Prayer¹

2. What Is the Basis for Prayer?

Rev Donald Macdonald

1. The Basis for Prayer. Some preliminary considerations will be given here before we come to the substance of this section.

(1.) The dependence of the creature: Our nature and creation should teach us this truth. Such is the atheism of the heart of man that he thinks he is all-sufficient.

(2.) The original creation. Although angels and men were perfect in their

¹The first part of this Theological Conference paper, last month, contained the first two main points: (1.) Some general observations, (2.) Prayer in Old Testament worship. This second article provides the third main point.

creation – perfectly conformed to their Maker, as to righteousness – yet they are dependent because they are finite. At their creation they came forth from the hand of their Creator in a holy state; so they would adore and praise their Maker for what He is in Himself, and for His works in creation – in all their wonder. Nature wonderfully provides for the good of God’s creatures. In it God’s goodness is magnified. On the morning of the day of creation, the worship expressed in Revelation 4:11 would be the worship of the sons of God, angels and Adam: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created”. Adoration belongs to prayer; it is closely allied with praise; it is part of prayer addressed to the Creator. But the attributes of justice and mercy were not yet revealed at the beginning of creation, which was a sinless state.

(3.) The disruption caused by sin involved mankind and some angels. The attribute of justice was first exercised in the spiritual world, in the immediate judgement of the fallen angels, when they were cast out of heaven. The holy demonstration of Divine wrath exercised in the creation revealed God’s infinite hatred of sin – with no promise of recovery.

(4.) This disruption in the spiritual world led to the fall of man. Adam and Eve gave way to Satan’s temptation; this brought Adam and all his posterity into condemnation and ruin; they were exposed to sin’s penalty. When Almighty God brought them under judgement in the Garden, Adam and Eve surely expected the penalty to be executed: “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen 2:17) – which implied eternal death, without mercy. It was when judging the serpent that another side of God’s nature was revealed to fallen man: in the promise that the woman’s seed would come. This other side of God’s nature is the attribute of mercy, now introduced to the world, not only to deal with sin, but also to recover man from all the effects of the Fall. If man was a dependent creature in a perfectly holy state, how much more is he dependent, now that he is ruined and fallen?

Let us now notice some things following these preliminary considerations:

1. It is this attribute of mercy that opens up a way to God. It is thus a basis for prayer: for petition, supplication and thanksgiving. It is on account of this that, almost from the gates of Eden, men in the line of Seth “began to call on the name of the Lord” (Gen 4:26). If there was no revelation of mercy, men would never have been able to call upon His name, there would have been no desire to do so.

2. The second basis for prayer is the revelation of God. As this revelation proceeded, particularly from the time of Abraham, there was an unfolding of the name of God to men. It is a difficult question, related to our approach

to God in prayer: How can He show mercy to the guilty, to sinful beings? There can be no mercy apart from sacrifice – unless the demands of justice are met. To show kindness on the grounds of compassion alone would be contrary to God’s holiness; the holy God sees an intrinsic vileness in sin. God showing mercy necessitates the mystery of the incarnation: the Word, the One sent by the Father, was made flesh. This sets before us who Christ is, what He came to do, and what He accomplished in man’s redemption. It is the atonement that meets all the demands of God’s holiness.

The doctrine of the atonement sheds light on that of the Trinity, which is seen less clearly in the Old Testament but is more fully opened up in the New Testament – not least in the upper room on the eve of the crucifixion. The atonement and the Trinity are inseparably joined together; to deny the one is to deny the other. The fact that the Mediator is both God and man in two distinct natures in the one Person is a very important truth behind the sinner drawing near to God: “For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph 2:18). By Christ we come to God and learn of the Father. In natural religion we see much of His eternal power and God-head. However, we could never know mercy apart from God’s Word.

1. The covenant of grace is the third point to be considered here. The Word of God makes it clear that He deals with man by way of covenant; it was so from the very beginning. In Scripture the doctrine of the first and the last Adam are developed under the two covenants: the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. They are the federal heads of the two parties, the first Adam in the Fall, the covenant head of the race. The second Adam, the head of the redeemed family. All men by nature, as fallen, are under the sphere of natural religion; there is much diversity here. You have an example of natural and revealed religion in the history of Cain and Abel. Man has the ability to develop from reason some creed to suit him, but he is blind to the fact that he is a subject of a higher law; he is under law to God.

It is under the law that he has a relationship to his Maker, as B M Palmer says: “The law is needed as a test of character, no less than a rule of conduct. Antecedent to a single act, he needs the law by which to know himself; and without it he would be incapable either of probation or progress”; apart from the law, he could not see himself to be a lost, ruined and undone sinner. Man was created under the moral law; it therefore touches every aspect of his being and no change in his moral or spiritual state can relieve him from its authority. Palmer further says, “Whether holy or apostate, whether a saint or a sinner, whether in this world of trial or in the world of retribution, through time and eternity, the law must remain without change . . . Law, however, consists of two parts – the precept that guides, and the penalty that binds; the

one disclosing the purpose of God, the other proclaiming His supreme authority. Neither of the two can be removed without dissolving the law itself.”² The unity between the precept and the authority cannot be severed.

In revealed religion we are shown the workings of grace. Grace does not set aside the law but establishes it. We might say that grace is founded upon law; it magnifies and honours the law. When God acts in grace towards rebellious sinners, grace first meets the requirements of justice; it meets the demands of violated law. This leads us to ask how this can be done when there is no possibility of sinful men, with their diminished ability, fulfilling God’s requirement: “Pay Me that thou owest”; for “the soul that sinneth it shall die”. In the provision of grace, God reveals to us the Seed of the woman, who was to be born of her without sin, “made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons,” “whereby we cry, Abba, Father”.

This brings under review the whole doctrine of the Person of Christ and His substitutionary work in man’s redemption on the cross, to be followed by His resurrection and ascension. Here is the great wonder of grace towards sinful men: the Lawgiver was made under law and became subject to His own law; He not only obeyed it fully but satisfied all the claims of justice. The scarlet thread of the atonement runs through the whole scheme of law and grace, to the glory of God, for the good of lost sinners. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit” (Rom 8:3,4). This is why the Publican’s prayer, “God be merciful to me a sinner” (Lk 18:13), is ever suited to the souls of sinners, from Abel downwards. This is at the foundation of all prayer in true religion.

Let us put in a logical order the basis for prayer as presented in this section: the doctrine of the Trinity which reveals the eternal Word Himself, the covenant of grace with all its arrangements, and finally the written Word – the Scriptures which are God-breathed, which are the work of the Holy Spirit, through men divinely inspired. This is the basis on which all true prayer and worship is offered to the eternal God.

Note here Hugh Martin’s sermon entitled: “Precept, Promise and Prayer”.³ The precept is: “Make you a new heart”. That is the law. Man cannot do it, but the precept still binds him despite his inability; man is duty-bound to

² B M Palmer, The Theology of Prayer, Sprinkle Publications reprint, 1980, pp 184-5.

³ This sermon was published in The Free Church Pulpit, vol 3, and is included in Christ for Us, a collection of Martin’s sermons published by the Banner of Truth.

obey. Where God gives a precept, He gives a promise: “A new heart will I give you”. That is grace. The promise is a foundation for prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me”. The answer to prayer is founded on both law and grace.