Summary
God Has a Will
Among the attributes of God, none is more practical—or more dangerous to scrutinize—than His will. A working definition keeps us on solid ground: the will of God is the divine essence itself, seeking that which is good and opposing that which is evil. Because God is one and unchanging, His will is never divided against itself, never inconsistent with His other attributes. When God reveals His name to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7, He proclaims Himself merciful and gracious, abounding in steadfast love, yet by no means clearing the guilty. Mercy and justice are not at war in Him; both are eternally true of the one God who wills the good.
Theologians have historically distinguished God's will in several pairs, and each pair guards a different truth. First, God's will is one of salvation and of judgment: He desires that all should reach repentance 2 Peter 3:9, yet "whoever does not believe will be condemned" Mark 16:16. Second, His will is both irresistible and resistible. When God acts in absolute sovereignty—"Let there be light," or "Lazarus, come out"—nothing can withstand Him. When He works through means, offering grace in the gospel, that grace can be rejected.
Third, God's will is both absolute and ordinate. The absolute will accomplishes things directly: water becomes wine, the blind see, the dead rise. The ordinate will works through ordinary means—through the proclamation of the Word, through Baptism, through the Lord's Supper. As Paul writes, "He saved us…by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit" Titus 3:5. Fourth, His will is both gracious and conditional. The Law demands perfection—"Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them" Deuteronomy 27:26—but God's gracious will is that we be justified by faith apart from works of the Law Romans 3:28.
Finally, God's will is both revealed and hidden. What He has spoken in Scripture, He intends for us to know, believe, and trust. What He has not revealed belongs to Him, and we are not given to pry. This is where humility matters most. We are not given the wisdom of God in its fullness; we are given His Word. The Lord's Supper itself models this: that the bread is truly Christ's body and the wine truly His blood is revealed; how it is so remains hidden. We trust the revealed because God has spoken it, and we leave the hidden to Him. This is the pattern explored throughout "Has a Will" 7-17-22.
So what is God's will for you? Jesus answers plainly in John 6:38-40: "I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me…that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." The Father, Son, and Spirit are not at odds. The one will of the triune God is that you would hear, believe, and be raised up on the last day. God created man not intending sin, yet knowing man would rebel; and from before creation He purposed that the Son would enter our humanity, fulfill the conditional will perfectly on our behalf, and bear the curse for us.
Before His death, Christ left His last will and testament: "This is my body…this is my blood," given and shed for the forgiveness of sins. This is where the question of God's will becomes wonderfully concrete. Too often we stand at a stubborn standoff with Jesus over our own sin, wrestling against the very absolution He proclaims, wanting somehow to keep control of our forgiveness. But His will is not up for negotiation. His will is that you would taste and see, hear and believe, that your sins are forgiven in His body and blood—and that you would live in the freedom of the eternity He has already secured for you.
Video citations
- "Has a Will" 7-17-22 — If you would please open your Bibles to the Gospel of John, the sixth chapter. If you're using a Pue edition of the Bible, you will find it on page 85 in the New Testament. That's the Gospel of…