Dr. J. Vernon McGee :: Chapter 7: The Grand Omission

CHAPTER 7

The Grand Omission

When you see a freight train standing on the track with a caboose coupled on, you know that it is ready to take to the road—it is complete. And a freight train with other cars added after the caboose would look irregular. And should you see a freight train without a caboose, the instant impression would be that something else is to be added. With this simple illustration before us, let us consider the matter of the Lord Jesus breaking off the Lord’s Prayer at different points and under different conditions without using the word “amen.”

Now the fact that He omitted the “amen” in the instance recorded in Luke 11 means that something else was to be added. But what right have we to add anything to the Lord’s Prayer? I would like to say, hastily, that we can add only Scripture to the Lord’s Prayer, and we must have scriptural warrant for it. The question is, do we have scriptural warrant to do this? And if so, what is it that we are to add? What is the grand omission that creates this great void?

Now the Lord Jesus gave the Lord’s Prayer to His disciples at the beginning of His ministry, and He repeated it intermittently. He must have said it many, many times. Then at the end of His ministry, He met with His disciples in the Upper Room where He instituted the Lord’s Supper. Then He told them something new: He told them that He was the vine and they were the branches. And then He gave them a new basis for prayer. What He said is very vital, but it is passed over today:

And in that day [when He comes back from the dead, after His death and resurrection] you will ask Me nothing [that is, we are not to pray to Him]. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:23, 24)

And here is our scriptural warrant: We are told to add to the Lord’s Prayer in the name of Christ. This is a new basis of prayer.

Back in the Old Testament, prayer was made for the glory of God based on the covenants of God. That is the reason you find so many times in the Old Testament that when men prayed to God they spoke of the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob the—covenant-making and covenant-keeping God. When we come to the New Testament and the Lord’s Prayer, we find that it is made for the glory of God. But something new has been added. The Lord Jesus says in effect: “Up to this point you have asked nothing in My name, but from now on ask in My name.” And, beloved, the Lord’s Prayer, as well as any prayer today, should be made in the name of Christ. In fact, there is a startling promise given here:

And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. (John 14:13, 14)

He not only said it once, He said it three times in the Upper Room. I say to you that this is a startling promise! It is startling because it is limitless, it is without bounds: “If you ask anything in My name….”

But it is qualified, and it is qualified by “in My name”—that is, the name of Christ. In this day in which we are living, it is the only basis for prayer—the neglected act of worship. And we are to remember that God hears only the prayer that is made in the name of Christ; there is no other basis. But that He has promised to hear prayer made on this basis, we may rest assured.

Here it is important to understand what it means to pray in the name of Christ. It is not a formula, a prescription, or a pet expression with which to conclude prayer. Nor is it an “open sesame,” a turning on of the spigot, or the writing of a letter to Santa Claus. Oh, no, it is not that at all. So what is the real meaning?

To pray in the name of Christ means, first of all, that the individual praying must himself be in Christ. There is a word that, over time, has come to mean more to me than any other word. It seems to increase in richness and value day by day. It is a little preposition, and you will probably be surprised to hear it. The most important word in the Bible to me is the little preposition “in”—in Christ. “In Christ” is another way of speaking of salvation. Dr. Norman B. Harrison said that identification is synonymous with salvation. How true that is! The most profound statement that I find in the Word of God is: “…You in Me, and I in You” (John 14:20). Those are simple words—any six-year-old can tell you the meaning of each word—but, beloved, how profound they are when put together in this statement!

What does it mean that He is in us? Well, He took our place down here.

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

He was made sin for us—not in some academic manner, some forensic way, but He actually was made sin for us. And the moment that holy Lamb of God—who was in perfect fellowship with the Father, for He said, “And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me” (John 16:32)— bore our sins upon the cross, He was completely identified with us. He was “delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:25). Today we are told that in Christ we have forgiveness of sins. Today God is saving men because Christ completely identified Himself with us, paying the penalty in full for your sin and mine.

Now I would like to say very reverently that God is no chiseler—He is not a shady character or a swindler. He has collected for your sin; the penalty was paid by Christ. God will save a sinner 100 percent because Christ was identified in us down here. But that is just one half of the story.

We are now identified in Him. He was “raised because of our justification,” but justification is not forgiveness of sin. So He was made sin for us “that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” He paid the penalty of sin completely. Jesus has “paid it all, all to Him I owe.” That is my favorite hymn, and at my funeral I do not want them to sing “Safe in the Arms of Jesus” or “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere.” I want them to sing the positive hymn of salvation in which we can live gloriously and die triumphantly—“Jesus paid it all…. Sin had left a crimson stain—He washed it white as snow.”⁷ He paid it all, and now His robe of righteousness has been made over and given to those who do no more nor less than simply trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

There was a book published years ago that told a romantic and fictional tale of the robe that was worn by Christ at the time of His crucifixion. Actually, that robe had no romantic history. Probably some burly Roman soldier won the robe, it fit him too well, and with summer coming on in a very hot climate, he could not bear its heat and threw it into a corner. One day someone picked it up and threw it away. You say, “Oh, my, that is awful!” No, my friend, that robe has no romantic history because there was no merit in it at all. God saw to it that it disappeared.

