The Will of God (2)
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Could there possibly be a more confusing, divisive and yet vital biblical teaching than The Will of God?
The reason for all the confusion is not difficult to figure out.
In order to understand the Will of God we FIRST need to understand 2 other important teachings:
1: The Sovereignty of God
2: The Responsibility of man.
If your understanding of these 2 concepts are faulty then your understanding of the Will of God will be inaccurate.
And make no mistake: The Will of God is the Christian priority:
35 For whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.”
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
6 And do this not only to please them while they are watching, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.
36 You need to persevere, so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.
17 The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever.
These passages, along with many others, motivate the child the God to a) Know God’s will and b) Do God’s will.
So there is clearly a matter of human responsibility when it comes to the DOING and KNOWING of God’s will.
But at the same time we also see that God’s will is sovereign over all things:
19 One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?”
11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things; by Your will they exist and came to be.”
So we find ourselves very confused.
On one hand the bible clearly says:
2 “I know that You can do all things and that no plan of Yours can be thwarted.
But on the other hand we are told:
3 For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;
Are you aware of a christian who has ever committed sexual sin? yes. How?
If its God’s will that we abstain from sexual sin and if God’s will cannot be thwarted, then how can we commit sexual sin?
This is one area of confusion that we will look at.
Another big area of confusion is in the pursuit of trying to discover what God’s will for you is and then doing it.
It is the ultimate question:
What is God’s will for my life?
What is God’s will for my life?
We ask this question because we know that God’s will is good.
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
So we make sure that every decision we make is in the will of God.
But as it turns out, that's easier said than done.
Is it God’s will that I:
Marry this person? Take that Job? Move to that city? Apply to that company? Send my child to that school...
The list goes on and on.
The Biblical Will of God:
The Biblical Will of God:
As we study the Will of God revealed in Holy Scripture we notice that whenever it speaks about God’s will or plans or purposes it is always in one of only 3 ways:
1: God’s Sovereign Will
1: God’s Sovereign Will
35 All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”
33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.
1 The king’s heart is a waterway in the hand of the LORD; He directs it where He pleases.
33 O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?”
35 “Who has first given to God, that God should repay him?”
36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.
27 In fact, this is the very city where Herod and Pontius Pilate conspired with the Gentiles and the people of Israel against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed.
28 They carried out what Your hand and will had decided beforehand would happen.
The Nature of God’s Sovereign Will:
The Nature of God’s Sovereign Will:
1: It is Certain
1: It is Certain
This means that The Sovereign Will of God will always come to pass. It cannot be frustrated, delayed or denied.
19 One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?”
2: It is Detailed
2: It is Detailed
This means that God’s will encompasses everything from a germ to the galaxy.
Not a single detail is left to chance and the way a single leaf falls to the ground is according to God;s will.
11 In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will,
3: It is Hidden
3: It is Hidden
Older Teachers used to call God’s Sovereign Will God’s Secret Will.
God has chosen to hide His Sovereign Will from us until it happens.
Only God knows what will happened in advance and He is not telling.
29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.
3 Our God is in heaven; He does as He pleases.
33 O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?”
15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.”
Two Exceptions:
Two Exceptions:
There are only 2 exceptions to the hidden - “ness” of God’s Sovereign Will:
1: Prophecy.
5 which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.
2: Destiny.
29 For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.
30 And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.
Reflection Questions:
1: How does God’s Sovereign Will manifest?
1: How does God’s Sovereign Will manifest?
If everything is happening according to the Counsel of God’s will (which is is), does that not imply that since evil exists, God must have willed Evil into existence?
And related to that: If God’s will cannot be thwarted, then am I not fated to do what God has determined?
For many Christians the answer to these questions is: Yes.
Yes, God sovereignty willed evil and yes, you will always do what God has decided you will do.
The problem with these 2 conclusions is that they BOTH are inconsistent with the whole message of scripture, they might be in agreement with a verse or two, but they are not in agreement with the full revelation in Scripture that:
1: God does not create or will evil for His Purposes.
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.
2: Human Beings are free moral agents.
If God ultimately decides who we will serve then God is lying when He says:
15 But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”
How do we reconcile this?
Well these apparent contradictions only arise based on a persons understanding of HOW God is Sovereign.
There are 3 Explanations:
There are 3 Explanations:
1: Open Theism.
1: Open Theism.
This is a heretical belief that since humans are free, God cannot make us to anything and therefore the future and what happens is OPEN.
Simply False.
2: A Decreed Will (Determinism)
2: A Decreed Will (Determinism)
This view is held by those of a reformed view. It is quite simple: God has decreed everything that will happen. So God knows what will happen tomorrow because He has decreed it to happen.
This idea is based heavily on:
28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
This is a solid and traditional view of God’s will; however is does have many problems:
1: Why does God need foreknowledge of decreed events?
2: It undermines true freedom. Yes it claims human being are free, but denies libertarian freedom.
3: Knowledge.
3: Knowledge.
By this we mean that God is sovereign over creation through His Omniscience.
a) His Natural Knowledge:
God’s Natural Knowledge is the name given to the fact that God knows, not only all actual things, but that God also knows all possible things.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, O LORD.
Thus by Natural knowledge we say that God knows everything that COULD happen.
b) His Middle Knowledge
God’s middle knowledge refers to God’s knowledge of Counter Factuals.
A counter factual is simply knowledge of what did not take place but WOULD have taken place in a different set of circumstances.
21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Thus by Gods Middle Knowledge we believe God knows what WOULD happen in any set of circumstances.
c) His Foreknowledge
Again and again the bible says that God’s plans are based not on His decree but on His foreknowledge:
23 He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the elect who are exiles of the Dispersion throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen
2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
29 For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.
30 And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.
Thus by God’s Foreknowledge we believe that God knows everything that WILL happen.
By combining all of God’s knowledge, not to mention His Power, it becomes easy to see how God can bring about His will and purpose through various means of divine decree, circumstantial power and a full knowledge of His creatures to bring all His plans to pass sovereignty - without violating human freedom, responsibility and accountability.
Is it messy? Yes and its messy by God’s will.
As CS Lewis said:
“God took the risk of creating beings who could freely choose to sin. God in His wisdom chose to make people instead of robots. Robots are efficient and do only what they are programmed to do. But when God created free agents in Adam and Eve, God said: “It is was very good”!