Chapter 7

Determining God’s Will

The Makeup of Man

 Man Before the Fall

There are at least five basic concepts relative to the makeup of humans that are extremely important given we came from the hand of God.

In the first place, man’s existence was initiated in the mind of God. This is shown by Genesis 1:26 where we read, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in Our image…’.” The plural pronoun us allows for the trinity. The activity of God the Son in creation cannot be debated as seen by Colossians 1:16-17, Hebrews 1:5-6, 10, and John 1:3. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit conferred together to create man. This is the basis of man’s responsibility to God. We are responsible to God because God created us. Satan uses every possible tactic to get man to deny this. Among his most successful moves is the macroevolutionary theory of creation, which denies a personal creator-God and replaces it with a random, unguided process.

Second, humanity’s makeup is modeled after the trinity. Man is said to be in God’s image. The Hebrew word used in Genesis means a shadow, a sketch, or an outline (as opposed to a photograph). This means that to understand God’s nature is to understand something about man’s nature. This relationship to God speaks of the highest level of responsibility.

Third, humanity’s function is to represent the will of God on earth. This is expressed in the words of Genesis 1:26, “let them rule....” This establishes a divine order in creation. God is sovereign over all and will allow challenge; man is a sovereign in submission with the capacity to challenge; and creation is to be in submission to man under God.

Fourth, humans are unique from all the other creatures in God’s universe. Animals were created by a command to the earth (Genesis 1:24), whereas man was created by divine decree (Genesis 1:26) and had life breathed into him (Genesis 2:7). Among the distinctions is the fact that while animals are conscious, man is self-conscious. No dog ever said, “I am a dog.” Animals remember things but not ideas. Some animals use signals, but none use language. Language expresses concepts, but animals have no concepts. Therefore, they have nothing to say. Animals have no real capacity to be creative. They do not make tools or put wood on the fire to keep warm. Animals have no conscience, for no dog ever returned meat to the butcher from whom he took it.

Finally, humans are responsible to God because we are created by God. Our response to the creative act of God in Genesis should be, “God made me, and therefore He has a right to rule me.” Our chronological distance from the creative act of God in Genesis does not diminish our responsibility in the least. We are as directly responsible to God as Adam was. This consciousness of being created by God gives us moral impulses. Satan robs us of that sense of moral responsibility by his theory that tells us that nothing plus chance plus time equals everything.

 Man from Adam On

How is man’s will affected by the fall? How are we different from Adam? Remembering that we are in the same position as Adam insofar as responsibility is concerned, in what way do we differ?

The first feature of man after the fall is his attempt to extricate himself from the position of responsibility for his rebellion against God. Even Adam manifested this after he sinned. Did he not say when asked if he had eaten, “The woman…gave me from the tree, and I ate”? And was it not Eve who said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate”? Adam even presumed to respond to God that it was the woman “whom Thou gave to be with me....” Man will even blame God before he will assume personal responsibility.

 Features of Human Will

We must first remember that human will is not free in the same sense that Adam’s was. To deny this would be to assert that the fall did not have an effect on man’s total being. Adam became a sinner by choosing to sin. We are sinners, however, by birth. Romans 6:17 looks at the unbeliever and speaks of him as a slave of sin. The unbeliever’s human will operates primarily under the domination of his sin nature, an option even for the believer. It is only the work of the cross that frees us to exercise choices in the right direction.

It is also true that man is completely free to will anything he pleases. God does not put limitations on what man may will. He does, however, put limitations on the success of what man wills. One could will the death of God for that matter, but one cannot will the death of God successfully. To will within the framework of God’s will is the secret of mental peace, and to will outside of it is the road to frustration.

 Does God Want to Break My Will?

Here is an important question, one that often confuses many believers. God does not desire to break the will of the believer. God desires rather two things relative to our wills. In the first place, He desires (and, as a matter of fact, has accomplished) an effective separation of the believer from his sin nature. This is the teaching of Romans 6:1-11. Second, this makes it possible for us to exercise our will under the will of God. The appeal of Romans 6:12 (“…do not let sin reign in your mortal body…”) is an unmistakable appeal to the believer to use his will in a certain way. Notice that this is not described as breaking our wills. It is an appeal to us to will in a proper manner based on the freedom made possible on the basis of the cross work of Christ.

