The grace

"May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." (2 Corinthians 13:14)

I once attended a church where the minister would bow his head and intone "The grace of our Lord..." when anyone walked in late, as if the service was about to end. His congregation soon learned to turn up on time! Sometimes the words do seem barely more than a pious version of "See you later".

Yet surely Paul didn't mindlessly scribble the words down as a way of ending his letter to the church in Corinth. He wanted the Corinthians to understand that his apparent harshness with them in his previous letter was not meant to bolster his weak authority, but to build them up and make them more Christ-like. He was deeply hurt by their attitude towards him, and the way they were comparing him to the more charismatic "super apostles".

He made no apology for having disciplined them, but he longed for them to demonstrate that they loved him as he loved them, by living as he had taught them. Rather than concluding simply with "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you", as he did in many of his other letters, he added an even greater blessing, one which we can all use.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: God doesn't offer us a life free from weakness and hardship, but grace to demonstrate His power in our lives. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (1 Cor 12:9). It is the same grace which took Jesus through the weakness of death on the cross to the power of the resurrection and victory over sin.

The love of God: In his previous letter Paul had tried to convince the Corinthian Christians that no matter how important the gifts of the Spirit are to the life of the church, they are useless without love (1 Cor. 13). Now he prays that they will experience the source of that love, God himself.

The fellowship of the Holy Spirit: Twice in this letter, Paul refers to the Holy Spirit being given to us as a guarantee of our salvation and future resurrection (1 Cor 1:22, 5:5). To experience the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is to know the assurance of our place in God's kingdom. Our relationship to other Christians then becomes something more than just human fellowship. We are bound to each other by a bond stronger than common beliefs or even family relationship - the presence of the Holy Spirit within us.

The role of the Holy Spirit in prayer

We've seen how prayer involves our relationship to the first two persons of the Trinity. We address our prayers (generally) to the Father, and we pray 'in the name of Jesus', the Son, with all that is implied in that phrase. But what is the role of the Holy Spirit in our praying?

We would have no relationship with God if it were not for the witness of the Holy Spirit to what God has done for us (John 15:26). It's the Holy Spirit who brings us to repentance and faith (Titus 3:4-7). This is fundamental to our communication with God in prayer. The Holy Spirit's presence in our life then becomes the pledge and seal of our place in God's kingdom life (1 John 4:13).

In our new relationship with God, it's the Holy Spirit who enables us to experience the love of God (Rom 5:5) and to address him as Father (Gal 4:6). Sometimes this seems so natural to those who have been Christians for a while that we forget just how strange it really is, and how privileged we are to be in such a position. The Spirit also helps us to know what it means to be a child of God, in all its wonder (1 Cor 2:9-12). It is a good practice to ask the Holy Spirit to remind us of who we are in Christ and what God has done for us before we pray.

It's also good to ask the Holy Spirit to show us what and how to pray, so that we are truly praying 'in Jesus name' and in step with God's will. One of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to show us what to pray. But the Spirit also prays for us, particularly at times where we are unable to shape our thoughts into words (Rom 8:26-27). When our desire to pray far outweighs our ability to pray, our relationship with God is not severed, but kept alive by the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit conveys messages from God to those who are praying. In Acts 13:2, for instance Luke records that 'while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” ' Sometimes he equips people for the work that God has provided for them to do through prayer (Acts 4:31). Often he reminds us of God's words in scripture as we pray.

Our prayers and the work of the Holy Spirit in the world appear to have a complementary role. Paul tells the Philippians that 'through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance' (Phil 1:19).

As the Holy Spirit is active in our life, we become more like Jesus. He produces in us the 'fruit of the Spirit' - love, joy, peace, patience and so on (Gal 5:22). These qualities then affect the way we relate to God and to other people and influence the way we pray. Clearly, then, the Holy Spirit plays a vital role in our prayers, and our life in relationship to the triune God.

Praying in Jesus' name

In John's gospel, Jesus told his disciples that they should pray 'in his name' to the Father, who would answer their prayers because he loved them (John 16:23-27). But what does it mean to pray 'in the name of Jesus'? It's obviously more than a slogan tagged on to the end of our prayers, but what is meant by 'the name of Jesus'?

