As a phrase that refines the previous petitions, and not itself a petition, it can be easy to overlook the significance of these few words. But they make a considerable contribution to the substance of the Lord’s Prayer. In fact, they express something important of the whole shape of our hope for salvation. In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, he saw it all, “and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). But, since sin and death entered the world, the earth is no longer like heaven, not the way it’s supposed to be. The main way this is true is with regard to our relationships with God and each other, though the whole earth suffers the effects of sin and “waits with eager longing” for things to be set back right and perfected once and for all (Romans 8:19).
Heaven is the “place” in God’s creation where the presence of God is the defining reality. God makes it clear that the same should be true also of the earth. This is what he wants and is working toward (and this is the very thing sinners reject). Christians aren’t escapists, thinking a disembodied heaven is the ultimate ideal, wishing we could be free from the shackles of this material realm. Following God’s lead, we want earth to be like heaven. Our hope is that this material world will be perfected in God’s presence, characterized by what characterizes heaven. The Gospel guarantees this hope. Heaven came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. He himself is God with humanity, in the flesh. After his death and resurrection, he ascended into heaven, where his continuing presence means that God and humanity live in communion, which is the way all God’s creation is supposed to be. One day Jesus will return, bringing all of heaven with him. Heaven and earth will become one, and everything that’s right with heaven will also be right with the earth, forever.
Until then, what characterizes heaven may characterize the earth wherever God is with his people. God’s name may be hallowed, his kingdom may come, and his will may be done on earth wherever his presence is the defining reality, where we have communion with the Father in the name of Jesus Christ, where the Holy Spirit bears his fruit in us. In other words, the church filled with the love of God is where the earth is most like heaven.
Does the church strike you as a taste of heaven on earth? Why or why not? How do you pray for the church? Do you look forward to heaven because God’s presence defines it, even though it means separation from your earthly life (2 Corinthians 5:8)? Or do you look forward to heaven for some other reason? Do you look forward to the New Heavens and the New Earth as perfected in God’s presence? In what ways do you long for the earth to become more like heaven now?
