GOD'S KINGDOM COME
The Lord’s Prayer is an eschatological prayer—even an apocalyptic prayer. We are praying for the coming of God’s kingdom in glory, and to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom is to pray for Christ’s return, for Christ is God’s King. Tim Bradshaw says, ‘ “Your kingdom come” calls upon God to act in a decisive fashion to end the ambiguity of the world’s sin and confusion … This is not a request to God to help us to implement the kingdom, but plainly asks for the coming of the kingdom that only God can bring.’
To pray ‘your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ is to pray that earth and heaven will be brought into conformity, and ultimately this takes place as described in Revelation 21 when heaven comes down to earth and God dwells with his people (Rev. 21:1–4). On that day, as Tom Wright puts it, ‘God’s space and ours are finally married, integrated at last.’ Elsewhere Wright says that this is ‘to pray not merely that certain things might occur within the earthly realm that would coincide with plans that God had made in the heavenly realm, but that a fresh integration of heaven and earth would take place’
3.3. The Second Petition: “May Your Kingdom Come”. Jesus was not the first to associate the sanctification of God’s name with prayer for the coming *kingdom. An ancient prayer known as the Kaddish states, “May his great name be magnified and sanctified according to his will in the world he created. May he establish his kingdom in our lifetime, in our days.” Yahweh sanctifies his name by establishing the long-awaited kingdom on earth (Pss. Sol. 17; 1QM XII, 7–8). The kingdom’s consummation is the establishment of God’s royal rule over creation demonstrated in the *judgment of all those in rebellion and the eternal *blessing of all the righteous. Jesus’ particular formulation of “the kingdom coming” remains unparalleled in Jewish literature, where typically it is God who comes to the nation (1 Chron 16:33; Ps 96:13; 98:9; Is 26:21; 35:4; 40:9–10; 1 En. 1:3–9; 25:3; Jub. 1:22–28; As. Mos. 10:1–12). Now Jesus and the kingdom come together, for he inaugurates the Father’s victory on earth (laying the foundation for the “already but not yet” eschatology characteristic of the NT). Jesus’ disciples must live as obedient citizens within the kingdom, submitting to the king’s authority, demonstrating the transformative power of the Father’s life-giving Spirit. However, kingdom obedience should not be confused with the kingdom’s coming; this is not a request that people behave in a manner sufficient for the establishment of God’s reign, or that human transformation may inaugurate the kingdom. Only the Father brings the kingdom through the gospel proclamation of his Son. Thus, prayer for the kingdom’s coming is multidimensional. The petitioner (1) surrenders daily to the comprehensive, existential demands of Jesus’ lordship; (2) embodies the self-sacrificial, ethical expectations of kingdom citizenship; (3) eagerly anticipates the Father’s final victory at Jesus’ parousia