ASKING AND RECEIVING

The words, however, of this address to Elisha serve to remind us of the words of our Lord to his disciples: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you; hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” You know what is commonly understood by praying in the name of Jesus. People say they pray in his name when they so present their requests before God as not to hope for acceptance on the ground of their own worthiness, but on that of the merits of Christ and from free grace. They say that to pray in the name of Jesus is to pray in humble acknowledgement of our own entire unworthiness of any claim on Divine help, but to hope for it from the tender mercy of God through the merits and blood of Jesus Christ. Is this explanation the true and correct one? It is not exactly incorrect, but it is defective and imperfect. A person may really pray with the state of heart just described, and yet not pray fully in the name of Jesus. For if this expression signified nothing more than to pray, confiding in the merits of the Surety, why did Christ say to his disciples, “Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name?” If the Saviour would have had nothing more to be understood by praying in his name, than to pray as a contrite sinner, trusting in the merits of the Redeemer, then Abraham, Moses, Daniel, David, and others had certainly already prayed in the name of Jesus. But praying in the name of Jesus is here presented to us as something entirely new. The Saviour himself speaks of it as a thing which was not known previous to his appearing upon earth, and which must therefore be regarded as one of the chief privileges of the New Testament dispensation.

If, in the painful consciousness of my desert of condemnation, I approach the eternal Father in prayer, and set Christ before me as my Mediator and Surety, regarding God only as a consuming fire and considering that without Christ’s mediation I should certainly be consumed before Him — have I not then learned the full import of praying in the name of Jesus? No, not if I consider the Father as still strange and distant with respect to me, and that I am protected only by Christ from his wrath; for then I am in the bondage of fear before the God of all grace. I ought to approach the Father with a firm belief that I am welcome to come to him in Jesus Christ, and that if I truly loathe myself for all my transgressions, and thus make confession to him, then my sins and iniquities are remembered no more. Here then may very suitably be applied to me the spirit and import of those words which he spake to his disciples: “And I say not, that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.” Let me then learn to cast all my care upon Him, fully assured that in Christ I am not merely saved from wrath, through him, but am also numbered among “the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” Surely to pray in the knowledge and belief of all this is something more than to pray to an offended God with a cold reliance, from necessity, on the merits of Jesus. We all know that to do anything in the name of another person is, in some sense, to represent that person; so that if you offer a request in my name, and you are refused, this would amount to a disparagement of me. For it is not in reality so much you that ask, as I. If the request be granted, it is from the respect belonging to and paid to me, that any such request is granted to you. This precisely is the case with respect to asking in Christ’s name. Every answer to our prayers is primarily an answer to the intercession of Christ for us, and in him it is that we are accepted, answered, and blessed. Behold then, my brethren, what a blessed privilege the Saviour imparts to us when he encourages us to pray to the Father in his name!

Now, he that is enabled, by faith of the operation of the Holy Ghost, to bring his requests before God with holy, filial boldness; not doubting that if he ask anything according to his will, he hears him — such a one prays in the name of Jesus. And in this wise the saints of the Old Testament and the disciples themselves had not yet prayed. Their insight into the mediatorship of Christ had never yet reached so far as to enable them to draw nigh to God in “full assurance of faith.” Indeed the condition of most of the Old Testament saints, in relation to God, though the same in substance, appears to have come far short of this in degree. They knew that for the Messiah’s sake they should not be condemned; yea, they knew much more than this, and in so far they rejoiced in their redemption. But not many of them appear to have anticipated that fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, which was brought fully to light by the gospel. They had not come to “mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem,” but had come rather to “the mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire.” Even of the most eminent of them it is written that though they died in faith, “having obtained a good report through faith,” as yet “they received not the promise,” Hebrews 11: 39. We have seen and heard what they only longed for from afar; — an infinitely blessed reality has taken the place of promises and types, and the Lord says, that “the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist.” We are therefore privileged to appear before God as children before their kind and loving Father; and we need not wonder that our Lord’ mentions the praying in his name as a new thing, which was unknown until he came into the world.

