"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). Sometimes a letter-knowledge of Scripture may 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, as 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 which 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 in 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) He had not as yet shown them plainly of the Father), 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 given 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 of the Lord's name as a form at the end of a prayer. How graciously 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 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 My 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.
This is the positive side of the privilege and power of His name given to us for our prayers; 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.”
We are in the period which Christ referred to as "that day." John 16:2323And 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 consequence 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; it is 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 and under the earth (infernal beings) shall bow at the name of Jesus (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 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), 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.
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. Thomas