for mercy and timely help. Confidence and need therefore belong together: confidence rests in the priest who represents us, not in our self-sufficiency. (Hebrews 4:14–16.)

Christ’s real humanity and heavenly exaltation matter for the hope expressed in this petition. A human being, Jesus, stands in God’s presence; those united to him may ask that life on earth increasingly reflect that heavenly reality. He is both the basis on which believers approach and the pattern of human life toward which they are being formed. Brian E. Daley’s God Visible: Patristic Christology Reconsidered surveys why early Christian accounts of Christ’s humanity and divinity mattered for salvation. (Hebrews 2:14–18; 4:14–16; Ephesians 4:13.)

Fourth petition Give us this day our daily bread

Daily bread names real bodily needs. WLC Q. 193 asks for sufficient outward provision for ourselves and others, to be received as God’s free gift in lawful ways and used with contentment. Jesus later extends this concern to food and clothing, while directing disciples away from anxiety and toward the Father’s care. (Matthew 6:11, 25–34; WLC Q. 193.)

The wilderness manna gives the petition a vivid shape. Israel received enough for each day and learned to trust that God would provide again. The test of gathering and the Sabbath provision trained dependence rather than mere stockpiling. The Christian life likewise has a pilgrim shape: delivered from bondage, believers still travel toward promised rest. (Exodus 16:4–5, 16–30; Deuteronomy 8:2–3; Hebrews 3:7–4:11; 1 Corinthians 10:1–13.)

John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress develops the pilgrimage image. The daily-bread request keeps present needs inside that larger journey: God cares for material life on the way, and his provision can train a person to seek him rather than treating possessions as self-sufficient security. Calvin includes food, clothing, and other bodily needs under “bread” and insists that even an abundant household still depends on God’s blessing. (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, III.20.44; Matthew 6:11, 25–34.)

Scripture also links provision with restraint and care for neighbors. Gleaning laws leave harvest for vulnerable people; release laws curb permanent debt; the Jubilee addresses the return of land and freedom. These are related biblical examples, with distinct locations: gleaning in Deuteronomy 24:19–22, debt release in Deuteronomy 15:1–11, and Jubilee in Leviticus 25. They warn against wealth becoming a reason to forget God or close one’s hand to others. (Deuteronomy 8:11–18; 15:1–11; 24:19–22; Leviticus 25.)

Fifth petition Forgive us our debts as we forgive

The request for forgiveness belongs in the prayer disciples are to pray regularly. It assumes that seeking a whole and mature life does not make daily repentance unnecessary. “Be perfect” in Matthew 5:48 must therefore be read alongside the command to ask forgiveness in Matthew 6:12: the pursuit of complete devotion includes honest confession. (Matthew 5:48; 6:12, 14–15; WLC Q. 194.)

WLC Q. 194 locates pardon in God’s free grace through Christ’s obedience and satisfaction, received by faith. Forgiving others is not a payment that earns God’s pardon. It is a fitting testimony that mercy has taken root, while refusal to forgive contradicts the prayer one speaks. (Matthew 6:12, 14–15; WLC Q. 194; John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, III.20.45.)

The Bible repeatedly joins divine mercy with the seriousness of sin. David’s confession after his sin against Bathsheba and Uriah is one example; Jesus’ healing of the paralytic displays his authority to forgive sins. Paul explains how God’s forbearance toward former sins is consistent with his justice through Christ’s death. The Father’s forgiveness is not wrung from an unwilling God: God himself put Christ forward. (2 Samuel 11–12; Psalm 51; Mark 2:1–12; Romans 3:21–26.)

Sixth petition Lead us not into temptation but deliver us

WLC Q. 195 takes seriously threats from the world, the flesh, and Satan, as well as weakness that remains after pardon. The petition asks God to restrain evil, bless the means of grace, increase watchfulness, support believers when tempted, and restore them when they fall. It looks ahead to complete freedom from sin and evil. (Matthew 6:13; WLC Q. 195.)

Temptation may arise through an external circumstance but engages internal desires; evil can also be broader than a person’s private struggle. Prayer for deliverance reaches distorted thinking, desires, habits, relationships, and hostile powers. God himself does not entice people to sin, though he can allow and govern trials for just ends. (James 1:13–15; WLC Q. 195.)

The final Greek phrase can be rendered “from evil” or “from the evil one.” Either way, the request is for God to keep hostile powers from overcoming his people. Calvin treats the distinction as less important than the shared plea for rescue. (Matthew 6:13; John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, III.20.46; WLC Q. 195.)

The traditional conclusion and Amen

“For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” is the traditional doxology. WLC Q. 196 reads it as a turn from our worthiness to God’s sovereignty, power, and glory; “Amen” expresses desire and trust that he will answer. The doxology appears in many later manuscripts of Matthew 6:13 but is absent from some early witnesses, so modern translations may place it in a footnote. (Matthew 6:13 textual note; WLC Q. 196.)

Quick recall

God’s will: Ask the Spirit to form willing obedience on earth. (WLC Q. 192.)

Daily bread: Ask for enough, receive it with gratitude, and remain dependent. (WLC Q. 193; Exodus 16.)

Forgiveness: Confess daily and forgive others as a response to grace. (WLC Q. 194.)

Deliverance: Ask for protection, endurance, recovery, and final freedom. (WLC Q. 195.)

Conclusion: Rest the appeal on God’s kingdom, power, and glory. (WLC Q. 196.)

Questions for review

1. Why can a needy person approach God confidently according to Hebrews 4:14–16?

2. How does manna clarify the meaning of “daily bread” for a Christian pilgrim?

3. Why does the forgiveness petition help explain Matthew 5:48?

4. What does WLC Q. 195 ask God to do before, during, and after temptation?