Nor ought we here to overlook the largeness of the promise which our blessed Saviour makes to his true disciples. “Ask, and ye shall receive; that your joy may be full.” And again, “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.” “Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Brethren, what can we desire more? Nothing in the world is so great, nothing so small, that we might not every moment be receiving from the Father, if we only asked it in the name of Jesus. Say, what would you desire to have granted? Is it to be freed from any domestic trouble; as, for instance, that your sick child should recover? Would you gladly see your whole household converted to God? Draw night unto the Father, and ask for it in Jesus’ name, and verily! he will grant it you. But does not experience seem to contradict this? We answer, it does not really do so. The deceit lies within ourselves, through not really asking in Jesus’ name. For let us again call to mind what this asking in his name implies. You might wish very ardently, it is true, for some peculiar inter-position of God? and you might express this wish in prayer and, as you think, in Jesus’ name. But in this it is possible that you may be mistaken. A petition is offered in his name when it is offered in that faith which is of the operation of God, and when that which we ask is according to his will. Luther was enabled to pray in Jesus’ name for the lives of his friends, Melancthon and Myconius, who were sick unto death and already given over; and lo! he received the petitions which he desired of God: and whatever we pray for, even if it be only gold or silver, it may be granted us when asked for according to his will. Thus the pious professor Franke prayed for means to erect his orphan house; and immediately the silver and the gold flowed in upon him, and he who on commencing was scarcely able to command a few pence had soon enough to found that abode of orphan charity and education, whose praise has been in all the churches. The Lord had granted what his servant desired. It is to this effect that St. John addresses us in his first Epistle, chapter 3:21-23, “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as he gave us commandment.”

What shall we say to these things? Alas! how little account do we make of such exceedingly great and precious promises! How lamentably is this shown by the low state of spiritual advancement in which most are contented to live! Were it otherwise, things would wear a very different appearance amongst us. The heavens would not so often be as brass over our heads, nor the earth beneath us as iron. The church would soon flourish like the lily; there would be more shaking among the dry bones, and a gracious rain would oftener refresh God’s inheritance. Our poverty in spiritual things is our shame and our condemnation. It is still but too true of many among ourselves, “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name.”

But much as these mighty words reprove us, they also serve to encourage us; for they unfold a glorious prospect of better days to the true church of Christ, whenever they shall generally unite in asking for a new and pentecostal season, a general outpouring of the Spirit of grace and of supplications upon the professing church at large. This good work, we acknowledge, has begun to be engaged in by many a company of devout persons, in various places. But as yet, comparatively speaking, such union of prayer in the name of Jesus is but partial. As soon as it shall be full, and general, and fervent among all real christians, then will the fullness of the desired blessing be poured out.

The same kind of observation is applied to individual blessings desired by us. Is it the conversion of a child, or a beloved relative? We too often lament over the condition of such, without ever fervently praying in the name of Jesus on their behalf. It is well worth while, also, to be reminded of the duty of commending to God, in the name of Jesus, all our private cares. This is alike neglected by unbelief on the one hand and spiritual pride on the other. “What is the use of it?” says the former; “God can hardly be supposed to concern himself about my private matters.” And it is the notion of the latter, “That because God does concern himself about them, therefore I need not do it; neither need I make such things a subject of prayer to him.” But be it remembered that he has ordained prayer in the name of Jesus as the means of obtaining and receiving our blessings. This is evident from Scripture and from the experience of all ages of the church. If we are truly alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord, we shall feel that we can never enough value the inestimable privilege of being thus permitted to ask and to receive. If we do not value such a privilege as this, it must be because we are still unrenewed and dead in spirit; or because we have backslidden or sunk into a lamentable state of sloth and lukewarmness.

Lastly, it may be observed that such boldness and access given us in prayer through the faith of Jesus Christ, throws light and evidence on that great truth, “that when we were enemies, we were reconciled unto God by death of his Son, and that, being reconciled, we are made the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” For God, in thus answering our prayers, deals with us as with sons; hence the Saviour calls him “his Father, and our Father;” and he says, “As the Father hath loved me, even so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.”

Excerpt from Elijah the Tishbite by F.W. Krummacher

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