Building up believers and the New Testament church

The Great Snare

Doing His Will

If we consider the words of Christ carefully, we must conclude that there is one ultimate test that must be applied to every part of our lives: have we done the will of God? Those who have not done the will of God will be cast from His presence as "workers of lawlessness." Christ did not die so that we could be excused from doing the will of God, but rather so that we would be able to do the will of God. Grace does not excuse us, but empowers us to do what we could not do before. Mercy is not shown just because Christ died, but rather as we are in Christ. To be in Christ, we must be abiding in the Vine in active faith. It is not a positional, theoretical identification which has no meaning.

Jesus gave the example of two sons, one who did the will of the father and one who did not. He commended the one who did the will of the father, and told us to go and do likewise. The will of God is the only thing that matters. "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven." Is this central in our thinking?

To be able to do the will of God, we must first be in Christ and have His Spirit dwelling in us. Then, as we move in response to the indwelling Holy Spirit, we will do His will in all things. Not only will we do His will, this is the only way we can do His will. Every other way we try to approach God's will results in self-effort and does not glorify God or speak well of who He is.

God's way is perfect. Nothing less than perfection satisfies the heart of God. Christ died that we might be perfect in Him. If Christ had not died, and God had only given a set of commandments, then we could do no more than try our best to please God. But our best falls so far short of who God is that God refers to it as "filthy rags." Christ did die, however, and God is completely just in requiring absolute perfection since He has made the way for us to be delivered from our own abilities and to live the very life of God. If we decide to choose another way, we become "lawless," not submitting to the ways of God.

In the beginning, Adam chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This put man in the judge's seat, evaluating every situation based on his own resources, and deciding what to do. To live from the basis of this tree is death, because it does not spring from God Himself. The tree of life is God's choice. That means an utter dependence on God for all things. To do the will of God is to live His life. We cannot live our lives, trying to evaluate and understand what the will of God is. The will of God for each one of us is to realize that as far as God is concerned, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live. The life I now live is the life of God, which is lived by the faith of the Son of God (Gal. 2:20). This is the only life that pleases God.