By way of application, it is not the duty of the parent to “break” the will of the child. It is the duty of the parent to encourage and discipline toward the end of the submission of the child’s will to the will of God. Parents, like God, should desire and strive for willing responses to the right things. The thought of “breaking” a will implies that it does not function anymore. This makes no more sense than trying to “break” a child’s emotions so he no longer feels.

Human will must be viewed in terms of its response. It may respond to the will of Satan (Ephesians 4:27), it may respond to the will of God (I Thessalonians 4:3), or it may respond to his own sin nature (Romans 6:12-13).

The Proper Exercise of the Will Relative to the Will of God

The Foundation

We must begin with the fact that the Bible contains the revealed will of God for humanity. That will, of course, takes on different manifestations at different times. It was the will of God for Israelites in Old Testament times to observe the liturgical code involving attendance at the yearly feasts in Jerusalem, the making of animal sacrifices, etc. This is not part of the will of God for the believer today. There is always, however, a divinely given code for living. It consists of both admonitions and prohibitions, things we are to do and things we are not to do, things forbidden, and things commanded. These start with Adam and continue forever.

It is our responsibility to carefully search the Scriptures for those prohibitions and commands relevant to us today. When these positives and negatives are set in front of us, we may then conclude that it is our duty to choose the path of obedience with respect to all of them. It is never the will of God for us to do what He has forbidden. On the other hand, it is always the will of God for us to do what He has told us to do. God’s will should never be questioned on these matters. The issue here is black and white with no gray at all.

What About the Areas Where God Has Not Specifically Revealed His Mind?

This can involve some very important decisions in life. What will my life’s work be? Where should I attend school? Whom should I marry? How am I going to reach my goals?

Here is where a great deal of mysticism has entered the picture, along with much hand-wringing and agonizing moments trying to get some kind of indication from God as to what His will is. Here is where we need a large dose of New Testament truth and maturity. We must realize that God has left many of the decisions of life up to us. God will not, through some mystical process, tell us what house to buy or where to go to school. He asks us rather to make use of the mind He has given us to relate to His word, gather data, and make decisions based on mature Christian thought!

A Formula for Arriving at Assurance Concerning the Will of God

In the first place, we need to become fully occupied with the concept of obeying God’s positive and negative commands that are applicable in the church age. This is in itself enough to occupy our thoughts for the rest of our lives on earth. The revealed will of God is to be our point of concentration.

For those areas where nothing is specifically commanded or forbidden, we should do the following. Thoroughly investigate the pros and cons of the issue, remembering that our minds, with the God-given capacity to collect information and make value judgments, are meant to be used in the decision-making process. God uses our minds; He does not bypass our minds. Here we should ask mature Christian questions such as, which option in this instance gives me the best opportunity to glorify God? Which option will best help me to maintain the highest Christian priorities?

In all this, we must remember that a bad choice, but with no moral implications, is not necessarily a sinful choice and may only serve to remind us that we are fallible people who fail to perceive all the facts required to make a good choice. Paul made many attempts to visit the church at Rome, and up until the time of the writing of the book of Romans, they had all fallen through. This was not sinful planning in any way. It merely showed that Paul was human and did not have perfect insight into the situation. The Holy Spirit does not bypass our humanness to share special revelation of God’s will. God allows us to make bad decisions as part of His instruction and growth process for us.

The Religious Mind

The above concepts are absolutely counter to what the religious mind desires. By the religious mind, we refer to all those who want a relationship to the will of God apart from long hard study and application of the Scriptures. It is the mind that wants a religious guru to take it by the hand and say, “Do this” and “Don’t do that.” The religious mind is one that refuses to accept responsibility of choices—one that will make some foolish and thoughtless move and then have the audacity to lay the blame on God and say, “The Lord led me that way.” This is not the path of Christian maturity. As we learn the clear features of the will of God from His word, we develop the ability to make good judgments in unrevealed areas.