It was a maxim that whosoever would reign with the coming Messiah must suffer with Jesus. But yet he dared not promise his two intimate Disciples, James and John, the seats upon the throne, although he expected that they would share his Passion. [pg 228] He might by this infringe upon God’s omnipotence (Mk 10:35-40). Thus the Affliction also of the last times had its place indeed in the divinely ordained course of the messianic drama. But yet it lay in God’s unrestricted omnipotence that he might eliminate it and permit the Kingdom to dawn without this season of trial. Therefore men might pray God that he would suffer that heavy hour of probation to pass by. Jesus enjoined this upon his Disciples in the same prayer in which he taught them to make petition for the coming Kingdom. He teaches them to implore God for the final state of blessedness, in which his name will be hallowed and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven; but at the same time they are to beg him not to lead them into the “Temptation,” not to give them into the power of the Evil, not to oblige them to make satisfaction for their sins by the endurance of the Affliction of the last times; but to deliver them by his omnipotence from the power of the Evil when the ungodly world for the last time asserts itself at the coming of the Kingdom for which they pray. That is the inner connection of the last three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer thus exhibits in the [pg 229] first three and the last three petitions a purely eschatological character. We have the same contrast as in the Beatitudes, the charge to the Apostles, the embassage to the Baptist, and the discourse at Bethsaida. First it is a question of the coming of the Kingdom, then of the Affliction of the last times. We perceive from the Lord’s Prayer, however, that there is no absolute necessity for this Affliction, but that it is only relatively determined in God’s almighty will. The Affliction, in fact, represents in its extremest form the repentance requisite for the Kingdom. Whosoever comes through that test approved makes satisfaction for his transgressions in the godless æon. Through conflict and suffering men wrest themselves free from this power to become instruments of the divine will in the Kingdom of God. That is to be conceived collectively. The faithful adherents of the Kingdom as a community make the satisfaction. The individual thereby perfects and approves himself. Such is God’s will. Jesus, however, prays with them to God that he may be pleased in his omnipotence to forgive them the debt without satisfaction, as they forgive their debtors. That means remission pure and simple, without atonement. May it please [pg 230] God not to lead them through the “Temptation,” but straightway to release them from the power of the world.