GODS WILL NOT OURS

GOD’S WILL BE DONE - NOT OURS

“And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.” Luke 11:2

When Abraham turned his back upon Ur of the Chaldees, and went out seeking a city, he did not go to seek a heaven beyond the earth. His passion, the passion of all the men of faith, and absolutely the passion of Jesus, WAS NOT THAT MEN SHOULD PASS THROUGH EARTH AND WIN HEAVEN, their great reward or so they think; but that there should be established on the earth the city of God and His will should be ours. The vision which had kept the Hebrews a people through all the processes of their failure was the vision of the ultimate. Read the ancient prophecies carefully, and amid the thunder of denunciation you will constantly hear tones that tell of coming accomplishment in the world, of the day when "the knowledge of the glory of the Lord" (Hab. 2:14) shall fill the earth, "as the waters cover the sea"; of the day when "they shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain." (Isa. 11:9) All these men had looked toward the building of a CITY. Cities had been built, but the hopes and aspirations of seers and psalmists had never been realized.

Jerusalem as Jesus looked at it was the home of evil things, and yet it was "the city of the great King," (Matt. 5:35) and through it He saw the city of God established, "the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God," (Rev. 21:2) the ultimate accomplishment of that which is in the heart of God, not merely in individual life, but in civic life; the setting up of the Kingdom of God in the world, and seeing that, "He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem." This city is what we commonly know as “heaven”--the place where God’s throne is. With the new creation, and sin’s very presence totally banished, God’s dwelling place will descend to the earth and be permanently located there. This is where people get confused as to their destination.

Let us gather up these thoughts. When the time was coming that He should be received up, He steadfastly set His face toward Jerusalem. What Jerusalem? The Jerusalem hostile to Himself, waiting to arrest and murder Him. What Jerusalem? That Jerusalem over which hung the sword of God, upon which the judgment of God must soon fall. What Jerusalem? The Jerusalem beyond all this, that which the hostile and doomed city must yet become in the economy of God, a city established, "the joy of the whole earth," (Psa. 48:2) because the home of "the great King," and the center from which His government was to go forth to the ends of the world. Jesus saw the city, and deliberately set His face toward its hostility, its doom, and its ultimate triumph. He had a vision of the immediate, but He had that more wonderful vision which sees through the immediate to the ultimate. Beyond the gathering storm clouds settling over Himself and the city He saw the morning without clouds, the ultimate and final victory, when the last stone will be brought on to the city of God, and all tribes of the earth will rejoice in the setting up of His government and the accomplishment of His will. He saw through the process of pain to that ultimate for which He taught us to pray, for the day when God's name shall be hallowed, His Kingdom come, His will be done in earth as it is in heaven. (Luke 11:2) And he set his face toward the Jerusalem of hostility, because He saw through it the Jerusalem of ultimate achievement.

The all-consuming purpose of God in creation was to establish a Kingdom ON THE EARTH, not in heaven, in which He could display His glory in the Person of His Son. This display of His glory was to be made to creatures made in His image, and therefore, capable of apprehending, appreciating, and applauding His glory. The unfolding drama of the Bible depicts the movements of God in the accomplishment of that purpose.