But thank God that there is another robe—the robe of His righteousness. And that robe does have a romantic history. Oh, how romantic it is! That robe is spotless and white, and He puts it over any and every sinner who will only trust Christ. No longer do we have our sins upon us, for Christ bore them. Now we are more than forgiven sinners; we stand in robes of righteousness in God’s presence, complete in Christ. Nothing is to be added, for nothing can make us more complete than we are in Jesus Christ—saved and brought into His presence, accepted on the basis of what He has done.

You may remember that Jacob, by his mother’s trickery, got hold of Esau’s garment, put it on, and deceived his blind father who thought Jacob was Esau because he was clothed in Esau’s garment. When I come into God’s presence, He accepts me as Christ not because I am deceiving Him, not because He cannot see me, but because it is the way God has arranged it. I am clothed in Christ’s robe of righteousness. I am accepted “in” Him, and now I can come in Christ and present my petitions to God. It means that when I pray in the name of Christ, I can do so because I am in Christ. We must be children of God before we are ever on praying ground, “for the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil” (1 Peter 3:12).

The child of God should be admonished by the glorious things said in Hebrews:

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession…. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:14, 16)

To pray in the name of Christ means that we can come boldly because He has signed His name with ours in the petition that we make. In my first year of college, I did not have enough money to get through and wanted to borrow some. But I will be honest with you and say that I could not find anyone who wanted to lend me any. Finally, a wonderful friend of mine said he would cosign a note with me. He put his name on that note, I took it to the bank, and I had no difficulty at all. They did not even look at my name, but they saw his name, accepted it, and let me have the money. Now in simple language, God will not hear your prayers because of who you are, and He will not hear your prayers because of your merit. He hears your prayers and my prayers only when they are made in the name of Christ. If Christ’s name is on the petition, God hears and answers.

There is a second thing that is important as well: When we pray in the name of Christ, the prayer must be in the will of God. That is, the person as well as the prayer must be in the will of God. Notice this carefully:

If you love Me, keep My commandments. (John 14:15)

Keeping His commandments is to be in the will of God. He says:

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. (John 15:7)

It is not only union with Christ, but it is communion with Him that gives a basis for God hearing and answering prayer.

Prayer is not a matter of attempting to get a reluctant Deity to come over on our side; prayer is not a method resorted to as if to persuade God to do something that He is loath to do. Think carefully! God is trying to persuade us! He wants to do something for us, and He is trying to get us into a position to receive it. Luke 18 records the Lord Jesus’ parable of the unjust judge and the poor widow, and that is a parable by contrast. The poor widow went every day to that judge, and finally he heard her petition. The Lord Jesus says that if that unjust judge would hear a poor widow who had no political influence, don’t you know your Father in heaven, who is not unjust, will hear you? God is trying to get us into a place where He can bless us!

Our earnest prayer, as children of God, should be: “Lord, get us into a position where we can be blessed. Take out of our hearts those things that are blocking You from getting through in mighty power.” God wants to bless—need we try to persuade Him to do something that He longs to do?

Your prayers and mine are not going to upset the program of God, for it is in God’s program that prayer shall have a place. It is interesting that God has never sent a blessing to His people without first having them pray for that blessing. I know that in my own experience God has had me praying for things that were already on the way, and He does that many times today. Daniel prayed that the people might go out of captivity even though he already had God’s word that they were to leave in seventy years. Daniel prayed because it was God’s will. There are many ways of escape in the minds of people today, but God has only one method and that is prayer.

I want to conclude with a very homely illustration. Suppose there is a man who wants to master the violin. So he finds a station on his radio that is playing the music of Bach. He sits in front of the speaker and attempts to play along on his violin, but he is not experienced enough and is not able to keep up. He makes mistake after mistake and, growing weary of his efforts, begins to play “Turkey in the Straw”—a tune he knows well—instead. This in no way affects the artistry of the music being played over the radio. The next evening, the man tunes in again and this time they are broadcasting a piece by Wagner. Once again, he attempts to follow along on his violin. But once more it ends in failure, and he resorts to the cowboy music with which he is familiar. Again, this does not at all interrupt the perfection and beauty of the concert over the radio. But this man, longing to play, hears that Handel’s “Messiah” is going to be given the following week. So he spends the days and evenings practicing the score. And when at last the strains of the “Messiah” come from the radio, the man is ready to join in under the director and go along in harmony.

Beloved, that is what it means to pray in the name of Christ. It means for you and me to get in tune with heaven. It does not mean that God must rearrange His program for us, but that He will work mightily upon us if we get our little instrument in tune so that whatsoever we ask, He will do.

Regardless of the prayer you pray, whether it be the Lord’s Prayer or another, there is a grand omission unless it is made in the name of Christ. And it cannot be made in the name of Christ until you are in Christ, fully trusting Him, and you are in the will of God.

Footnote:
7. “Jesus Paid it All,” words by Elvina M. Hall. Public domain.