Everything That's On My Mind

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Now we arrive at the point of contention. Bill Bright told us that God “offers a wonderful plan” for our lives. Many believe this refers to a specific plan God has for our lives that we must discover and follow. I’ll call this concept the Personal Will of God. Does God’s Word teach the idea of a Personal Will? Let’s look at some verses that are most often used to support the idea of God’s Personal Will.

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
Colossians 1:9 (NIV)

This verse is clearly referring to God’s Moral Will when you read it together with verse 10. Paul goes on in verse 10 to say the purpose of knowing His will is to “live a life worthy of the Lord,” to “please Him in every way.” The most natural reading of these phrases would point us toward God’s revealed commands.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2 (NIV)

Here Paul is beginning his discourse on the use of spiritual gifts. The verses following are used to explain what God’s “good, pleasing and perfect will” is; that we should use our spiritual gifts for the benefit of the Body of Christ. There’s no mystery to be discovered, there a moral command that is given. Use your gifts.

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.
Ephesians 5:17 (NIV)

Again, Paul isn’t teaching that we should pray and wait for God to reveal His plan. Paul goes on in verses 18-20 to explicitly state what the Lord’s will is, that we should “not get drunk with wine” and “be filled with the Spirit.” This is another instance of God’s Moral Will being taught.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.
Psalms 32:8 (NIV)

Some commentators believe this Psalm was written with Psalm 51 in response to David’s sin with Bathsheba, and that seems to be a reasonable assumption based on its content. Regardless, this Psalm is clearly about sin and forgiveness. Based on that, it is most natural to read this verse as referring to God’s Moral Will.

There are other verses that have been used to support the idea of God’s Personal Will, but in each case the simplest reading reveals a reference to either God’s Moral Will or His Sovereign Will. The explicit teaching of scripture reveals only these two facets of God’s Will. What about the implicit teaching of scripture? How did the Apostles, in the power of the Holy Spirit, make decisions? I’ll look at that next.

The rest of the series:

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Defining our Terms

God's Will

Tuesday, August 15, 2006 - 10:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Comments [2]

Tuesday, August 15, 2006 9:12:19 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

I like the series so far. My question at this point would be, "How does this all relate to the question of 'calling' into ministerial service?" Would that not be an example of Personal Will?

Also, wouldn't Personal Will be something of a subset of Sovereign Will? If God is sovereign over everything, that includes my life, right? And since I contend that we do have free will (enabled on the positive end by grace, of course), would Personal Will be something of an intersection between Sovereign Will and Moral Will (i.e., God essentially says, I am sovereignly creating Joe with these gifts and attributes, and placing him in this historical situation. Given these factors, my Moral Will is that he follow this path; of course, he may rebel and not do it.

Of course, these questions are merely academic and hypothetical.

Keith Schooley

Wednesday, August 16, 2006 9:12:40 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Without spoiling some of my future posts, I'll say that I think what most people consider Personal Will is really an intersection of God's Moral Will and Sovereign Will. I would tend to agree with your "Joe" example, but I don't necessarily think that God's Sovereign Will extends to a specific job or even a specific career. I tend to think that "Joe" could choose a number of different paths that would all fulfill God's Sovereign and Moral Will. I don't think God's Sovereign Will consists of Him micro-managing the life of every individual in the way a strict Calvinist might. In that sense, this somewhat ties into your blogs on individual election.

I haven't yet reached a discussion of Christian decision-making so I haven't yet addressed the role of the Holy Spirit. I will say briefly that I believe there are times when the Holy Spirit gives us "hints" (for lack of a better word) concerning God's Sovereign Will. I think a ministerial calling in many cases (and in my case in particular) involves a recognition of God's sovereign creation, His moral will, and "hints" from the Holy Spirit. I'll be developing this idea further in later posts.

Pastor Bob

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