Dr. J. Vernon McGee :: Chapter 6: For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory

CHAPTER 6

For Yours is the Kingdom
and the Power and the Glory

We are now going to look at something that is included in the Lord’s Prayer but which probably should be excluded. You see, the words, “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” are actually not in the Lord’s Prayer.

I would like to give you the Lord’s Prayer from the new Revised Standard Version, but before doing so I would like to make clear that I do not recommend this version as a substitute for the Authorized. It is helpful in several places and constitutes a reference book that is useful for any well-grounded Bible student. The prayer is given as follows:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6:9-13, RSV)

It stops there and does not go any further. The statement, “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” is not included. Now the question naturally arises, why is it that this petition is not included? The reason is that when the King James Version was translated, the translation was made from the best manuscripts in existence at the time. Since then, better manuscripts have been discovered, and we find this petition omitted from these better manuscripts.

Now immediately someone is going to ask, “But how does this fit into the theory of plenary verbal inspiration?” And by plenary verbal inspiration we mean that the words of the Bible are inspired. As I see it, that is the only logical explanation of inspiration. Either this is the Word of God or it is not the Word of God. Either it is reliable or it is not reliable. It is not the thoughts that are inspired; it is the words that are inspired. Thoughts can be misunderstood; words cannot.

There is the story of a young lady who had been studying voice, and the time came for her to give her recital. In her dressing room after the concert, she asked about the reaction of her very famous teacher to her performance. A friend, with difficulty, finally brought forth the statement, “He said that you sang heavenly.” The young lady, quite thrilled, asked if those were his exact words. The friend said, “Well, those were not his exact words, but that is what he meant.” The young singer, still not satisfied, demanded his exact words, which were, “That was an unearthly noise.” You see, it is the words of Scripture, and not the thoughts, that are important.

We believe in plenary verbal inspiration, but we also believe it applies only to the original documents, most of which have since been lost. But we also believe that the manuscripts we have today are reliable and can be trusted. Many of the manuscripts found have been brought together and all tell the same story. There are some discrepancies, to be sure, but none of these pertain to any of the important doctrines of the Scripture.

Let us look at the matter of inspiration a little further. There is a striking similarity between the written Word and the living Word, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. Both are human and divine. The Lord Jesus Christ is both of God and man. One of the oldest creeds of the church states it accurately: “very man of very man, and very God of very God.” Therefore, you would expect to find the Word of God made flesh growing weary on a dusty road in Samaria and sitting down to rest. You expect to find Him shedding tears of sorrow at the tomb of Lazarus. Neither is it surprising to hear Him claim to be the Messiah as He talked with the woman of Samaria; nor is it strange to hear Him command Lazarus to come forth from the tomb. He was both God and man.

The Bible is a God-book and it is a man-book. The Word of God has become incarnate in the alphabet of man. The Word of God becomes a book with a binding, printed with printer’s ink, and made into words that men can understand. Men transcribed it by hand even before Gutenberg printed it. It has been translated from one language into another. Scribes have made errors in transcribing the text, and printers have made typographical errors. The limitations imposed upon the Lord Jesus Christ as a man are likewise imposed upon the Bible.

As a human book it requires a knowledge of the language in which it is studied to comprehend its meaning. There is no magic method by which to memorize the fine passages of Scripture. It requires real study as it does to gain a knowledge of any subject—geography, history, literature, or philosophy. The lazy and careless student cannot come at its meaning by any superstitious method. In Proverbs 25:2 we read: “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.” God has hidden rich treasures in His Word, but it requires a great deal of searching to discover them. Diamonds are not on the surface. The injunction is: “…Search the Scriptures…” (John 5:39), “Be diligent to present yourself approved…” (2 Timothy 2:15), and “…Give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine” (1 Timothy 4:13).

As a human book, the Bible was written by about forty-five human authors who expressed their thoughts, projected their personalities, and stated their ideas. Nevertheless, they were moved by the Holy Spirit, “for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). The Greek word for move is phero and it indicates a sailing vessel borne along by the wind. The Spirit of God worked in these men in a way to secure an inerrant Word of God. This is exactly the claim of Scripture:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16)

That word “inspiration” is the Greek theopneustos, meaning “God-breathed.” Nothing less than the plenary verbal inspiration of Scripture will satisfy the language of Scripture and the need of man.

Although the human authors expressed the full feeling of their hearts and the complete thought of their minds, they nevertheless expressed the exact words of God to men. These men were not pens with which the Spirit of God wrote. Any dictator can make men automatons to express the dictator’s thought and totally submerge the writer’s real intention. The supernatural element in Scripture is that God did not arbitrarily destroy the personality of the writers, but instead used them to express His complete, adequate, and inerrant will. The words are God’s. Having completed the canon of Scripture, God has no afterthought to submit as an addendum to the Bible. God perfectly expressed Himself through imperfect men. There is a dual authorship of the Bible that attests to the supernatural. Only God could give a book like the Bible; only God could send a person like Jesus. We have a God-book. It does not yield merely to human intellect.

