John 6:40, “…this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life…”
What is the Will of God in this verse? Well, in the context of John 6, the Son who is looked upon is the crucified Son (v.51-56)….And to believe in this one is to receive Him as the Revealer of God (14:9-10)…And to have eternal life is to know God as He truly is in the Slain and Risen Son (17:3). So then, we can say that according to John 6:40, the will of God is that He should be known in the crucified Son who is raised. God’s will is that He would be recognized and received and responded to in whole-souled consent only and precisely as the God who is crucified on the cross of Christ and who—as that crucified One—lives forevermore.
And, in that light, is not the prayer, “your will be done,” ALSO “Hallowed be your name”? Yes, of course it is. His will is that He be known as the one manifest in the crucified and risen Jesus, and as we know Him more and more to be this one, His Name—manifest at the cross (17:26)—is hallowed, is treasured, is exalted, is communicated, is conformed to. Which, incidentally, leads to His kingdom coming.
What is the kingdom except the everlasting expansion of God’s Name known and conformed to? What is the kingdom except the transformation of people—and so, of all reality—into the image of God revealed in the crucified and risen Jesus, which is to say into the Name of God?
Yes, “Hallowed be your Name, your Kingdom come, your will be done…” are—according to John 6:40—all ways of praying the same thing: Father, may all people feast their souls on the knowledge of who you are as you have revealed yourself to be in the Crucified Jesus who lives forevermore. And if Jesus’ food was to achieve this end (4:34), may it be so for us as well.
So, in today’s image, the four living creatures from Revelation 4 are employed to represent all of created reality seeing, savoring, and singing the one true God as He is manifest in Jesus Christ…which is to say, this is an attempted visual depiction of The Father’s Name hallowed, His Kingdom come, and His will done, according to John 6:40.
