What Does 'Thy Kingdom Come' Mean?

“Thy kingdom come” asks that God’s reign—his gracious rule in Christ—would advance and prevail, in us and in the world. But as with the first petition, Luther gently corrects a misunderstanding: “The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also.” God’s kingdom does not depend on our asking; it is coming regardless. What we pray is that we would be part of it—that it would come to us.

What is this “kingdom”? Not primarily a place or a political order, and not (as many assume) a future earthly golden age we’re waiting to build or enter. Jesus said the kingdom of God is not something you observe on a map; “the kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:21). It is God’s reign—his kingly rule breaking into the world through Christ, and taking hold wherever he rules hearts by his Word and Spirit. Paul defines it not by borders but by its character: “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).

So Luther explains how the kingdom comes to us: “when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.” Notice the shape—the kingdom comes to a person through the Spirit creating faith in the Word. To pray “thy kingdom come” is therefore to pray for faith itself—yours and others’—and for the spread of the Gospel by which the Spirit reigns in more and more hearts. It is a missionary prayer.

And it has a horizon. The kingdom that comes now, hidden under the cross and the ordinary means of grace, will one day come in glory when Christ returns. So the petition looks both ways: reign in me today, and come quickly to make all things new. When we pray it, we are asking that we be swept into the one movement that will outlast every earthly kingdom—God’s own reign, “here in time and there in eternity.”