The ordinary avenues of knowledge are not sufficient to comprehend its meaning. We get most of our knowledge through the eye gate and the ear gate, but Scripture warns us that these are not adequate to give us divine understanding:

But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9, 10)

What the eye gate and ear gate cannot supply, the Spirit of God will compensate. He alone can take divine truths and apply them to our hearts. The facts of Scripture must be learned by human effort, but the spiritual truths must be revealed by the Holy Spirit. The natural man does not have sufficient spiritual IQ to understand the Bible.

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

REVELATION means that God has communicated with man.
INSPIRATION guarantees the accuracy of that revelation.
PRESERVATION infers that God maintains that revelation in the world.
ILLUMINATION insists that only the Holy Spirit has the interpretation for man.
TRANSLATION means the transference of the text of Scripture from one language into another.

Now that we have examined the solidarity of the setting in which rests this gem—the Lord’s Prayer—let us look again at the phrase that has been omitted in these later translations. “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” It is a most scriptural statement, and for that reason I should like to have it remain as part of the Lord’s Prayer. After the people brought their wonderful offerings for the construction of the temple, David lifted his heart to God in prayer:

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty; for all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and You are exalted as head over all. (1 Chronicles 29:11)

While David elaborated a great deal, it is a prayer of rare beauty and is basically the same petition that we are considering now.

It is worth noting that in Luke’s record we find that the Lord’s Prayer, as given there, breaks off at a different point from that given in the Matthew account. I have a notion that the Lord broke off at a different place on each occasion of repeating the prayer. And the reason is obvious, for I feel He is attempting to teach something. Since the prayer as recorded in Luke 11:2-4 carries no “amen,” it is thus open to added petitions. It was given to babes in Christ that they might know how to pray. It is the same as how we today teach our little folk to say, “Now I lay me down to sleep….” Before long they have added, “And bless Mommy and Daddy,” and later, other petitions. I must confess that several times I have had to get up off my knees and tip-toe out of the room because of some of the things for which my little girl prayed. I know that the Lord understood her prayers, but I have never discovered why she prays for the little boys and girls in China and then for the boys and girls in Michigan. I do not know why Michigan should be chosen out of the fifty states. These little ones just launch out into the deep, and in this lies our illustration of the absence of the “amen.”

Yours is the Kingdom…

Now let us look at the three possessions of our God mentioned here. First is the kingdom. We have a great deal to say about the kingdom, and I make no apologies in going over some of this again, for repetition is a sound principle of pedagogy.

Let us remember that in this magnificent Old Testament prayer, David had in mind the kingdom God had promised to him—that from his line there would come the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ, and He would sit upon the throne of David and rule on this earth. As David lifted his heart to God in prayer, he saw a kingdom lying in the future; he saw that kingdom as a mighty focal point with the great rays of Scripture converging upon it. That is my reason for saying that the church is in the kingdom and we are moving toward that day when the kingdom shall be established.

The Father said to the Son, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your foot-stool” (Psalm 110:1). After His rejection, Christ was brought to death through crucifixion, was buried, rose from the dead, ascended back to heaven, and took His place at God’s right hand. And today He is bringing many sons home to glory. Thus He is moving world events toward the focal point when this kingdom shall be established upon the earth, He shall reign from shore to shore, righteousness shall cover this earth as the waters cover the sea, and righteousness and peace shall kiss each other.

We must remember that this kingdom will not come by human manipulation. It will not come by ecumenical movements or any man-made program. It will be established in one way, and that is by the catastrophic and cataclysmic coming of Christ to this earth to put down all unrighteousness and establish His kingdom here in power and glory. And that is what you express when you say, “Yours is the kingdom.”

…And the Power…

But, my beloved, let us move on to the second possession: “the power.” This is an age of power. It is an age of jet planes, rockets for outer space, and nuclear warheads. But in this age of power, when unheard of things are being accomplished in a material world, it has become the age of powerlessness for the church. As Samson was shorn of his hair, thus has the church been robbed of her power.

I’m reminded of Thomas Aquinas who entered the place where the Pope was counting the money. Thinking he had entered at a time when he should not have, he turned to walk away. But the Pope saw him and said, “Sir Thomas, no longer can the church say, „Silver and gold have I none.’” Without even turning to look back, Thomas Aquinas said, “That is right, your Holiness, but no longer can the church say to the impotent man, „Rise and walk.’”

This is an age of powerlessness, and yet

[He is] declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. (Romans 1:4)

He also says,

All authority [power] has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. (Matthew 28:18)

And further,

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…. (Acts 1:8)

How can these things be? Let us look at the common logic of it. If the electric lights go out in Los Angeles, it does not mean that Hoover Dam has given way. It simply means that somewhere a connection has been broken. Now Christ has had all power given to Him, and if your church is powerless, then some of you had better be walking the line to see where the connection has been broken. Do you recall the incident of the man at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration? He had the little lad who was demon possessed, and he said, “So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him” (Matthew 17:16). How true that is of us today. It should cause us to bow our heads in prayer. Perhaps He cannot trust us with power today because we abuse or misuse it. But thank God He is coming and He will use power to correct the evils of this world. It will take power to get rid of our political regimes. It will take power to put Christ on the throne. He is coming in power! His is the kingdom, the power!

