The Baptist Catechism

    A Commentary on the Shorter Catechism (1883), Alexander Whyte

    Question 100

    The preface—The Lord’s Prayer consists of three parts: a preface, certain petitions, and a conclusion. And the preface is:—

    Our Father which art in heaven—“God lovingly inviteth us, in this little preface, truly to believe in Him, that He is our true Father, and that we are truly His children, so that full of confidence we may more boldly call upon His name, even as we see children with a kind of confidence ask anything of their parents” (Luther’s Catechism). “God hath not taken the name of a Father, nor Christ of an Elder Brother for nought, but because these names import more nearly than any other the nature of the affection which they bear us” (Edward Irving On the Lord’s Prayer).

    “Our Father which art in heaven” is the Christian child’s first prayer, just as “The Lord’s my Shepherd” is his first psalm. From the very beginning of the Christian Church this prayer has been in constant use. It has been offered daily among the disciples of Jesus Christ ever since that fruitful day when one of the twelve came to Him, saying, “Lord, teach me to pray.” But though it was first taught in the childhood of the Church, and is still taught to the children of every Christian home, it is not for all that to be taken as only a child’s prayer. It is true the shortest memory may retain it, and the busiest life may utter it; the weakest understanding may sufficiently grasp it, and the most childlike faith may feel at home in it; but while all that is true, yet men of God who have their senses best exercised among divine things will feel that this prayer grows with their growing experience, and gradually gathers unto itself the whole fulness of the Word of God and the need of man.

    God is named Father in several senses in the Bible. He is sometimes called Father simply as the Creator of all things. Again, He is called the Father of mankind, because they were made in His Image, and made to be His spiritual children. But in a higher sense still He is called the Father of regenerate sons, because by their new birth, union to Christ, and adoption into His family, they have become in more than a metaphorical sense the sons of God, and He their Father. “They have been received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges, of the sons of God.” (See Answer 34.) But all this leaves unmentioned the real and true sense, the eternal and divine sense, in which God is the Father of His Only Begotten Son. (For this see Answers 6 and 21.)

    At every step of our exposition we shall have occasion to remark on the mistake of calling this series of petitions the Lord’s Prayer. The very preface compels us to distinguish between the Paternity of the Father toward Jesus Christ and toward us. And all our Lord’s utterances in this direction observe this distinction. He never once says, “Our Father,” including Himself with us as a son. He says, “Father,” “Holy Father,” “Righteous Father,” and “My Father;” but never Our Father. Once He says, “My Father and your Father,” but He distinguishes in so saying. “God is the Father of Him and of us, but not of us as of Him” (Pearson). (See Dr. Candlish’s Fatherhood of God, Lect. ii.) Heaven is the dwelling-place of God; it is our Father’s house. And though it is not to be limited and localized as a place in our most spiritual conceptions, yet it is right and necessary for us to think of heaven as above us. Thus we read that Jesus Himself, when He prayed, “lifted up His eyes to heaven.” Heaven is not among or above the stars; it is high above us as God is high above man; and as good is above evil, and as blessedness is above condemnation and misery. There is a spiritual world as well as a material; and there is a spiritual geometry, with its various directions, as well as a material. “But as it is only half of our reliance that is founded on the goodness of God, in the next clause, which art in heaven, He gives us a lofty idea of the power of God” (Calvin). (See Edward Irving’s fine discourses on the Lord’s Prayer in the third volume of his collected Works.)

    teacheth us to draw near to God—Before we begin to pray we are to think of ourselves as at a greater distance from God than we ought to be, need be, and now desire to be. Prayer is a drawing near to God. No utterance of Augustine’s has been oftener quoted by commentators and devotional writers than this: “Oh for a mountain to pray on, thou criest, high and inaccessible, that I may be nearer to God, and God may hear me better, for He dwelleth on high. Yes, God dwelleth on high, but He hath respect unto the humble! . . . Wouldst thou pray in His temple, pray in thyself; but first do thou become the temple of God.”

    with all holy reverence—Reverence is a filial affection: it is composed of equal parts of love and fear. “Holy and reverend is His name. . . . let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” “Let the holiest and best thing we do be considered. We are never better affected unto God than when we pray; yet, when we pray, how are our affections many times distracted! How little reverence do we show to the grand majesty of that God to whom we speak! How little remorse of our own miseries! How little taste of the sweet influence of His tender mercy do we feel!” (Hooker).

    and confidence—Confidence is just another form of the word faith,—confidence is childlike trust. The Larger Catechism, Answer 189, translates it “childlike dispositions.” “The Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken” (Prov. iii. 26).

