“And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full... At that day ye shall ask in my name; and I say not unto you, 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” (John 16:23-2723And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. 25These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. 26At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: 27For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. (John 16:23‑27)). Has the reader ever noticed how a letter-knowledge of Scripture may sometimes hinder its spiritual apprehension? Perhaps it is thus with the expression, “In my name” —so familiar as a phrase, yet its power so slightly understood. The fact is that prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus is one of the special distinctions of the present day of grace. The Lord indicates this by the statement, “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name,” and thus marks off our position in prayer from that of God’s people in the past. Whether Abraham in Gen. 18, or Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, Daniel in Babylon, or Hezekiah (2 Kings 19:1515And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. (2 Kings 19:15))—each addressed God suitably according to the character, or the relationship, in which He was known. But the revelation of the divine nature was then only partial. Jesus, however, revealed the Father—yet, until the coming of the Holy Ghost, the disciples’ comprehension of that revelation, of much that He taught, was obscure. In the 16th of John, however, the Lord is about to go away. He had already taught them to pray to God as their Father, but naming Him only by description, as “Our Father who art in heaven”; now, he announces a new thing, based on His ascension. They would approach the Father in His name; that is, not now One distantly described as “in heaven” (for He had not as yet shown them plainly of the Father, John 16:2525These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. (John 16:25)), but One fully known as THE FATHER: even as John states, “I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father” (1 John 2:1313I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. (1 John 2:13)). Praying in His name involves these points—(1) Our title of access to the Father Himself. (2) That so approaching the Father we come in all the potency, all the value, of the name of the Lord Jesus. (3) That the Holy Spirit has come, and gives us, not only consciousness of our position as sons with the Father (Gal. 4:66And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (Galatians 4:6)), but spiritual capacity to use this new privilege—we have access through Christ, by the Spirit to the Father (Eph. 2:1818For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. (Ephesians 2:18)). This, it will be seen, is a deeper thing than the verbal tacking on the Lord’s name as a form at the end of a prayer. Delightful, gracious way, in which the Lord puts it! “I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loveth you.” He, as it were, introduces us to the Father; and that in the tactful manner of one who would place us at ease in the atmosphere of the Father’s love. Would that we realized more the immense power of our position with the Father, and the value of the name of Jesus in which to draw near! All this, it will be observed, depends upon the vast change implied in the words “because I go unto the Father” (John 14:1212Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. (John 14:12)). Man in His person would be entering into a position in which man had never been before; and He labors to convey to their minds what would be its significance for them. So far, as to the privilege and power of His name given to us for our prayers. This is the positive side; but there is also a negative. There is what His name excludes, as well as what it includes. “Whatsoever” is the promise, but that is defined and limited by “in my name.” As another has said: “‘Whatsoever!’ Were it alone, it would be boundless, and the Lord would thus have opened the door to all the desires of unbroken will among His people. But He adds, ‘in my name.’ This is His limit—the barrier He sets up.”
Not only, however, do we fail to understand, and fail to use, our privilege of prayer in Christ’s name, but some in trying to explain the matter have not only mystified it but have fallen into error, as witness the following—
“Coming now to what is found in John 16 as to prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, or in the name of the Son (as in chap. 14), it should be first observed that our access to our God and Father is always and only through Christ. As Paul writes, ‘For through Him, we both (Jew and Gentile) have access by one Spirit unto the Father.’ We cannot come in any other way. But coming thus ‘through Him’ before God the question is at once met, What is praying in His name? It could not be using His name as a plea, or entreating to be heard for His sake, because the Lord says, without any limitation whatever, ‘Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.’ By praying in His name, then, we understand appearing before the Father on His behalf, and as warranted to be there by Him, so that we are there with all the Son’s claim upon the Father’s heart, and taken up in the power of the Holy Ghost to utter and pray for, in communion with His own heart, all that He Himself desires to be accomplished for the Father’s glory and His own joy. Praying, then, in His name is to intercede for His own interests, His own desires, objects and ends. If this he so, this character of prayer has no reference to our own personal needs or circumstances; indeed, it could not. And let it not be forgotten that there is a circle in which we have no needs, because we are lost, absorbed in the Father’s counsels for the glory of His beloved Son. At the same time we have full liberty to come at all times, through our blessed Lord, into the presence of God, and to tell out everything that burdens our hearts (Phil. 4:6, 76Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6‑7)); only this is not praying ‘in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.’”
There is here either truth, or error, and on such a matter there ought to be no doubt. According to this writer, the Christian has the name of Christ for some only of his prayers; for the rest, that blessed Name is not available. This is of practical importance, for if accepted, it must hamper the believer in the holy exercise of prayer, and greatly restrict the power as well as the liberty and joy of his communion with God. If there be such a distinction, Scripture might be expected to express it with unmistakable plainness; but in Scripture, it may be searched for in vain. Of course one cannot prove the negative: the duty of proof rests with those who assert a new doctrine. No positive scripture, however, is cited, as it surely would have been, if there had been one to cite.
That prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is a characteristic feature of Christianity has already been shown. The Lord intimates this, when, referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit, He says, “And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:23, 2423And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:23‑24)).
He had previously instructed His disciples, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall he opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall he opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him” (Matt. 7:7-117Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 9Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? 10Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? (Matthew 7:7‑11))?
But this, it will be observed, is based upon the benevolent character of God, not showing how divine beneficence could be extended to evil men, without a compromise of divine righteousness. That is not shown, because the work had not yet been accomplished, on the basis of which only, could God forbear with men, much less bless them, forgive their sins, or answer their prayers. God’s grace to man was as yet administered on the ground of the foreseen sacrifice of Christ (Rom. 3:2525Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (Romans 3:25)). But we are in the period which Christ referred to as “that day” (John 14:12; 16:2312Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. (John 14:12)
23And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. (John 16:23)). It was then future; but now the great work of atonement has been done, and the position is made clear. Christ is the propitiation for sins that are past through the forbearance of God, as well as the basis for all blessing by God towards sinners at any time. This now is no longer mysterious, but open and manifest. God’s attributes are reconciled in the cross; His righteousness in bestowing blessing is declared; and a sequence of this is that prayer is now in the name of Christ. It could not be so before, for the Lord was in humiliation: He had emptied Himself, and had not where to lay His head. Observe then that the name given us in which to present our prayers is that of Jesus glorified at the Father’s right hand; not the name as despised on earth, but as acclaimed in heaven. And what a name of power it is! Every knee in heaven and on earth shall bow at the name of Jesus —infernal beings also (Phil. 2:1010That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; (Philippians 2:10)). And in that name—so glorious, so beloved—we are privileged to approach the Father.
Now in ver. 12 of John 14 the Lord speaks of a certain result of His going to the Father. “Greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father.” The next verse is joined to this by the conjunction “and.” “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do.” It will be seen then that prayer in His name is a consequence of the position which He was about to take at the Father’s right hand. It is a broad dispensational privilege. So far from being confined to some only of our prayers, His name, according to the showing of Scripture, avails for all. At least, we find that when the Lord announced the new privilege, He did not attach to it any such restriction as that laid down by the article in “The Christian Friend”; and not only is there a conspicuous absence of the limitation, but the Lord’s words in the announcement are really inconsistent with it. Thus He says, “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name; ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:2424Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:24)).
[E. J. T.]