…And the Glory

And now let us come to “the glory.” What is glory? What is its shape, size, and color? Perhaps you feel that you have never seen it, or you believe that it is spiritual and therefore cannot be seen. Not so, my friend. It can be seen. Every Hebrew word translated as our English word “glory” means something physical. It has been a rich experience for me to go through these words in order to arrive at their real meaning. How my heart longs to see the glory! I trust that you will be interested to look at these words, also.

The first “glory” means “wide and great” as in this verse: “The heavens declare the glory of God…” (Psalm 19:1). I never look into the starry heavens but that I am reminded of the greatness and vastness of His glory. O, the vastness of the universe! And did you know that it is expanding continually? Surely “the heavens declare the glory of God.”

Then there is another word associated with our word “glory,” and it means “brightness.” And there is a third word that is translated “beauty,” as in, “…Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matthew 6:29), referring to the lilies of the field. Just as this universe reveals the vastness of God, so a little flower reveals something of the beauty of God. The One who made the flowers loves beauty, and God is the One who made the flowers.

But the most common word in the Old Testament relative to the glory of God is the Hebrew word kabod, which means “wealth and worth; dignity and honor; splendor and majesty” and can apply either to God or man. Its primary meaning is that of the external or physical, but it also has an ethical and moral significance. When used, it speaks of the purity and holiness of God; it speaks of His essential character:

I am the LORD, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images. (Isaiah 42:8)

Now this word “glory” as used in the Old Testament speaks of a material manifestation of God. Moses said to God on Mt. Sinai, “Lord, I want to see your face,” and God said, “I’ll let you see my glory” (see Exodus 33:20-23). Moses saw God’s glory on another occasion, too. We read that when the tabernacle was completed, the glory of the Lord filled the place. And when Moses and Aaron moved out with the Israelites, the Shekinah presence of God was with them in the form of a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. It was a physical manifestation of God. You may recall that when Solomon built the temple, the glory was transferred from the tabernacle to the temple. But somewhere in their long, dreary, sinful history, the glory departed. Ezekiel saw the vision—it lifted up from the temple and abode a moment to see if the people would turn back to God. But they did not, so it withdrew out over the city. It paused again over the city walls to see if the people might turn to God, but they would not. Then it went on out to the Mount of Olives and was caught back into heaven. That was the last view of the Shekinah glory.

Then after four hundred years of silence, shepherds on a hillside had a manifestation of the glory of God as the angel said, “Glory to God in the highest.” As John said:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us [pitched His tent among us], and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

May I say that the word “glory” has an ethical value here, because in Christ it was not physically manifested, except on one or two occasions. What they saw was that He was innately holy, harmless, undefiled, the One separate from sinners. But when He was born, He laid aside His glory that He had with the Father in heaven. The thing that identified God in the Old Testament no longer identified Him. In the New Testament, we find Him wrapped in the swaddling clothes of humanity and, in due time, grown to full manhood and the service of the ministry. He laid aside that physical manifestation as a garment. In writing of it Paul says:

Who, being in the form of God [the morphia of God], did not consider it robbery to be equal with God [because it rightfully belonged to Him], but [laid it aside and] made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2:6, 7)

For over 2000 years, theologians have been arguing about what it was that He laid aside. What was it that He emptied Himself of? I feel that He laid aside His glory and walked this earth as a man. Oh, He is God, but He laid aside His glory. Then there came that day when He walked with His disciples and “a cloud received Him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9). It was not a rain cloud. It was the glory-cloud—the Shekinah glory. That which He had laid aside was waiting for Him, and thus He took, again, all the prerogatives that rightfully were His. He wore it as a garment and entered into heaven!

At this point of departure He made a statement that we will do well to meditate upon. In telling His disciples that He was coming again, He said,

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (Matthew 24:30)

Have you ever stopped to think what that sign is going to be? I am not sure that I know, but I would like to make a suggestion. Personally, I feel that when He is to come, the Shekinah glory will flash as the lightning from the east to the west. Thus Shekinah glory will again be revealed upon the earth. There is no glory today—it is withheld. Today you and I are to glorify Him. He said:

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

And Paul said:

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)

That is the chief business of a Christian. Some will say that soul-winning is the Christian’s chief end. No, that is secondary. To glorify God is our primary business as a professing Christian. Scripture has a word for us here:

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. (2 Corinthians 2:14, 15)

You and I are to glorify God regardless of results. We are to glorify Him and bring nothing of disrepute on His name or cause that will drive men and women from His presence. Someday that is what we will spend an eternity doing—glorifying Him. If you do not enjoy glorifying Him here, then I do not think you will enjoy heaven very much. In all fairness, how can you—after thinking quietly upon the undeserved love and goodness of God poured out upon you—fail to want to kneel before Him thankfully in adoration?

“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.”