    “Without the constant exercise of faith there is no life in worship, nor satisfaction to be obtained by it. Men must therefore have something in it, or accompanying it, which may entertain their minds, and engage their affections unto it. Hereon were invented forms of prayer in great diversity, with continual diversions and avocations of the mind, because it cannot abide in the pursuit of anything spiritual without the exercise of faith. Hereunto are added outward ceremonies of vestures, postures, and gestures of veneration unto the same end. There is no other design in them all but to entertain the mind and affections with some complacency and satisfaction in outward worship upon the loss or want of that exercise of faith which is the soul and life of it in believers” (Owen).

    able and ready to help us—Able, because All-Mighty; ready, because waiting to be gracious. “All things are ready.” “Thou art a God ready to pardon.” “Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive.” “The waterman in the boat, who with his hook takes hold of the shore, doth not thereby pull the shore to the boat, but the boat to the shore. So in prayer we do not draw the mercy to ourselves, but ourselves to the mercy” (Matthew Henry). The shore is ready for the boatman’s hook.

    “Socrates. Do you know how to escape out of a state which I do not even like to name?

    “Alcibiades. Yes, I do. Soc. How? Al. By your help, Socrates. Soc. That is not well said, Alcibiades. Al. What ought I to have said? Soc. By the help of God” (Plato, Alcib.).

    and that we should pray with and for others. “Great stress is laid on the injunction of united prayer. Private devotion is essential to the spiritual life—without it there is no life. But it cannot replace united prayer. Solitary prayer is feeble in comparison with that which rises before the throne, echoed by the hearts of hundreds, and strengthened by the feeling that other aspirations are mingling with our own. . . . The value and power of public prayer seems chiefly to depend on that mysterious affection of our nature—sympathy” (Robertson). And for others. “For whom are we to pray? We are to pray for the whole Church of Christ upon earth; for magistrates and ministers; for ourselves, our brethren, yea, our enemies; and for all sorts of men living, or that shall live hereafter” (Larger Catechism). “The two blind men did not each of them say for himself, ‘Have mercy on me;’ but both for one another, ‘Have mercy on us’” (Matthew Henry).

    Uses

    1. “As to the Lord’s Prayer, although it be an easy thing to say ‘Our Father’ with the mouth, yet there are very few that can, in the spirit, say the two first words in that prayer; that is, can call God their Father, as knowing what it is to be born again, and as having experienced that they are begotten of the Spirit of God” (Bunyan before the Justices).
    2. “With all holy reverence.” “So it was concluded, since Christiana was the eldest, that she should knock for entrance, and that she should speak to him that did open for the rest.”
    3. Calvin commenting on Hezekiah turning his face to the wall in prayer, says: “The mere attitude, indeed, is immaterial; but it is of very great importance to us, that nothing should be presented to our eyes or senses that would drag us away from prayer, that we may pour out our desires more freely before God. We are naturally unsteady, and easily drawn aside, and therefore we cannot be too diligent in fixing our attention.” This is the rationale of the universal practice of shutting the eyes in prayer. We do so that “nothing may be presented to our eyes that would drag us away from prayer.”
    4. “What is the last inference from hence? That seeing believers have a Father in heaven, they should never fear wants while they live, nor be afraid to die, since death brings them to heaven, their Father’s house” (Flavel).

    Questions

    1. Explain Bengel’s words: The whole effect of prayer is supernatural, and so far, miraculous.

    2. For others. Explain Chilcot’s subscription to the preface of his book, On Evil Thoughts: Your daily orator at the throne of grace.

    3. Commit to memory Isaac Watts’ hymn:—

      Great God! and wilt Thou condoscend
      To be my Father and my Friend?