The phrase 'in the name of Jesus' is used in several ways in the New Testament. The first describes things done 'in the name of Jesus' in the sense of doing them under his authority, on his behalf. So we find the disciples casting out demons (Luke 10:17), teaching and speaking (Acts 4:18), healing (Acts 3:6), and preaching (Acts 9:28) in Jesus name. In this they emulated Jesus, whose earthly ministry was carried out in the name of, and under the authority of, his Father (John 10:25).

The second sense in which 'the name of Jesus' is used involves bringing glory to him, acknowledging his worth (Acts 9:15, Rom 1:4-6, 2 Thess 1:11-12 ). Again, this reminds us of Jesus who always sought to bring glory to the name of his Father (John 17:26)

A third use of Jesus' name involves a sense of belonging to Jesus. Christians are those who gather in Jesus' name (Matt 18:20), who are baptised in his name (Matt 28:19), who are reviled and persecuted for his name's sake (Acts 5:41, Rev, 2:3), and who figuratively bear his name on their foreheads (Rev 22:4).

The fourth sense in which 'the name of Jesus' is used relates to the way in which Christians appropriate to themselves the work of Jesus in his death and resurrection. They believe in his name (John 2:23), hope in his name (Matt 12:21), avoid condemnation (John 3:18), receive forgiveness (Acts 10:43) and salvation (Acts 4:12) in his name. They are washed, sanctified and justified in his name (1 Cor 6:11) The Holy Spirit is sent in the name of Jesus (John 14:26).

When it comes to praying 'in Jesus name', I think all of these meanings of the phrase are involved. We pray, not as helpless, powerless, isolated individuals, but as those who carry the authority of the one who has 'the name above every rule, authority, power and dominion' (Eph 1:20-21). We are his agents, doing his work on his behalf and in his strength. We come to the Father to ask for what we need to do his will. (Of course, in order to do this, we need to know first what it is that he wants us to do.) We pray 'in his name' when we seek to bring him glory and honour.

We pray in his name because we belong to him. We are those who have been adopted as children of God, and are co-heirs with Christ. But we are only in that position because of what Jesus has done for us, in winning our salvation.

So to pray in Jesus name means that we have thought through what we are praying to see if it is glorifying to Jesus and according to God's will. And having done that we come with confidence to our Father because we belong to his Son, whose name he loves to glorify.

Prayer and the Trinity

In Sunday School we used to sing a song called "The Royal Telephone". I can't recall the exact words, but the gist of it was that Christians have a direct line to God. He's always on the other end of the line, ready to answer.

I haven't heard it for years, and I'm thankful for that. It was an appalling song! A generation grew up believing that God was far away but could be contacted 'long distance' We might be better off than the heathen, who could only shout and hope that God would hear them, but still the distance was maintained between ourselves on earth and God in heaven.

My understanding now is that God is distant from us morally in his holiness and perfection. But in Jesus he has lived among us (John 1:14) and by his Holy Spirit he continues to live within those who belong to him (John 14:17). When we pray "Our Father in heaven" we are not addressing someone "up there" or far away. "Father in heaven" simply distinguishes God from our earthly fathers. Earth and heaven are two different spheres of existence, not two distinct places.

So Paul could say even to non-believers "...He is not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:27-28). He didn't mean that God is present in everything (which would be pantheism) but that no place or time is distant from God or outside his presence.

How does our relationship to God as Christians differ from that of non-believers? The answer, I think, is in our participation in the life of the Trinity. For all eternity Father, Son and Spirit have lived in a communion of love with each other, three distinct persons in one God, united in purpose and will. Through Christ's life, death, resurrection and ascension, God has opened up a way for us into this eternal life of his. When we belong to Christ we somehow enter into the life of the Trinity. We don't become God, but we become participants in the community of love which is God.

How? I don't know. We're told that as Christians we are 'in Christ' and the Holy Spirit is 'in' us (Romans 8:9-10). We are adopted as children of God - and the phrase 'child of God' is far more than just a synonym for 'Christian believer' (Romans 8:14-17). We are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6) and we have access to the Father, through Jesus, by one Spirit (Ephesians 2:18).

I could cite many other references, but what I'm starting to explore here (clumsily) is the idea that prayer involves the whole of the Trinity and our place in the life of the Trinity. God is not some distant being who has given us a phone card so that we can call him up every so often. Our relationship is much more immediate and intimate than that. Something far more wonderful is going on when we pray.