Afterwords -- his will
"Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done." (Luke 22:42)
"For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me." (John 6:38)
June 19, 2024
Dear friends,
Each new day you and I are faced with a question, whose will, or set of desires, will we act upon today? Whom will we seek to please? What law or principle (whether inside or outside of us) will we yield to and seek to fulfill? Who will direct our life today?
Ever since the fall in Eden we by nature assert our own will over and against that of our Creator. In the miracle of redemption, the new birth returns to us the desire to submit sincerely to God's will. Yet even though we belong to God, we still face a contest, a pull within us, to assert our own will and desire (Gal 5:16-24; Rom 7). We may be tempted not to obey God's will, or if we do obey, to do so grudgingly or self-righteously.
It was foretold of the Messiah in the OT, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40:7-8; cited in Hebrews 10:5-9) The Messiah would delight to do God's will. We see this throughout Jesus' ministry: "For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me." (John 6:38) Consider the following passages from the gospel of John...
“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise." (John 5:19)
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me." (5:30)
“When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me." (8:28)
"For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak." (12:49)
"The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works." (14:10)
"I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do." (17:4)
Isn't that amazing? And at the end of his earthly ministry, we see Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane before his trial and crucifixion: "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done." (Luke 22:42) Jesus had no sinful will that opposed God, but he did have a human will that shuddered at the realization of all that would soon come to pass. He deferred to his Father’s will and chose to fulfill it.
This same characteristic is given to us, as well. The Lord says through Jeremiah about the new covenant, "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts." (Jeremiah 31:33) And Ezekiel wrote, "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." (Ezekiel 36:26-27) Earlier King David said of the Messiah's followers: "Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power..." (Psalm 110:3a)
As believers we are to pray, "...your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) This implies that we ourselves are seeking to do his will, as eagerly as the angels do in heaven. Obedience to Christ's commands demonstrates our love for him: "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me..." (John 14:21a) The Apostle Paul was called to proclaim the gospel among the nations in order to "bring about the obedience of faith" (Rom 1:5; 16:26). Faith in the Lord brings about obedience to him.
The immeasurable grace that we have been given in the Lord Jesus (being justified freely), and the love we have from the Father toward us (we are beloved children), and the help we are given by the Holy Spirit (his fellowship, his empowerment; 2 Cor 13:14) encourages us to do the will of God joyfully, to obey his commands sincerely, and to serve him freely.
So, each day, we should seek to do the Lord's will rather than our own. Moreover, we should seek to fulfill God's will joyfully, freely, and sincerely through the grace that he himself provides. He will equip us "...with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight..." (Heb 13:21)
IN OTHER READING.
-- John Lennox writes, "...one major consequence of the temptation and fall of humanity is that, deep in the human psyche, is embedded the idea that God, if there is one, is against us human beings, against our moving up in the scale of being, against upgrades, against knowledge and all that is associated with fulfilling human potential for flourishing. And because God is against us, we need to snatch at godhood when we get the chance. This is not true; indeed, to be blunt, it is the lie of all lies, and millions of people have fallen for it." -- From 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity (Zondervan, 2020)
-- Herman Bavinck on the beauty of God's creation of marriage: "But then God grants the gift sovereignly, alone, without our help. It is as though He conducts the woman to the man by His own hand. Thereupon the first emotion to master Adam, when he wakes up and sees the woman before him, is that of marveling and gratitude. He does not feel a stranger to her, but recognizes her immediately as sharing his own nature with him. His recognition was literally a recognition of that which he had felt he missed and needed, but which he could not himself supply." Read more here.
-- "In life and art both, as it seems to me, we are always trying to catch in our net of successive moments something that is not successive." (C. S. Lewis) If you are a writer or aspire to write, ponder these quotations from C. S. Lewis.
MISCELLANEOUS.
-- I have really enjoyed these two songs recently: "Your Will be Done," by CityAlight and "Holy Forever," by Chris Tomlin.
-- It's fun to doodle with a fountain pen. Here's how.
MORE AFTERWORDS...
…after a while, that is! I'm taking a brief summer break from writing and plan to be back at it toward the end of July. "Afterword" is a designation at the end a book, written by the author or editor, like the "Foreword" at the beginning. I chose that name for my newsletter when I finished the Bible reading guide for 2020-21, and then began using my time to write whatever "words" occurred to me "after" I had retired. Hence, "Afterwords". Clever, huh?
That's it for this week, and for the next few weeks!
Sandy
Afterwords is a free newsletter by subscription through buttondown. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.