Mark 14:36
And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
This simple prayer is in many respects a perfect encapsulation of who we are in Christ, what we have in Him, who God is, and how we should live.
Oh, how many poor Christians, their souls wearied unto death, beset by worry and weighed down by heartache and sin, struggle to pray. They don’t know what to say. They don’t know where to begin. Jesus’ prayer in the garden on the fateful night – on that evil night – is perfectly instructive to those of us who struggle before God.
This short line illustrates two things for us and, in doing so, it highlights two mistakes we are to avoid.
First, note how our Lord addresses the great God of the universe. “Abba, Father…” he says! This isn’t some dry entreaty or some hyper-formal address. This is the truth of all truths for those of us that are in Christ – God has not only declared us not-guilty (we are justified) but he has adopted us as sons. Think of this, Christian. There’s a fallacy in the world that we’re all God’s children. This is a dangerous error. We are all God’s creation, yes…but those that are unrepentant of sin, who haven’t run to the all-covering embrace of Jesus, are actually sons of perdition. In the second chapter of Ephesians, Paul puts it bluntly: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
Natural man doesn’t like to hear this precisely because he’s disobedient. He wants to flatter himself that he isn’t really quite so bad and this is the great dividing line between Christianity and all other religions/philosophies. The others profess that there is something that they can do – religious observance, good works, severity of the body (asceticism), etc. – that will make them acceptable to God. Christianity says that all such things are worse than worthless in that they call God a liar. God’s righteousness is so high, His majesty and perfection and holiness so very great, that only He can bridge the gap between Himself and sinful man. There are no exceptions, nor can there ever be or else God is a liar and Christ died in vain. Note how Paul says “among whom we all once lived…” Indeed, there is none righteous except God.
But God doesn’t just declare us not guilty and be done with the whole thing. He doesn’t just say, “you’re pardoned, you workers of lawlessness and rebellion – so now be gone with you…get out of my sight.” If a man is declared not-guilty in a court of law that is quite rather the end of it. He must leave the courthouse and then go on and find his life. He has been spared, but what he had before is what he has still (and in many cases, what he had before has been lost due to the trial). Can you imagine for a moment that at that instant of being pardoned, the guilty criminal is also given some high position in the court too? Such is scandalous to think of but that is the nature of the gospel. God doesn’t just declare us innocent, he clothes former rebels in Christ’s righteousness and actually adopts them into the holy family. This is all His doing and is precisely why we’re able to pray to our Father rather than a distant and impersonal deity.
Second, we learn the purpose of both prayer and Christian living.
He has done all for us and it’s out of such a heart of gratitude that we approach the throne of grace. We don’t approach as if we’ve earned anything. To pray in presumption of anything other than the majesty and grace of God is an awful sin and this is the second error we are wise to avoid.
I’ve been around some that have basically told God what to do. They say, “we know that if we pray anything in your name, you will answer it…so heal so-and-so…do this-and-that.” What a horrid misapprehension of grace and sovereignty. What a dangerous game of ignorance. To go boldly to the throne in prayer is to go confident in the work of Christ, not upon our own righteousness.
To this end, it’s always wise to remember what we’re saved from – sin. And the root of sin is the slander of God. To take something He has forbidden isn’t just a violation of His authority, it’s also an action which says God isn’t good. Grace redeems us from the horrible error that suggests God won’t be good to His children. The root of all true Christian prayer is to come before the Lord who is Good and to learn, in His presence, that whatever He wills is, therefore, ultimately good. Jesus says that all things are possible. This is our clue of God’s incomprehensible power and might and of our own limitations. We can’t even understand the here and now, much less everything else. The idea is that the heart that knows God’s infinite love and goodness petitions God. It doesn’t make demands. Notice carefully what Jesus does – that’s our model. He prays not for anything else but that God’s will be done.
This is the context, the mindset and heart, of proper prayer. We start with the recognition of all that God has done and that He has not whimsically decided to overlook our sin and then have nothing else to do with us. He has adopted us into his own. We go to Him in loving and thankful worship. We go to Him because He is God and we are now, in Christ, His children. Prayer is to our benefit because we get to confess our burdens, our sins, and heavy hearts – that is where they all belong, after all…at the feet of the Almighty, at the cross, not stuffed down and repressed in the cold, dark recesses of our fears. Our prayers bring us before our loving and all-powerful God. We don’t boss Him around and say “in Jesus name” like it’s some kind of special incantation that has a power over Him. Don’t be foolish. Prayer and the Word bring us closer to conformity to our Lord where we learn of His will and then seek His will in the comforting and familial embrace of the God that has sacrificed all for us.
We sought our will before at all costs – when we were sinners. Now we seek His will. Prayer is the conjunction of these two:us going to Him humbly to confess and to present our petitions while seeking the faith and strength to conform to what He wants. We do this from a sincere heart that knows that His will is best. The goal of it all – of Christian life – is conformity to the will and character of Christ, not the assertion of sinful will. There is a way that seems right to a man, but it’s end is death. But we know that in Christ all things will work together for our good – even the temporary evils that will afflict us along the way.
If we struggle here – and so many of us do – it’s because we’ve forgotten how great and high is the love of Christ for us. We should rest in His mercy. It’s not a possibility for me and you to work our way into the presence of God, or to perfect ourselves and present ourselves holy and blameless before Him. Only Christ bridges the gap between the holy, holy, holy God and us. This is the greatest of what is possible for God and impossible for us. The very fact that when we pray we have a private audience – us, sinners! – with the perfect God of the universe is the most astonishing fact of human life. It alone puts our temporary struggles and afflictions – hard as they are at the moment – in their proper context.
In all, we have a heavenly father that loves us beyond our comprehension. And this is the sovereign God we’re talking about – who spoke all of creation into existence! He’s God! And He’s our heavenly father. He can do all that He wills and He wills to bring us to that last day shining in the radiant robes of righteousness provided by Christ. No single thing, event, catastrophe or plague on earth can separate us from Him and cancel that appointment. Therefore, let us pray always that His will be done.
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